The Cradle

The rare work entitled The Cradle chronicles the life of three generations of a preindependence Indian feudal family, living amidst the picturesque environs of the hills and dales near the Heritage Yoga city of Mysuru, in the state of Karnataka in south India. The novel narrativizes the life of the 'untouchable' or 'touch-free' communities of India. The first of the three generations belongs to Gandhian values. The second generation has to do with the difficulty-ridden straitened transition period after India's Independence, the times of fluid uncertain flux while the third has to do with the times of the orphaned first person narrator who is a victim of the tragedy of time. The novel depicts in a heart-rending way the humane human relationships in a social space where the predators and the predatored have to exist side by side. Characters like the radio uncle, Ha-Oh-Ayyo, the woman characters of the grandmas, the deaf-mute, her son and the slew of support cast who provide delectable comic and tragic relief to the main action breathe vibrant life into the novel. A magically poetic and complex narrative skein of a reality that is at the same dreamy, sublime and lyrical on the one hand and sensual, stark, and gory on the other has been astonishingly possible in this novel, a literary feat that hadn't been accomplished, not just in Kannada but in the whole of India.