Penguin Random House is in Cloud Nine as The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, the novel authored by Sri Lanka’s Shehan Karunatilaka walked away with this year’s Booker Prize. Karunatilaka is the second Sri Lankan to win this prestigious award.
Nothing surprising in The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida bagging the award as it has everything that would make the liberals and neo-liberals happy. The author has come down heavily on the darker side of the civil war that turned the island nation from a paradise to a tear drop in the Indian Ocean.
The beginning of the novel itself is unique as Maali Almeida, the protagonist is waking up to dead! A new concept indeed. The civil war staged for nearly four decades between Tamil guerrillas as and the sovereign republic of Sri Lanka is portrayed in the work with the author justifying, though indirectly, the dreaded terrorist activities of the LTTE terrorists. Velupillai Prabhakaran, an illiterate and uncouth terrorist, wanted to form a separate Tamil country in Sri Lanka and this led to the fight between Tamil terrorists and the Sri Lankan State. In hindsight, nobody can justify the dreams and demands of the LTTE because the jury is still out in deciding convincingly whether the population in Northern Sri Lanka is Tamils or not. The real Tamils are the laborers toiling in the tea gardens of Sri Lanka while the population in north and north east are constituted of Malayalees from Malabar (Northern Kerala) who migrated to the island nation.
But the Booker Prize committee would always prefer books critical of issues (even if there are no issues) in countries like India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. While the first named has a considerable Hindu population, the last two has a Buddhist majority population. International agencies like Booker Prize are trying to dismantle the culture and civilization of countries like India so that they could be vanquished from the face of earth to the advantage of Abrahamic religions. Do you need any more explanations why a book of below average stuff God of Small Things was “given” the Booker Prize. Have you seen the author of the last named book anywhere in India except in seminars sponsored by anti-India forces? This is not to belittle Karunatilaka. Memories of the days when books like Crime and Punishment, Dr Zhivago, And Quiet Flows the Don come to mind. Even without awards, these books topped the best-sellers list for years.
Can anyone be blamed if they suspect “The Seven Moons..” of wokeism?
A release issued by Peter Modoli, general manager, Penguin Random House, describes the book as a searing satire set amid the murderous mayhem of Sri Lanka beset with Civil War.
Those aspiring for Booker Prize and awards of such genre may kindly note: If you write novels portraying Sanatana Dharma and belittle Indian culture and civilization through the work, you are assured of not only Booker Prize but other ones too.
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