Book Review| Hukum Desh Ka Ikka Khota: An exquisite, distinctive, and compelling memoir of Hindi Literature

While reading ‘Hukum Desh Ka Ikka Khota’, a light smoke keeps rising like a mist in the thoughts, which gives the way of the mind being full of sensations, but these sensations do not come out of the consciousness. Instead of outside, they open themselves and give their own information

Is it possible to ever have a card game between destiny and a person? A game in which one has to use the cards of memory, imagination, patience and courage to overcome the moves of destiny. And if both the parties are mutually enamored of this game and every move is recorded in lively words on the neutral side, then the joy of the people witnessing that game can be imagined!

A reader going through the recently published non-fiction title of Neelakshi Singh – ‘Hukum Desh Ka Ikka Khota’ experiences something similar. This book not only has traces of autobiography, diary and memoir, it also touches a special kind of novelistic aspect. This work can also be seen as the back story or the hidden story of her novel ‘Khela’, which gets expanded like a novel colliding with the bewildering ups and downs of life, sometimes by destiny, sometimes on its own initiative.

If you move your eyelids up and down on the pages of this book, you will get the shadow of a fatal disease like cancer. But it is as disorienting a presence as the presence of the world of crude oil in her novel ‘Khela‘. Vanilla Death is a less weighty word, compared to a black current flavored life, a situation where one has to wait in a hospital corridor for one’s name to be called, to go through the endless processes of a complex disease. This work creates such a contrast with the threads of memory, imagination, and introspection against the bewildering journey of death and uncertainty hovering over life.

But going through the challenge of cancer and the process of its treatment, which came as a sudden turning point in her life, the author has created a contrast of sorrow and suffering in this book with the help of memory, imagination and the blunt identification of her inner self. Passing through it takes any reader to many opposite nature experiences at once. For one moment the reader is stunned by destiny, while the other second, the author drags him to the corridor of childhood memories where innocence and mischief are carelessly playing eye-to-eye. Then as soon as the reader starts getting entangled in the arduous and painful process of cancer treatment, then at the next turn the cautious tricks of the author’s young mind and courage to take risks are waiting for him.

When the reader is witnessing the author’s insistence or struggle not to allow physical pain to dominate her even for a moment and feels as if it is all happening on him, then with a jolt the author takes him to the room of her personality where many of her negative shades are pouring out. The author looks so disinterested in revealing those gray aspects of herself that you start getting hooked to that human being. At that very moment, the author herself takes you out of that trap, laughing at some prodigy of the past or the present.

The author is writing a novel when she is going through that phase of her life. Here as a reader, it is memorable and interesting to see how a writer is able to keep such a distance between the events going on in her life and the plot of the novel being written at the same time, that at a glance, both of them look unrelated to each other, but when viewed deeply, they also appeared to be each other’s reflection.

The beauty of this book is that you will be eager to read it in one breath, while you will want to read it for a long time. While reading this, many things start going together in the mind of the reader. An anonymous kind of fear and tears will be with you constantly, but an equally sincere smile and a kind of feeling of happiness will also go along. So many layers created by the magic of memories are present in the pages of the book that even after reading it, different meanings will be revealed by taking new forms in the memory of the reader.

The language of the book is also multifaceted like its form. It is natural, spontaneous, and playful and at the same time it is also full of freshness, which can be mentioned as the signature language of the author. Neelakshi is such a wonderful writer of Hindi literature that anyone who reads her is drowning in detail. Her stories and novels, seem like poetry in their lines.

From a perspective, this 200-page book is a collage of love stories. This is not only a love story of two sisters, but it is also a story of love with relationships, surroundings, addresses, walls and even with radiation machine. Rather it is also the story of a person’s love for her existence and freedom.

This book is a story of seven months of cancer treatment and its chapters are divided into seven months from February to October. Its sub-chapters are named after those games through which every Indian’s childhood passes. Interestingly, the names of the sub-chapters are the same as those of her previous novel Khela.

If we talk about the book and do not talk about those handwritten pages present before the sub-chapters, then the mention would be incomplete. They are pages from the author’s previous novel Khela, which the author was writing while she was undergoing treatment for cancer. With the help of letters written on those pages and pictures made unconsciously, the author’s state of mind can be read, as well as the writing process of a writer can also be understood to some extent.

While reading Hukum Desh Ka Ikka Khota, a light smoke keeps rising like a mist in the thoughts, which gives the way of the mind being full of sensations, but these sensations do not come out of the consciousness. Instead of outside, they open themselves and give their own information.

Parallelly, she opens the layers of the mind, takes the reader to the unknown planet of “idea” and leaves them to travel through their own thoughts. Neelakshi has brought atmosphere in the form of artistically reflecting emotions, relationships, and love in their original form in this book. She takes literature and writing to new heights.

Overall, this is a book of a writer’s thinking process, behind the making of a book, as well as a book to understand life closely, which should not only be read but should also be preserved.

The author is a Bangalore-based Management Professional, Literary Critic, and Codirector with Kalinga Literary Festival. He can be reached at [email protected]. Views are personal. 

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