If one wants an overview of interesting and impactful happenings from different parts of the world for four decades from 1975 to 2020, one should read, ” Resurgence- A Hyderabadi Miracle” by Ravi Krishnaswamy (aka K Ravi). In this book, published by Enas Publications in 2023 , he covers in considerable detail happenings during this period across various subjects like politics, sports, technology, and movies.
Seeing the litany of books, movies , songs etc described one might well ask: what is so much of information – almost Wikipeadic (to coin a phrase) in scope- doing in a work of fiction? The answer is that the author has used his imagination to good effect to create this story. In this fictional work, the main protagonist is Ram from Hyderabad, now in Telangana State in the South of India. He lives with his parents and siblings in Marredpally an area in Secunderabad which is like a twin city to the larger city of Hyderabad. Ram has a twin brother – who, not surprisingly at all, is called Shyam, like in the famous Hindi movie of that name. Sushila is their elder sister. As a young boy, Ram was an avid and even precocious reader but sadly he met with a bad accident in 1975 when he was hit by a speeding car while cycling with his friends.
Ram falls into a coma -which in this work of fiction eclipses even the record of Elaine Esposito of being in a coma for 37 years- and continues to be in that state till he miraculously recovers 45 years later. It is 2020 by then and the world is in a grip of a new and strange phenomenon which became known as Covid 19. This brought in dramatic changes all over the world. The lockdown in India for a few months helped Ram- in this story- to catch up with events of the decades that had passed him by as he lay in a coma. His parents have passed away so it is up to his sister, brother, and brother-in-law to bring Ram up to speed ( to use a modern idiom) on what has become a fascinating and new world for him. Even physical structures like some of the old landmarks of his locality have been wiped out.
The story weaves in a commentary of present day life where there have been so many advances in technology. These have resulted in developments which would have been considered impossible decades ago. But as with everything else, people too have changed. Ram notices a higher degree of greed for material successes, a hunger for consumption (and probably over consumption), and many other dramatic behavioural changes which reflect a world that would have been considered alien in the 1970s.
I was not at all surprised to hear from Ravi that he wrote this book during the Covid days. This book is very different from his first book called, “Born Smiling: A Father’s Tribute” which was more personal in nature, dealing as it did with the life and passing away of his beloved daughter.
This book is quite different in scope and character from most others. I compliment the author for choosing a difficult approach to tell a story which he assures us is not his- but set in areas very close to his heart.
Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller 