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Manjul Bajaj’s Come Before Evening Falls, tells the story of a forbidden love and the destruction that Khap Panchayats can cause.
Review by Manmeet K Sahni
Manjul Bajaj’s Come Before Evening Falls is set in a pre-independence village of Haryana named Kala Saand. She has tried to capture the realism of rural India by taking up issues such as honour killings, same-gotra marriage and feudal inheritance. At its heart, the story is of a lovelorn couple, Rakha and Jugni. Belonging to the same ‘gotra’, their love is dangerous in a land where Khap Panchayats and honour killings are prevalent. Jugni’s fear is well depicted through her terrifying nights, filled with graphic images of ‘men with lathis’, ‘kerosene lanterns’, ‘flame torches’ and herself ‘hanging by the tree’ with her family reputation in shambles.
The narrative is gripping and holds you for most parts; yet at times, it seems a bit trite. For instance, the dramatic meeting of the protagonists is comparable to a classic ‘hero-meets-heroine’ scene straight out of a Bollywood movie. The antics of Jugni and the other rustic women like Kamala who is madly in love with Rakha, add some spice to the novel. The tension in the story comes alive somewhere in the middle of the novel and the inter-play of emotions between Rakha and Jugni forms the nucleus of the latter half.
Come Before Evening Falls is multi-layered. There are subtle hints of prevailing caste issues like the act of digging of the ‘all-caste’ well by Rakha and his cronies at the school premises, so that all can drink from it without any bias. However the theme of ‘honour’ is omnipresent throughout the novel and in the end one is left with the pertinent question, ‘Whose honour is being defended?’
The novel starts with Rumi’s quote, ‘Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.’ This seems to be the core of the novel, where the love between Jugni and Rakha remains a void, a quest unfulfilled.
Publisher: Hachette India
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A nature lover, Usha Rajagopalan set up a trust called the Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust (PNLIT) in June 2010.
While there is a glint of adventure in her eyes and a chuckle in her voice, there is also an unshakeable determination to achieve her goals which, she says, she has had from her college days. That’s Usha Rajagopalan, well-known Bengaluru-based author.
But these days her writing has taken a backseat as lake conservation has become her passion. The 67-year-old spirited senior citizen has made it her life’s mission to save the Puttenahalli Puttakare lake near her home.
Usha Rajagopalan likes calling herself a “lakeika” – a lake activist and a writer (‘lekhika’ in Hindi). “I am a writer by choice and lake conservationist by chance,” she says with a smile. Creative writing has always been a passion and she has published several books.
Who are these people who decide how a married woman should pose? Women do have a life and career outside their marriages!
Last week, a picture kept popping up on my FB feed, of a man and a woman standing close. I didn’t pay much attention, they looked like any other celebrity couple.
It was when I accidentally saw a derogatory term about the woman as the title of a post, that I read.
The woman in the pic was Dhanashree Verma, a Youtuber, choreographer, Jhalak Dikhla Ja participant and wife of cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal. The man was another choreographer, Pratik Utekar.
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