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This is a story of a boy hailing from a village in Rajasthan, who rises from the early miseries of his life. Throughout the novel, we see a clash between the receding but still dominant old values and the emerging new ones.
The prosperous life of protagonist Hari’s family is shattered by sudden demise of his father. His courageous mother moves to South India with her children, escaping village’s mistreatment of widows and abject poverty. Though the living standard of the family improves steadily in Madras, yet the family has to fight regular battles against the unjustified social customs. The woman even has to hide the fact about her husband’s death from her neighbours. The strange part is that she herself follows traditions she desperately tries to escape. She considers it a grave sin when her elder son marries a Bengali woman without her consent. Later, Hari too has to face the disapproval of his social circle for re-marrying out of his community. Even moving to another house does not help him escape the rules of the society. As depicted by the title of the novel, Hari grows up to become a well-read teacher. He propagates the social changes initiated by Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo. At the same time, his personal life suffers. He loses his newborns due to irrational beliefs of his wife and mother-in-law. His clashes with his illiterate wife even lead to divorce that later prove to be a blessing in disguise. Hari finds a literate and open-minded bride 20 years younger to him. After the marriage of his only daughter and deaths of his first and second wife, starts his long-desired journey of finding a spiritual path. He meets several fake godmen in the due course before finally finds a true guru. As the author has been educated in the West and is a trained yoga instructor, she has nicely depicted the relevance of Indian philosophies in the modern world in her debut novel.
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The story is set in the
period of pre and post Independence era. This was the time when the
modern outlook was replacing religious and social customs. People were
gradually getting aware about the ruthlessness of many religious and
social practices. But it was not easy for the Indian communities to
abandon the centuries-old traditions, resulting in an intra-culture
clash.