Artha

Book excerpt: Life is a chain of illusions. The path of human existence is to move from one illusion to another, or with several illusions through the time of one's life. To the man caught in the business of day to day existence, the change following a disillusionment and the decision he makes brings the satisfaction of a return to reality. Another disillusionment is needed for him to realize that it was also an illusion that hung above his head like the hood of a serpent. It can happen any moment! Hemavathi, Rajanna and Achary are characters walking that razor edge. Dixit, who becomes an escapist satisfied under the illusion of a victory over nature's pains by means of his scholarship; Puranik, who has suffered long in his worldly struggles, but is delighted to forget all his pain at learning the truth told by Pathajji and dies peacefully in a state of illusion; Hemavathi who grows up as an innocent creature living a secluded, protected existence full of her own life and her own song; Shastri, who acts through life as an adventurist, with his evil wit casting a spell over men and women for his own ends, but ends up in a lunatic asylum; Achary, who imagines himself as a social underdog, ever suspicious of the character and integrity of Hemavathi whom he has married by sheer luck, even as he is overawed by her heavenly beauty; Rajanna, drifting from a world full of Hema towards that of Pratima, remains basically theoretical to the end like his mentor Dixit; and the Doctor and his wife who live in the belief that good words and good behaviour make us good in life—are all on their life's journeys under the shadow of illusions.