Book Review : Shyamchi Aai (Translated to English)

Book Review : Shyamchi Aai (Translated to English) - Sane Guruji

For time immemorial, stories and anecdotes from life have been a very powerful medium to share tenets of philosophy with the wider audience. There’s something magical in listening to stories, more so events from someone’s life. This book is a collection of stories narrated by Shyam about his experiences and lessons learnt from his Aai (Mother). The events revolve around their lives, childhood and the various challenges faced by the family over the course of time. These stories act as medium to impart age old Vedic, Upanishadic wisdom through metaphors embedded in each of the stories.

The stories are very simple life experiences which leave a lasting impression on Shyam who shares it with his friends in Ashram after the evening prayers. These stories revolve around simplistic virtues like not stealing, focus on being a good human as compared to a great person to a more deep involved nuanced commentary on the social fabric of the society of the yore encompassing subjects like untouchability, gender equality in truest sense where men partake women’s responsibilities in household etc. Each of these stories has a unique lesson to impart on the reader and I am quite certain a lot of them stick.

Shyam’s Aai becomes his guru, philosopher, guide and the beacon of light for the rest of his life. I personally believe the choice of names as in Shyam, Yashoda (Aai) and the eventual separation is inline with Krishna’s experiences in Gokul. Shyam’s stories become similar Krishna’s Geetopadesha, except the source or rather the inspiration is his mother. The author’s biography at the end of the book reveals the empathetic, evolved mind which looks at the larger canvas of country and society. Written during his jail sentence, this work is sort of autobiographical as claimed by the book also (but was apparent around 30% of the book). The last few chapters of the book are really gut-wrenching and very emotional. I wouldn’t be surprised if a tear or two escape the eyes.

Please have very young and impressionable minds read this book. This is a book for all ages. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED MUST READ

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