Book Review: A Comma In A Sentence by R. Gopalakrishnan

The author, R. Gopalakrishnan through this book has portrayed  the country wherein few families maintain genealogical records. The book, A Comma In A Sentence is a non-fictional sequence of events of the life and times of six generations of a family, summoning from a commonplace South Indian village, which will inspire interest in the readers.

The author opens up this book with a setup of social, economic and political evolution of Indian society over the past two centuries. The author provides his point of view over the societal changes that many of present day’s urban families are indulged in and relies upon various anecdotes to give a boost to the story. The book offers the readers the values which states the principles of families, where each succeeding generation adapts changes without losing their fundamental humanism, which further results into prosperity.

 The opening pages of the book will take you to the year 1824, the year Gopalakrishnan’s great-great grandfather Ranganathan was born in Vilakkudi in the Tanjore district of Tamil Nadu. The author envisages young Ooshi closely observing the socio-political changes like the intensifying colonialization and entry of modern transportation, newspapers, and politics. It is only when Gopalakrishnan’s father, Rajam, enters that the story becomes a multi-generational tale. Rajam, born in 1912, is a fighter, who overcomes a mild polio affliction and his father’s defensive intuition, to drift from his agrarian, ritual-bound village to distant and metropolitan Calcutta. Rajam starts out as a stenographer, goes on to become an accountant, before landing senior roles in corporate firms. His son Gopalakrishnan graduates from IIT Kharagpur, and progressively ascends the corporate ladder to become a top honcho at Hindustan Lever and Tata Sons. The story concludes with a brief retelling of the sixth generation, learned abroad and placed well for assuming top leadership roles at a much younger age than Rajam or Gopalakrishnan.

At the time of writing this memoir, which is very personal to the author, he has put it across in a very elegant and occasionally witty style which is indeed unable to stop reading and getting intimate with the characters of the novel and further which helps in seamlessly carrying the story forward along with effectively revealing character.

A Comma in a sentence is a breezy read keeping value such as the importance of inter-generational conversations, of educated and open-minded attitudes, of probity and looking for contentment from within. Gopalakrishnan’s story of each generation consistently acting as an enabler to the next one, reiterates the odd jobs and errands that individuals owe to themselves, their families and the larger society. The story has been narrated in an alternative narrative style with deeper research and intimate portrayal of characters.

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