Insanity Unlimited
Like Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, the book hurtles through real events that India has witnessed in the recent past—the Emergency, Indira Gandhi’s assassination, anti-Sikh riots, the Ram Janmabhoomi episode and its aftermath, Mandal Commission protests, economic liberalisation, Gujarat riots. His journalistic credentials give Karri the ability to research well, contextualize and write in a direct and unpretentious style. There is, of course, enough masala in the story to convince the reader, that India is indeed mad nation, and getting worse by the day.
Sriram Karri’s Autobiography of a Mad Nation begins thus: “I was born in a mentally retarded country.”
That is enough to hook the reader—at least an Indian reader—who understands and identifies with the writer’s words. Karri’s second book was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize in and has enough merit to be on that enviable list.
Like Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, the book hurtles through real events that India has witnessed in the recent past—the Emergency, Indira Gandhi’s assassination, anti-Sikh riots, the Ram Janmabhoomi episode and its aftermath, Mandal Commission protests, economic liberalisation, Gujarat riots. His journalistic credentials give Karri the ability to research well, contextualize and write in a direct and unpretentious style. There is, of course, enough masala in the story to convince the reader, that India is indeed mad nation, and getting worse by the day.
The book’s angry protagonist, Vikrant Vaidya, writes to the President of India to decide whether or not he is guilty of the crime (murder of a Muslim boy called Iqbal) for which he has been convicted. The President gets M. Vidyasagar, retired head of the CBI to investigate. And what emerges is a plot with many twists and turns and a cast of prominent characters, that places the blame for India’s insanity right where it belongs.
Autobiography of a Mad Nation
By Sriram Karri
Published by Fingerprint
Pages: 382
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