Friday, May 05, 2006

Gunahon Ka Devta by Dharamveer Bharati

I bought this hardbound from Bhopal Book Fair, yes, along with Muktidoot and Kshama Karna Jiji. This novel too is from Bhartiya Jnanpith, no doubt this publication possesses real diamonds.

This is one of the best love stories I have ever heard or watched in movies. Truly amazing story with no flaws. When I first saw the book at the shop, the title 'Gunahon Ka Devta' seemed somewhat awkward to me, felt like it is a title of some C-grade Indian movie. I didn't purchase the book and came back, googled for Dharamveer Bharati and found this novel and 'Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda' on top. I heard about the later novel, more precisely, I had watched the movie with same title. The other day, I bought the book's hardbound edition.

Every character is depicted in a way that you start feeling them from the page one of the book. Not too many characters to remember either. Sudha, Chandar, Binti, Dr. Sahib, Dadi of Binti, Gesu and a couple of others, that's it! If I tell you the story, you might say "what's new? It seems that I have listened it earlier!" But my friend, think, this novel was written in 1948 by Dr. Bharati, almost 6 decades ago. You can consider this novel basis for a number of bollywood movies.

This is the story of Sudha and Chandar, two youngsters living under same roof of Dr. Sahib. Sudha is daughter of Dr. sahib and Chandar is a poor-fellow, who is quite intelligent and co-operative. He helps Dr. Sahib in his college work. Dr. Sahib is that impressed with him that he asked him to live with him only. Story is quite straightforward, as it seems! Sudha and Chandar start to love each other, wait, this is not the love of Hindi films, it was sacred love! Sudha was more devoted than Chandar, maybe, Chandar's stand was the problem. He lived in Sudha's father's house and he didn't want to prove Dr. sahib wrong. Dr. sahib had had a great faith in Chandar and Chandar didn't betrayed!

I don't want to go ahead with the story any further...

I don't have words for expressing innocence of Sudha. I can tell you for sure that if there were to be made a film on Gunahon Ka Devta storyline, it could become almost impossible to depict the character of Sudha on the screen. I can't say about actresses of yore but today, I don't find a single actress with that caliber.

This is a must read for everyone out there. Read the novel and you will keep blessing me for your entire life. I give the novel full marks. One of my favourite book...

Book Details:
Gunahon Ka Devta by Dharamveer Bharati
Pages: 248 (Hardbound)
Price Rs.110
Publication: Bhartiya Jnanpith
ISBN:

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Domination of Gita Press in Hindu spiritual literature

Fellow-EpicIndian Saravana Kumar suggested a website www.gitapress.org for Gita and other Hindu spiritual books. As the name of website suggests, its website of Gita Press Gorakhpur. The press publishes Gita, Ramayan, Mahabharat, Puran-Upnishads and other spiritual books for all age.

What attracted me most was the variety of books available on every subject. Another advantage is the extremely-low-prices. Gita of 14cmx21cm 430pages is priced at Rs.25 only. Strange! They are definitely not earning anything out of it.

Gita Press was founded in 1923 by Jayadayal Goyandka. The press has published over 37 crore books so far, isn't it a huge figure? They say that their selling price is lower than the production price. They don't seek any kind of donations for their survival. They have many outlets all over the India. Alas! There is none in Bhopal :( Anyways, Internet Jindabad!!! :-)