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These three volumes of folk tales from the land of the
Brahmaputra contain antiquities stored in the people’s memory
in the shape of legends and fairy tales. An eminent Assamese
scholar, Lakshminath Bezbaroa, has collected them in book form
in the Assamese language and these have been translated into
English by his daughter. There are stories that convey a moral
lesson, stories that just narrate some interesting episodes and
stories that provide amusement. They relate to good kings and
bad kings, brave princes and not-so-brave princes, detestable
demons and charming damsels, rich merchants and poor priests,
enterprising youths and idlers. But every tale underlines the
basic truth that virtue has its own reward and that wickedness
never pays.
This collection
makes a valuable contribution to the storehouse of Indian
folk-lore and it reflects the joys, sorrows, aspirations and
anxieties of the simple rural folk of Assam. But these stories
which generations of Assamese children have been hearing from
their grandparents bear a remarkable similarity to such stories
prevalent in other parts of India. This points at the thread of
cultural and social unity that runs across the length and
breadth of the country.
However, the
printing deserved greater care. Eight blank pages in the first
volume have marred at least three stories.
A.P.J. Abdul
Kalam
by K. Bhushan and G. Katyal; APH Publications, New Delhi;
Pages 208; Rs 395.
 This book was apparently
written before the missile man of India came to occupy
Rashtrapati Bhavan. But strangely it covers events only up to
the filing of nomination papers for the President’s election.
The story of Avul
Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam begins at Dhanushkodi in
Rameswaram district of Tamil Nadu where his father rented out
boats to pay for his son’s education. From there, his journey
to Rashtrapati Bhavan has been through several landmarks
—Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, Bharat Ratna, SLV-3, Prithvi
and Agni missiles and Pokhran-II.
The authors have
recorded his life from his early days as a boat builder’s son
who sold newspapers to supplement his family’s income, to his
days in school and college, his failure to get selected in the
IAF, then his stints in DRDO and ISRO and his march to the
integrated guided missile programme and the launch of five major
missiles.
This scientist
from a hamlet in Tamil Nadu who plays the veena, recites the
Koran and the Gita with equal ease and writes poetry in Tamil,
is a fan of the Tamil poet Subramania Bharati. After describing
his personality, the authors have picked up write-ups from
different sources and at the end they have included a chapter on
‘current events’ which in fact is a collection of newspaper
and magazine reports, apparently a cut-and-paste job. Even these
‘current events’ close with the filing of nomination papers
for the President’s election and other developments that
preceded the presidential poll. They just stop short of Abdul
Kalam’s entry into Rashtrapati Bhavan.
It is a typical
example of a book turned out in a hurry, as if from an assembly
line.
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THE
folk-lore of a country mirrors its cultural and social norms that
descend from ancient times and gives a glimpse of the traditional
knowledge of its people which has stood the test of time and one
that no book contains.
