THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: R K R Nair, a septuagenarian engineer-turned-writer who has been living a life of near total obscurity in the capital city has come out with his latest novel ‘Orbits’. RKR, who describes himself as ‘a bird of passage’, likes to live in his nest and is not bothered that the world has not noticed him yet.
However, under this nonchalance lies a hurt soul. Just like his protagonist Adithyan, RKR is living in disguise. But unlike his protagonist he does not want to live the life of someone else.
Imagine the glitz and glamour of a writer who has authored more than six books. His latest book ‘Orbits’ has been published by the Writers Workshop, who count celebrity writers like Ruskin Bond, K N Daruwalla,Kamaladas, Sashi Desh Pande, Nizzim Ezekiel, Shiv K Kumar, Jayanta Mahapatra, Vikram Seth and many others as their clientele. However, fame eludes RKR. It is highly doubtful that he will be recognised by any literary buff.
However, all’s not lost for RKR since Writers Workshop, which has published over 3,500 titles since 1958, found his writing worthy.
The publishers claim, the book upholds the primacy of stable ethical and moral values. It enshrines humanist principles which are of special relevance in the context of the multi -cultural historical palimpsest of civilisation in India.
The Orbits tells the tale of a celebrity. What he has seen in the Gulf, Mumbai and Andamans. The characters also bring to life the culture of Mexico. The novel depicts the relationship between lovers who are close, yet are unable to touch and feel each other, like planets in adjacent orbits. They crave for a world where love is God, where service is religion and technology removes the poverty of a rustic village.
Adithya who leaves behind his superstar status to save a poor village, Gabriel who invents a device to harness solar power to electrify the village, Seema who elevates herself to sainthood through telepathic love, Dr Nancy who sacrifices her medical career and nunhood to be a constant companion to her soulmate who suddenly becomes blind ... thus goes the human saga of love and sacrifice. Orbits is also about a lost love. The dark cloud of which is still pervades the firmament of the writer’ mind. The writer admits that his lost love shadows him in his every work. In Orbit also she shadows him.
“I had always been experiencing it. She reflects in every heroine of mine. She had always been more intelligent and brilliant than me. It was she who loved me in my entirety,” RKR recollects.
Though he entered the world of letters as a poet, he was destined to write lyrical prose. As his poetic fancy takes him to the realm of the unknown, facts and fancy fuse together and give us the music of love.
“Wise men forget and laugh, but fools remember, sigh and fume. Adithya was such a fool. These words present the key to enter the inner realm of the protagonist. But on delving deep, one realises that there is more to be explored and felt,” writes RKR Nair.
The writer has penned books including Timeless Symphony(novel), Death Is Not A Full Stop, Call of the Blue River, Love me, Love Me long (stories) and the Long Thorn and The Song Never Dies (poems).