Sep 20, 2006 04:38 PM
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Burial At Sea! Wow, what a title for a book! A title, enough to attract the reader! And plus the book is written by Khushwant Singh, for whom sex is an indispensable part in his writings! But the book fails to meet the expectations, and is generally meaningless.
The story of the book:
The story starts showing Jai Bhagwan; a big business tycoon of India has died in Mumbai. The entire country is mourning because of his death. He didn’t wanted religious rites during his funeral and therefore wanted himself to get buried in the very place where his yacht, ‘Jal Bharati’ was anchored. Then starts the flashback of Jai Bhagwan’s life.
The flashback: Jai Bhagwan, or Victor, as he was called, was born before independence. He was the son of Krishan Lal Mattoo. Victor also had three sisters. Mattoo was a lawyer and was respected by both Indians as well as British. He had a big spacious house in Delhi, called ‘Shanti Bhavan’. When Victor was around 10, Mattoo appointed a 35 yr old British woman, Valerie Bottomley, as her nanny. Valerie changed the lifestyle of Mattoo family. She taught the children the use of fork, knife and spoon. She also replaced chapatti with slices of bread. Five years later, Victor took admission in Eton Public School of London. He finished his schooling there and got admission at Balliol College at Oxford. He completed his college and returned to India in around 1935. Now Victor wanted to make India big globally. To achieve this, it was necessary to establish lots of industries in India. He set up a textile factory in a place near Yamuna River. He named it ‘Jai Bhagwan Textiles’. It was the only textile industry that made bed sheets, table cloths, sarees, curtains, furnishing fabrics, towels, napkins; all under one roof. He then started textile industry in many parts of India. He also started industries, which produced sugar, chemicals, cements, bicycles, ships etc. Due to all these industries, he became rich. Later, Victor gets married to a simple girl, Jayshree Raina, who was chosen by her mother. Victor used Jaishree as a sex-toy and never gave her the happiness, which a husband should give to her wife. Ten months after the marriage, Jaishree delivered a baby girl. But unfortunately, Jaishree died after giving the girl birth. Victor’s mother named the girl Bharati. Victor then bought a yacht from Europe and named it ‘Jal Bharati’ after her daughter. Victor liked to stay and relax in ‘Jal Bharati’. Then later, lots of problems and happiness take place in Jai Bhagawan’s life and one sad day, he meets his tragic death.
The beginning and the middle portions are very well written. The portions such as Victor’s conversation with Mahatma Gandhi, Victor establishing industries in different parts in India are very well executed and keeps the reader in high spirit. The problem is with the later part of the story. The story starts becoming less interesting and boring in the later part. Also, the author has added sex unnecessarily. For instance, there was no need to show how Victor and Bharati lost their virginity!
The book is entirely about Jai Bhagwan’s life. We do not get any message from his life nor we get complete entertainment from reading his story. And the ‘burial at sea’ part constitutes only 2% of the story!
But the book is not a complete disaster. There are a lot of moments, which we can feel, enjoy and experience. We can feel that Victor loves Maa Durgeshwari (a tantric god-woman, introduced in the later part of the story) a lot. We can feel the happiness Victor gets when he is with Maa Durgeshwari.
The story ends abruptly and in an incomplete manner. The reader does not come to know who was responsible for the death of Jai Bhagwan even after the story is ended. Also the author should have added a chapter in the end, describing what happened to everyone after the death of Jai Bhagwan.
Some of the flaws in the book:
There is no 30 storey building in Mumbai and that too in 1940 (as shown in the book). There were hardly buildings with more than 5-storeys in Mumbai during 1940.
Maa Durgeshwari was thrown out by her husband because he suspected adultery. She was also involved with three men before becoming a tantric god-woman. Then How come she became a god-woman ?
Similarly, Swamiji was a school dropout and was arrested twice for robbering and buggery. Then how come he became such a fantastic yoga teacher and got the title of ‘Swamiji’?
On the whole, Burial At Sea is a not worth reading because of its story and flaws. It starts nicely but gets boring in the second half. It is not as worth as Khushwant Singh’s other books. My advice: Give this book a miss!
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