He Tied Me on a Chair for Thirteen Hrs... He Is No More Now...!!!

My Love of Words,

Manohar Malgonkar one of the great Indian authors in the English language of both fiction and nonfiction passed away on 14 June 2010 in Jagalpet Forest Bungalow in Karnataka's Uttara Kannada district as he was a lover of nature and environment. I don’t think you heard about him much but He is my favourite author who made me to read English books. He tied me on a chair for thirteen hrs with his book “Men Who Killed Gandhi”. It was my first ever English book which I finished it in a single sitting. In my sense the best Indian (evergreen) English Authors are R.K. Narayan, Kushwanth Singh and the third one is Manohar Malgonkar. Apart from history, the army and communal politics during Partition, Malgonkar wrote of human relationships. As an author, he was a stark chronicler. Malgonkar Born on July 12, 1913 in a royal Marathi family that had its roots in Goa , he graduated from Bombay University in English and Sanskrit. He used to arrange tiger shoots for Indian maharajas from 1935 to 1937. He served in the Maratha Light Infantry and on the army's General Staff during World War II, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. However, Malgonkar found that the army was not his cup of tea, and went back to his native village to pursue his first love, writing. At 47, he wrote his first book Distant Drum, where he narrated the spirit of the Indian soldier. Malgonkar was active in the Swatantra Party, having unsuccessfully contested a general election twice in the 1970s.He later took to business and farming. He owned and operated manganese mines near Jagalbet. After 1959, he left the mining business and started farming.
After his only daughter Sunita died at a very young age and the death of his wife in the eighties, he had been living a lonely life. As a writer, he received more recognition in western countries than in India and is considered a significant Anglo-Indian novelist in the West. Highly individualist, he preferred an isolated life till his death, though known as a good host and a man devoid of any inhibitions.
  His books were really different from others. His writing dwelt with the values of upper classes. He wrote about socio-historical milieu of those times in five novels, over 50 short fiction books and three books on history among others. He never talked about writing a book but he researched the loopholes in Indian History. His books are not just the books but they are inventions and discoveries. He wrote the realities and said even “Father of Nation” was a man not the god. You have to read him at least once.  What a book’ A Bend in the Ganges’ is and what about Shalimar. An Author always notifies a book as his “Magnum Opus” but in case of Manohar Malgonkar all books are masterpieces and of course I rank ’The Devil’s Wind’ and The Men Who Killed Gandhi in top. He got enormous guts to write untold truth of History. He had an Interview with ‘Godse brothers’ and others who indirectly supported ‘Assassination of Gandhi’. He had a respect over Gandhi as a man not as god or something else. He wrote “Still, history is made by the winners, is written by the followers and is manipulated by the rulers!” (http://insidetheblackhole.wordpress.com/2010/04/11/mooved-hey-ram-se-aha-takk/ Please read this link) “When he shot why Mahatma would say ‘Hey Ram’ when he was not biased between ‘Ram’ and ‘Rahim’ or ‘Krishna’ and ‘Karim’. Then why only ‘Ram’ was uttered. Will the father of nation be biased to Hindus while he claimed that he was not?"

I struggled to read The Devil’s Wind (the story of Nana Saheb) without understanding his English many years back. But it made me to complete the book. ‘Kings, Dynasties, Leaving their beautiful wives to other kings’ He wrote everything he wanted to say. It may be about Mughals, war of independence and about great V.D. Savarkar. He was 97 years old optimistic man spent complete 51 years in a Forest bungalow and which was his own. He lost his wife and his only daughter too and he lived alone for 12 years. Khushwant Singh’s “Death at my Doorstep” made me to think about the old age life But Manohar Malgonkar lived that life. Hats Off to him. Sorry, this post went long but I wanted to tell about him so. I really felt ashamed on Times of India a largest circulated daily which publishes unnecessary things would have give prominence to Manohar Malgonkar’s death and his writing. We have very few good Indian English Writers & we lost one now. 




                   Lets Pray for his Soul


(For More about his works Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manohar_Malgonkar )