Book review by Somdatta Mandal
Title: Common Yet Uncommon: 14 Memorable Stories from Daily Life
Author: Sudha Murty
Publisher: Penguin Books
For those who have not listened to her humorous and motivational talks and seen her bright and smiling face on social media platforms and talk shows, Sudha Murty is an educator, author and philanthropist who is the chairperson of Infosys Foundation. She is married to the co-founder of Infosys, N. R. Narayana Murthy. Writing both in Kannada and English, she has authored collections of short stories, travelogues, technical books, non-fiction stories, novels, and children’s books. The present volume under review, as the sub-title rightly claims, are simple yet memorable stories from daily life.
In the ‘Preface’, the author tells us that she has written her stories based upon her personal experiences of a particular region in northern Karnataka where she was born and raised in a middle-class family and has chosen this area as the setting for this book since it is her homeland. She says: “The river Tungabhadra divides Karnataka into two parts – North and South. The northern part of Karnataka has its peculiar history…. There was an amalgamation of cultures, languages and food habits…. By and large, the people here are open-minded and outspoken, much like the flat and open land that Mother Nature has bestowed on them.”
Growing up in a small town with a distinct culture, she is well-versed with the customs of its community, though she herself has immensely changed with time.
Written in Sudha Murty’s inimitable style, Common Yet Uncommon is an invigorating picture of everyday life where the foibles and strange behaviour of ordinary people are charmingly depicted. In the fourteen tales that make up the collection, Murty delves into her memories of childhood, life in her hometown, and the people she’s crossed paths with. These and the other “unembellished” characters who populate the pages of this book do not possess wealth or fame. According to her, they are outspoken, transparent, and magnanimous and are not polished in their speech or appearance. The crude veneer is no testimony to their unparalleled love and affection. Yet, each one is unique. Their stories are tales of unvarnished humans, with faults and big hearts. But she has learnt something from each of them and they have left an indelible impression on her mind.
The title of each story is simple and tells us about fourteen unique characters who have nothing in common. They are “mutually exclusive but collectively exhaustive”. But in all of them, Sudha Murty herself appears as Nalini –- fondly called Nali by several –- who keeps on peeping in and out of every chapter, sometimes as a young girl, sometimes as a young adult and sometimes as a married woman.
In ‘Bundle Bindu’, she portrays the character of a man called Bindu who “had a knack for exaggerating”, but whatever knowledge of history and love for Kannada that she inculcated was not from the history teachers at her school but because of Bindu’s lessons. So, she considers him one of the most influential people from her childhood. ‘Jayant the Shopkeeper’ describes the failed business acumen of the protagonist and how many people would gather at his shop in the morning to drink tea, read the newspaper, and leave without buying anything. Later, after investing his entire savings, Jayant’s new shop called Modern Gift Centre also closed permanently within three months of its inauguration. Thus, he had no other option but to go and look after his son’s house and his child in Bangalore.
The next story, called ‘Jealous Janaki’, talks about an extremely assertive woman who was like a military commander and who “loved gossip, rumourmongering, misunderstandings, looking down on people and passing sharp remarks”. ‘Ganga the Unadaptable’ tells us how the beautiful Ganga would reject marriageable boys for different things and ultimately continued a spinster. In ‘Hema the Woman Friday’, Murty finds Hema to be one of the best philanthropists she had ever met as philanthropy doesn’t always mean giving money but helping others without expecting anything in return. A strange sort of husband-and-wife relationship comes out in a story called ‘Not Made for Each Other’, where one need not express his or her love only through words, but emotions prevail even in quietude. ‘Selfish Suman’ describes the activities of a woman who always remained “within the circumference of me, myself and mine” and one who only looked out for her advantage in any situation.
‘Adventurous Bhagirathi’ chronicles the worldly-wise acumen of a woman brought up in a joint family whose prime asset was the balance of her mind and ‘Miser Jeevraj’, relates the story of a man who had always thought that money gave him an edge, and his wife and children would listen to him because of it. As time passed, Jeevraj became lonely and in the end, he realized that money is required in life, but it is not everything. ‘Amba the Super Chef’ tells the story of a man who realised his wife’s worth only after she became ill with typhoid and could no longer make different dishes in different seasons and take care of his health. In ‘Sharada the Fortunate’, we read the story of a widow who chanced to meet an earlier rejected suitor, marry him in strange circumstances during a pilgrimage, and lead a new life once again with a new identity. ‘Chami the Charmer’ describes another woman protagonist who believed in making a strategy for everything in life and follow it. The final interesting story entitled ‘Lunch Box Nalini’ is narrated in the first person by the author herself and begins like this:
“I am Nalini Kulkarni. Elders have always called me Nali – a typical shortening of the name in North Karnataka. Here, Anand becomes Andya and Mandakini becomes Mandi. No wonder, the transition from Nalini to Nali was effortless.
Until now, I have peeped into everyone’s life and written about their characters. Now let me talk about myself – the best way to joke is not at someone else’s expense but at your own.
But how did lunch box get affixed to my name, you may wonder.”
The rest of the story is told in an extremely humorous manner of how her lost lunch box ultimately managed to find a groom for herself.
Testament to the unique parlance of a small town, Common Yet Uncommon speaks a universal language of what it means to be human. Reading these simple stories, one is instantly reminded of R.K. Narayan’s inimitable style and glorification of the common man. “Each character in these stories is a pearl. I am just the thread that weaves into this necklace, which I owe to my people and my land,” admits the author. A must read for everyone who loves to indulge in light-hearted reading and the spontaneous narrative style of Sudha Murty.
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Somdatta Mandal, author, critic, and translator, is a former professor of English at Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, India.
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