Maoninda Maharshivarege: Kamanabillanu Bembathi

This is the Kannada translation of the epochal book Rainbow Years: Conflict to Contentment by Madabhushi Madan Gopal that was published in 2022 and received widespread acclaim and appreciation and is in the process of being made into a film. The author captures intriguing and gripping realities. Beginning 1960s, Marxist ideology was the flavour of the youth. Convinced about the revolution that must come, three friends—Rajen, Suri and Mallana—set out charting their paths through the Left-Wing organisations and movement. As decades pass by, the strategies fail, the ideologies get diluted, connect with the masses is lost, they allow foreign intervention. Of course, the state played its own games. When they meet again after the momentous decades, there is no scope to be judgmental; they must accept the vicissitudes of life. The novel is the journey of a generation that dreamt of a revolution, the dream shattered by the calming realisation that being of service to the common people—with a sense of non-doership—was the only dream worth pursuing.