Punchtantra: Parables for the 21st Century

Title

en_US Punchtantra: Parables for the 21st Century

en_US Penguin Books

Description

en_US Third printing

en_US Gautam Bhatia. Morals by Mohit Saryanand

Creator

en_US Bhatia, Gautam See all items with this value

Contributor

en_US Raychaudhury, Aditi

Date

2016-01-25T19:03:20Z

en_US 2001-05

en_US 1998

Date Available

2016-01-25T19:03:20Z

Date Issued

en_US 1998

Abstract

en_US A wacky take-off on Vishnu Sharma's Panchatantra, as the back cover proclaims. I am glad to see that the same back cover finds this work inspired by James Finn Garner's Politically Correct Bedtime Stories because the comparison is apt. This work presents in short form one story after another from the Panchatantra and then adds to each a parallel contemporary work heavy on social satire, perhaps five to eight pages in length. The flavor might come through best if we dive into the story of the two crows who could not have children because the eagle kept stealing their eggs. They were friends with a jackal. Over drinks and snacks the crows revealed to him everything about their life: their desire for a normal two-parent-two-children household, their wish to live with dignity in a neighbourhood of their choice, their abhorrence of urban violence and religious fundamentalism, their hatred of hatred, their fears about racial discrimination, even their worries about the fluctuating stock market (30). The social satire here, I believe, has less to do with India than with cutting-edge trend setters anywhere in the first world today. I read half of the book and enjoyed it thoroughly. There is a T of C for the twenty-six stories at the beginning.

Identifier

en_US 0140271163

en_US 4270 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/79546

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US Penguin Books India

en_US New Delhi

Subject

en_US PK3799.B445 P85 1998 See all items with this value

en_US Title Page Scanned See all items with this value

Type

en_US Book, Whole