Books about perseverance dominate Bengalurean reading

Well-known people tell you what they are reading, and why

The lockdown has turned many into voracious readers. Metrolife asked a few well-known Bengalureans what they are reading.

Vivek Shanbhag, short story writer, novelist, and playwright

The author of the international bestseller ‘Ghachar Ghochar’ is reading the Kannada manuscript of a translation of Damodar Mauzo’s Konkani novel ‘Jeev Diun Kai Chya Marun’.

“I had promised Mauzo that I would edit it for him. It’s a beautiful novel about life in Goa, and brings out the tensions within a family. It is told from the eyes of a boy between his 15th and 18th years,” he says. Keshava Guha’s ‘Accidental Magic’ is another book Shanbhag is reading now. “It’s a unique book — about Harry Potter and the fan fiction around it,” he says.

B Suresha, director, screenwriter, and actor

He is reading ‘The Home and the World,’ an English translation of Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Ghare Baire’.

“This is an updated version with notes. I got interested in the book after I listened to a talk by Girish Kasaravalli on Satyajit Ray. It is a book about nationalism and the right kind of patriotism. I hope to make a Kannada play out of it,” he says.

Suresha gets around five to six books every week. “I’m also reading a book by Purushottam Bilimale, another by Ajeet Cour, and Kannada version of ‘Sebastian & Sons: A Brief History of Mrdangam Makers’ by T M Krishna,” he says. Suresha has been trying to complete his play ‘Ondu Gubbacchia Saavu’ (Death of a Sparrow). “I am also reworking scripts written in the earlier lockdown,” he says.

K M Chaitanya, film director

Chaitanya just finished reading ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ by Louis de Bernières. “Girish Karnad gave me this book 20 years ago and it was lying in my library. It is a book about war and relationships, turmoils and trauma, and how humanity triumphs over everything. It is a classic and a film was based on it,” he says.

We need such human and uplifting stories at all times, but a little more now. The book helps one look at ‘fanatics’ in a non-judgmental manner, he notes. “A lot of my screenplays were left half-written. I have been able to finish a couple of them,” Chaitanya says.

Samyukta Hornad, actor

She reads two to three books simultaneously. “One of the books I just picked up is Charlie Mackesy’s ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse’. It’s a book that makes one understand that only a few things are under one’s control and that most things aren’t. Accepting one’s reality is something one can learn from this book. I’ve been reading books like these, as I feel they are necessary for my mental health,” says Samyukta.

She finds solace in books and music and has been working with NGOs and service groups to do her bit during the second wave.

Kavitha Lankesh, filmmaker

She picked up ‘Out of Print: Ten Years: An Anthology of Stories’ by Indira Chandrasekhar. “It has short stories from various writers including my father P Lankesh, Shashi Deshpande, U R Ananthamurthy, among others. I was an avid reader earlier but my reading habit had come down since a while. Perumal Murugan is one of my favourite authors,” she says.

During the Covid-19 first wave, Kavitha had taken up farming in her space near Nelamangala and was baking with her daughter, but the second wave ‘has been frustrating’. “Right now, I am a volunteer with lyricist Kaviraj’s initiative ‘Usiru’, which has been procuring and supplying oxygen concentrators to people at home, and I’ve been trying to help other distress calls,” she says.

Kavitha has also started researching for an international project.

Radhika Narayan, actor

Radhika is listening to the audiobook ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle. “A friend suggested this spiritual book. During these dark times, it is a very relevant read as it talks about misery and disappointment, and how it is important to be in the moment. I will be listening to or reading the book again, as I want to grasp it better,” she
says.

She completed Priyanka Chopra’s ‘Unfinished’ and found it relatable in parts. Apart from reading, Radhika practices yoga and is busy with experiments in the kitchen. “I have been dancing a lot more and have taken up freestyle and belly dancing classes,” she says.