Title - Misplaced Heads
Author - Jayanthi Sankar
Genre - Fiction(Classic)
Publisher -Zero Degree Publishing
ISBN - 978-93-90053-03-2
This is the second book I am reading from the same author. Jayanthi Sankar's previous book "Dangling Gandhi" received positive reviews since it was a collection of short stories which spoke in detail about various aspects that is prevailing in the society. You can read the review of that book by clicking the link here
Jayanthi Sankar was born in India and has been living in Singapore since 1990. She has received few awards and also been a panelist in various literature festivals.
To start with, I was thoroughly impressed by the outer cover of this book. This cover would give you a hint about the content that this beautiful book holds within. If you could notice it deeply, you could see an image of a lady dancer among the clouds overlooking Tanjore Brihadeeswarar temple which is also an UNECO Site. The reflection of it in the waters makes it even more appealing. We cannot discount it as just a cover but rather it can be construed as an art.
This is a huge book and the story runs for a good 489 pages. The book is divided into 20 chapters. Some of the main characters in the book includes but not limited to
Poorna(The Protagonist)
Vanaja
Nurul
Raghu
Umesh
Tanya
Varun
Swetha
Nancy
Noopur
Rishi
Grace DeSouza etc.,
The book shows a great variation of the reality by taking us back to the period of 1st Century B.C, Early Medieval Era and bring us again to the present day. There was a detailed mention about the classical dance namely Bharatanatyam and also Odissi(to some extent).
The book also gives us great insights about the plight of "Devadasis" during the Sangam/Medieval Era. The kind of emotions they would have gone through since they devoted their lives only to The Almighty apart from concentrating purely in spreading the Art(read it as Dance) couldn't have been explained any better.
For those who have read the likes of renowned classical authors like Kalki would see some kind of resemblance in this book as well. This is a slow paced novel but would still appeal to you. If you are not the one who likes this genre or appreciate the beauty of essence captured through the magical words, I would not recommend it. I am sure this is the kind of book which an actual book reviewer would have been waiting to lay their hands upon for a while.
I would also be equally delighted if this book is translated into Tamil because this would be really loved by your mom and granny. The book shows the variation of how the lives were back then and in the present where the mindset of the people has widened due to the invention and innovation of science and technology but the femininity has always been kept intact and preserved by the Indian women.
The beauty of love and relationship captured in this book through the life of Poorna, her beautiful interaction with Raghu which turns out to be beautiful relationship more than that of friendship, her love for Art/Culture, her troubled childhood, failed marriage, friendship, love received from her foster mother, determination to promote the art makes this book a real special one.
In simple words, this book is a treasure and needs to find its place in each and every bookshelf.
This book is available online and offline in leading stores.
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