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Review: One and Three Quarters by Shrikant Bojewar
Review: One and Three Quarters by Shrikant Bojewar

Hindustan Times

time4 days ago

  • Entertainment
  • Hindustan Times

Review: One and Three Quarters by Shrikant Bojewar

Shrikant Bojewar's 154-page novella is a wickedly clever satire set in a small village of Maharashtra where the intermingling of felines and humans establishes beyond doubt the unconscionable conduct of the latter species. This could be Langdya's village: A hamlet in Raigad, Maharashtra. (Raju Shinde) The protagonist, Langdya Pitambar, has flunked grade seven for the third time. Langdya – named so because of his prominent limp - wants to ensure that his father Ajabrao does not learn about his failure from Gengane-master, his mathematics teacher, at their nightly drinking adda. Pondering over ways to tamper with his mark sheet and escape his drunk father's wrath, he has a brainwave when he spots the newly appointed rather beautiful music teacher, Mrs Alaknanda Deshpande, heading towards a 400-year-old mud fortress in the village as the sun is setting. Landgya alerts two rival teachers, Gengane-master and Habib Sir. They take positions, Gengane-master hoping to catch Habib Sir red-handed and vice versa. However, it is Langdya who catches Mrs Deshpande and Dhamale-sir, the school principal, in a compromising position. 154pp, ₹399; Westland Books (Eka) This sets off a chain of events and the tables are turned in Landgya's favour. Fearing an expose from Langdya, Dhamale-sir tells him not to waste his time in Grade 7 and allows him to appear for his matriculate examination, which he miraculously passes with 39 percent. Overnight, Langdya's limp becomes less prominent and he becomes the school principal's favourite student. He exploits the situation to the maximum, knowing fully well that any proposal which has Mrs Deshpande at the heart of it, would be readily accepted by the principal. Then, a casual comment by a local paan-chewing journalist becomes his mantra: 'The marks you get in school have little relevance to life. What matters is how you fare in the school of life. That's what counts.' Giving up all efforts to excel in school, the shrewd Langdya becomes an 'important person' - first in his school and then in his village. He is spotted by the local MLA, and then riding piggy-back on him, reaches the Mantralaya in Mumbai, becoming a much-sought after 'dalal' (middleman) in the corridors of power. By then, he is no longer referred to as Langdya, but as Pitambar-ji, the man in spotless white clothes, with the best mannerisms and a confidence that most MLAs and ministers lack. He becomes a 'catalyst' of change. Or so he likes to describe himself. However, it is not his talent alone that leads to his meteoric rise. His unusual journey is facilitated by a tomcat called Latthya. It is Latthya who changes Langdya's destiny – consolidating his reputation of 'only Pitambar can do this job'. To stress Langdya's conspiratorial powers, Bojewar writes: 'Godfather is a movie that Langdya may not have seen. But he adopted its famous dialogue, 'I will make him an offer he can't refuse.'' A hitherto cat-hating Langdya, who despised them even more if they were black and crossed his path, mysteriously begins to understand Latthya's meows, and both develop a shared understanding. Whenever Langdya's magical powers fail, Latthya waves his magic wand. He dutifully brings his master political gossip and the big scoops. In return, he gets chicken and fish treats for dinner. Bojewar takes this social satire, which captures the moral decrepitude of society, up a notch with every turn of the page. His vivid details bring to life the littlest manoeuvrings at cat-addas in remote bylanes, which are 'a sucker for gossip and local politics', and the human-addas such as the village bar and the Mumbai Secretariat. The author compares the politicians at Mantralaya to laboratory frogs in a school – of different sizes but when dissected their internal organs are the same. Nothing escapes the author's eye. He deftly outlines human and feline values and reminds readers how animals are a lot fairer in their dealings than humankind. Though both Langdya and Latthya are fixers, it is only Latthya who feels a great deal of guilt when he crosses a line. In Mumbai, Latthya makes it a point to not mix around too much as he didn't want any cat to 'propose to him'. After the death of the love of his life, Ghaari, Latthya had taken an oath to remain alone for the rest of his life and breaking oaths was 'a human trait'. It isn't easy to read this novella with a straight face. The quiet chuckles soon change into laugh-out-loud moments. One such moment comes when Pandurang, the local MLA, lands a ministerial post thanks to Langdya and Latthya. Baffled at his new position, he asks Langdya, 'What does this ministry do, Pitambar?' When a film delegation from Bollywood arrives to meet the minister, who, in his previous avatar, had owned grocery stones, he is smitten by an actor and compares her silky strands of hair to well-cooked grains of basmati rice that don't stick together. Author Shrikant Bojewar (Courtesy the publisher) And when a local Marathi film delegation visits the minister and raises the problems that plague Marathi cinema due to lack of grants, he says, 'All I can advise you is that if the shop doesn't make a profit, one must shut it down. If Marathi films don't make money, don't produce them. I can assure you that the government will not penalise you.' Bojewar has been a journalist for 32 years, and has been writing political satire for 23 years. This novel, originally written in Marathi as Pavane Don Payancha Manus, which won the Baba Padmanji award, has been translated by Vikrant Pande. Pande has successfully retained the essence of the novel, which must have been a challenging task. Bojewar's prose is deceptively simple and unadorned and his understanding of the human and the feline worlds is unsettling. A delightful read, One and Three Quarters is highly recommended. Lamat R Hasan is an independent journalist. She lives in New Delhi.

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