OF THE PEOPLE, For the People by Dr Resmi M R

 

I had come for the semester break after an exhausting two weeks of exams and out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed a snow-white hardcover on the tea table in our drawing room. I remember thinking it looked incongruous with the other stuff that I knew belonged to my father. For one, the book looked quite new and well-kept. It did not go well with the aesthetic of my journalist father with his bits of odd scribbled papers, padded journals also full of scrawling, sprawling handwriting, and pens with no caps. When I asked him about it, he told me that the book was written by Dr Resmi M R, who is the wife of Prof (Dr.) Raveendran P, the Vice Chancellor of Calicut University. It had been given to him by the VC as he was a Syndicate Member of Calicut University. He told me to read it and because I could never say no when faced with a book, I did.

When I started reading this book, from the first three pages alone, I understood that this was going to be a long journey, pun intended. Beginning with a blast to the past, the book certainly deviates from a typical story book. this is a story where dreams are at war with duty, love is at odds with responsibility and pioneers and leaders are forged through the rawest experiences of life. Something that children learn from their future experiences.

King Mangal Singh is saddened by Pratap Chandra, the King of Sangameshwara, a ruthless ruler who terrorizes people right and left. Just as the empathetic king is pondering a solution, he is teleported to the future where he finds himself in a museum where he is something of a novelty for forming the concept of the Janahitha Empire. His picture is hung grandly beside his niece and nephews as well as some others. Upon enquiry, he understands that the Janahitha Empire is mainly, the combined effort of himself, his sister, her children and her grandchild. Mangal Singh is immediately teleported back to his original timeline, but now with a vision and much clarity. Now he knows how to stop the terror and inequality brought about by the Sangameshwara king. He also knows how to stop any future Pratap Chandras from gaining power and misusing it.

Thus begins the story "Of The People" by Resmi M R. The tale is filled with several princes, princesses, kings, queens, and forest clans all of whom join hands to ward off the evil that Pratap Chandra and try to implement the Janahitha Empire into practice.
Perhaps as the main proponents of the Janahitha Empire, the niece and nephew of King Mangal Singh, Haimavathi and her elder brother Kashyap suffer the most, but that is not to say that the other characters don't as much. The Janahitha Empire is truly the fruit of the pain of all the characters and even more perhaps. If someone has given up on their lover for the sake of the greater good, another has given on their own offspring for the sake of it, leaving us to understand that pain and sacrifice are indeed necessary to achieve a dream, any dream.

The story is gripping and full of life and longing of the lauded ones. It is one of those stories where we long to see the win of the Good and when it does happen, we rejoice beside the brave ones who led their subjects to the dawn of what they hoped would be a new, much more humane era. The characters are examples of how to be noble not just by birth but also by deed. That is not to say that they are perfect. Mrs Resmi shows us how anyone, however great and perfect, is still flawed, one way or the other. The ones who learn to live with it and convert it to their strengths are the ones who succeed in life. While the protagonists try to bring about changes, the author also shows us glimpses of ancient India, how it used to be. A book that is a binocular to squint at the vast untamed empire that Bharath was, before the British rule and the advent of democracy. The storybook will perhaps pique the interest of the younger ones to know more about the Janahitha Empire but more importantly help them understand what it means to be a Janahitha.