Sakina’s Kiss

I recently read a novel by Vivek Shanbhag, the acclaimed Kannada writer, titled ‘Sakina’s Kiss’ – translated in English by Srinath Perur. I was introduced to this author by an earlier novel titled ‘Ghachar Ghochar’ again translated into English. At that time, I was left with a feeling of intrigue after finishing it in a couple of settings. This was more than a year and a half back after I attended one of his interviews at the Bangalore Lit Fest. Hence, I was eager to read this novel – again having this intriguing title ‘Sakina’s Kiss’. Let me just say that, as far as understatement, complexity and undercurrents in a story are concerned, I was not disappointed.

This is an absorbing book that keeps you turning the page, always promising intrigue till it leaves you wondering what actually happened. Eventually it is all about the style and craft of writing by an author who, one reckons, wants to highlight the many maladies of today’s life across family, individual hypocrisy, politics, generation and gender gaps, rural vs urban, etc. etc. It is a book that may be best described as an unsettling mix of understated and unexplained layers of stories and subplots beneath an ordinary looking life .. it’s a statement and meditation on modern life written by a master storyteller, a weaver of webs!