The cobalt blue and gold dust-jacket is resplendent, promising many things, and right enough, Blue Skinned Gods by SJ Sindu captivates the reader from the very first word. Narrated in the voice of a young boy, Kalki, the first part of the novel is set in Tamil Nadu; rustic charms, languor and ritualistic lifestyles permeate every crevice of this section. Kalki, born with blue skin, is venerated for being the reincarnation of Lord Vishnu and believed to possess healing powers, villagers throng to Kalki to get themselves cured.
Presiding over the ashram and the entire proceedings is Kalki’s autocratic father (Ayya) while his housewife-artist mother (Amma) is content to paint, love and mollycoddle Kalki. When a wasted, sickly little girl (Roopa) is placed before Kalki to be healed, he faces his first serious challenge in proving his godmanship.
One test follows another and Kalki uses every ounce of his inner resources to heal people. But the niggling worm of self-doubt burrows constantly into his soul, and that of the reader. Is Kalki genuinely a healer, or merely a cleverly groomed charlatan?
Kalki’s closest companion is his cousin Lakshman who shadows him everywhere and even sits next to him during the healing sessions. If a subtle fault line exists in Lakshman’s devotion to his older cousin, the tremors of scepticism are not enough to rock the relationship. When Lakshman’s mother falls seriously ill, however, Kalki’s healing is not quite adequate and the family moves away to the US.
Kalki’s fame attracts media attention from all over the world and soon the ashram is in expansion mode as foreigners with deep pockets saunter in to rest and recuperate. As the blue-skinned god moves from boyhood to adolescence, he experiences romantic attraction for the pretty transgender Kalyani and then for Roopa (who is now healed and healthy). A white-skinned visitor Sita arrives. She lends him English books to read and Kalki gets his first exposure to the outside world.
When he catches his father in a compromising position with Sita, Kalki’s secure little world comes crashing down. Rumbles of change and discord are beginning to sound everywhere. Kalki gets his first taste of bhang during Holi following which all hell breaks loose and a chain of events sends the ashram spiralling into chaos and calamity.
The novel jumps to the second section where, in a vastly changed milieu, a grown-up Kalki is touring the US in the company of his father, with the intent of expanding his spiritual empire. A chance meeting with his childhood friend-cum-cousin Lakshman (who is now a member of a rock band) results in a revelation that is earth-shattering, to say the least. No spoilers here, sufficient to say the shock is likely to turn the reader every shade of blue!
The colour blue, interestingly, is tackled in all its glory. The origins, evolutionary history, metamorphosis and divergent nature are discussed in such depth that the colour blue seems to stain every part of the story. Not surprisingly, Lakshman’s band is called ‘Blue-Skinned Gods’.
Kalki’s confrontation with his truth is followed by a swift descent into decadence-drinking, drugs, amorous adventures of diverse kinds––and a spirited defiance of his father.
Sindu’s prose is fluid, unpretentious and does not resort to unnecessary literary gimmickry to drive her extraordinary plot home. Places come alive under her lyrical and evocative descriptions. “Through the open shutters, the moon hurled mango leaf shadows against the wall,” she writes. The chief characters––Ayya, Amma, Lakshman, Sita––are sharply etched, the doomed Amma in particular, standing out poignantly.
The second part of the novel could have read jaded at the hands of a lesser author, the tradition-bound Indian’s culture shock on encountering the ways of the West having been written ad nauseam. But Sindu’s skillful pen, paradoxically, lends remarkable freshness to the sameness. She skims over the mythological bits with crisp conciseness so as to illuminate the uninformed reader without being repetitive to the informed one.
Sexuality, with all its deviations, is handled with rare delicateness and Kalki’s dalliances (with bi, gay, trans individuals) seem organic to his coming of age. The novel totters precariously between science, superstition, mythology and history, the text checkered with things like blind faith, ancient rituals, child-goddesses and gods, exploitation, autosuggestion, truth and illusion. Underlying the flow of events is Kalki’s perennial inner search for his life’s purpose and with his numerous queries about destiny and his place in the bigger scheme of things––the blue-skinned god could be speaking for many of us. His complex relationship with his father is another leitmotif. This is a very important novel with its vast canvas gathering the East and the West in its embrace. And with its multiple perceptions of the same truth. Supremely readable, there is soul in the novel’s premise and spirit in its execution.
Blue Skinned Gods
By: S J Sindu
Publisher: Legend Press Ltd
Pages: 288
Price: Rs 460