Glimpses of Life Through Cobweb

By Madhu N R

Madhu's book Cobweb has three parts. The first part Cobweb is more like a cartoon feature where two characters speak to each other. They have all the fun in asking questions and getting counter questions than answers. They speak of contemporary life, philosophy, movies, politics, sports, corruption, and religion. Even though the writer uses India as the background, this book can be enjoyed by the global audience.

The second part of the book consists of poems. The poem "Ode to a Tigress from India" is based on the Delhi rape of 2012 and is the mascot of this book, which draws flames from the writer against politicians, bureaucracy, and even God. The third part is stories. Two of the stories have Dostoevsky and Vincent Van Gogh as characters. Here, Van Gogh is given a peaceful death after many failures in life. Dostoevsky's story is from the background of his novel Idiot, where his conscience comes to confront him about the climax of the novel. The other stories also show the garb of the satirist in the author.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Jun 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781482845709

Madhu N R

Cobweb is N. R. Madhu's second English book. The first book was a collection of poems entitled A Sweating Mind, which drew a letter of praise from the then-president of India Mr. APJ Abdul Kalam. Madhu is more of a satirical writer who has been writing from 1989 and has published two novels in Malayalam. His writing is of emotions with which he paints a powerful and poignant picture.

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Copyright © 2015 by Madhu N R.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

Poems

Ode to a Tigress from India

Changing Seasons and Man

Mother*

Che Guevara!

An Appeal

Shame, Shame, Puppy, Shame!

The Absent-Minded Poet

American Politics

A Day for Celebration

Jihad

Who Wants a Father’s Day?

Stories

An Idle Man in the Devil’s Workshop

Lord Rama’s Dilemma

My Eldest Sister’s Youngest Daughter’s Wedding

A Very Short Non-Sensual and Non-Sexual Story

The Curious Case of Prathap—an Associate Professor of English

Politicians (at Least) Cover Up Your Face!

A Few Minutes with Dostoyevsky

Vincent Van Gogh Meets Death

Cobweb

To the soul of Jyothi, the brave tigress who fought with death for thirteen days before losing out.

Acknowledgements

I express my sincere thanks to Prof. Rajagopal who had painstakingly gone through the manuscript and suggested corrections. Rajagopal, sir, had taught me English during 1981–1983.

I thank Prof. Prasanta Purohit for suggesting the title of this book.

I thank Murali, my schoolmate who invited me to Facebook. I had started the blog http://www.madhucartoons.blogspot.com/ for posting COBWEB which was simultaneously posted in Facebook also. When it was stopped after 365 postings, Murali asked me when the book was going to be released. It was Asha, another schoolmate of mine, who introduced me to Partridge. Another coincidence is that all three of us were schoolmates at St Joseph’s Convent primary school (Quilon) from 1970 to 1975 till the fourth standard.

Preface

Man, the most intelligent fool, is the only creator of literary art. It is an irony that the same man manufactures weapons of mass destruction too.

Believers feel that God created man, and atheists say life originated in water. Both of them still have not proved their arguments. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is also not going to give a definite answer.

Swami Vivekananda, who addressed Americans as sisters and brothers on 11 September 1893, was earlier an atheist, went to Ramakrishna Paramahamsa to make fun of him. When Narendra (Swami Vivekananda’s earlier name) asked him whether he had seen God, the reply was, ‘Yes, I can see him, more clearly than seeing you’. Narendra later became his most famous disciple. The world-renowned Swami Vivekananda later said, ‘There is no god beyond universe.’

So what is God? The easiest answer is that God is within you and me. So where do we come from and where do we go to? Scientists say life takes shape in the mother’s womb and the body perishes with death. It is as easy as eating a cake. But when we are alone, we are confronted by many questions regarding our identity. No answer consoles us. This book has nothing to do with God or religion.

I have heard that nothing fits into the pigeonhole, not even a pigeon. The writer is also like the pigeon. It is difficult for him or her to fit into the hole known as society.

Poems

Ode to a Tigress from India

Tears of Blood (16 December 2012 to 29 December 2012)

In a moving bus, on a chilly night

At Delhi, she was cruelly violated

Where cruelty, as a word, stands in shame

Even animals are ashamed of the six beasts

Nazi concentration camps are