The Bells of Buddha Temple at Bangkok

-

 

The Bells of Buddha Temple at Bangkok

 

Mahantesh Navalkal (24th Nov 1970- Present)

Has baggage of credits into his so far career due to his distinguished realistic approach towards issues of farmers. Basically, he is from Raichur District of Karnataka and graduated in agriculture. His short story “The Bells of Buddha Temple at Bangkok” is titled symbolically and it represents the alarming condition of farmers and agriculture across the world and in days to come the conditions further accelerate.

         The major concern of the writer is how globalization has affected farmers across the globe. He further highlights how capitalism has won over the human senses. Capitalist ideology has also made man think in terms of profit and consider humans as commodities.

           The writers ten days trip to Thailand has been awarded by his company Jorky-Poshin Company, an MNC of repute and a global leader amongst the top 25 manufacturers of fertilizers and pesticides. The main concern of the study trip is to boost the sales of the pesticide called ‘Saquain’ and to retain its Numero Uno position in the world. The trip was assisted by the manager of the tour Ghanshyam Sharma as well.

          The first half of the short story is set in Bangkok and the rest in the city of Pattaya. During the writer's visit to The Bells of Buddha Temple at Bangkok, the conscious mind of him has reminded him of his sins, and says has tortured him constantly. Here he met one beautiful girl by the name Ann-Gang. While interacting with her gets confused about whether to call her a prostitute or a philosopher. After a long interaction with her, he comes to know why Pattaya is known as the Land of Reflections? Those reflections could be the bitter issues of poverty, helpless farmers and women etc.

            In the course of time, Ann-Gang extends her gratitude to the Indians because call girls like her earn their bread from them. They respect India for another strong reason that India is a land of Buddha. She shares the financial agenda of call-girls of Thailand which is humanitarian-centric. For example- If Ann earns four lakhs every year- 20% she pays taxes to the government, 20% reserves for poor farmers, 10% for the education of poor children.

            After listening to the intentions of a call girl, the award-winning MNC employee gets shocked and her good cause makes him realize how he and his company is troubling the farmers he is reminded of farmers' condition in Karnataka and utters “A farmer dies every twelve hours and we are his killers.”

        Therefore, the metaphors like the sky, ocean, darkness, bells in this story symbolise the increasing gap between the have’s and have not’s due to the greedy nature of humans. Hence, further it has led the farmer community to suffer at large by worsening their socio-economic conditions. During his visit he also gets acquainted with the philosophy of Buddha and is reminded of the bells of Buddha temple repeatedly warning him of so far committed wrongs.

 

Mahantesh Navalkal:

    Currently he lives in Kalburgi. His writings are Shadow of water (Neerina Neralu) volume of Stories, I am Chandragupta Maurya (Chandraguptanemba Maurya) a drama, awards won by him are Besagarahalli Ramanna Katha Puraskara, Nrupathunga Puraskara, Amma Puraskara, and he has been honored twice with the Rajapurohita Dattinidhi Gold medal by the Gulbarga University. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ambedkar as a Wonder

-
Image
 Ambedkar as a Wonder      In my childhood, I was fascinated by the attire of Ambedkar and his chashma. Then I had no thought that his attire is a   symbol of modernity. I use to wonder why we celebrate Ambedkar Jayanti every year on the 14 th April but today I understand his philosophy, stature, and magnanimity. His insults, humiliation and social stigma of lower caste made him constructive critic of Indian society. Due to exploitation,   he possessed a firm belief in democracy, where every individual will have political, social and economic justice. And his affirmation has reflected in the preamble of the Indian constitution.      When I ask my students about their role model or any inspiring personality they look up to I do get answers   ‘Ambedkar’, then I ask them why? Their answers would be this ‘he gave us Constitution’,   but my dear students don’t know that what treasure he has left with all of us. Probably they might hav...
Read more
-
Image
    My People ‘People’ in the title of the poem represents the Dalit community who have been oppressed by an oppressive social system in India. The poem highlights the miseries of the poet’s community. Hence, he describes the lives and his society through literature. This poem was published as Nanna Janagalu Mattu Itara Kavitegalu (My People and Other Poems) 2005. Siddalingaiah is the speaker of the poem. Dalits are the downtrodden community who have been socially marginalized, excluded, and exploited by the upper caste of the Indian social structure, and hence for ages, they have been deprived of basic education, health, and other social privileges. Siddalingaiah becomes important because he drew society’s attention to the plight of his people through his poetry which flamed a light and heat that was its own. But one of the Kannada cultural critics has called Siddalingaiah ‘the King of the exaggerated conceit.’ In this poem, the poet brings out themes of ‘resistance...
Read more