Mendicant

P.V. Ajayakumar

Genre: Novel; Pages 424; Paperback: Rs 599, ISBN no. 978-93-81205-54-9

Mendicant is the debut Novel of P.V. Ajayakumar, in which he portrays the miserable life of a forlorn youth ,Manjunatha ,who was assailed by misfortunes ; and how he gradually became a venerable sage.

By the time he had reached a remote village after his endless journey,he had to wander around helplessly.However,later he could discover , in his disguise , he had become a new obsession among the villagers,as if in congruous with what the village priest had prophesied truly.He so many poor villagers and their huts that were cramped little hovels.And he took himself sheltered somewhere in the mountains.

His mendicancy then begins,in his supreme anguish and abandonment.Yet , he could sense that nature herself had caste prone on the earth,and her great heart throbbed audibly,shaking the world with its beats

It was felt when everything was shining and breaking up,when through the heavy steam of the melting snow thowing on the ravines .And when a breeze stirred a patch of pale-blue sky which peeped dimly out through the mist ;with a ray of golden yellow sunshine broke out suddenly.And when it flew in a long stream on the copse and fields

Manjunatha meditaded and gradually he saw everywhere a presage of a glorious day to come!

By and by ,he himself was lost in wonder and admiration at the change in himself,and his double personality!

And he couldn’t help thinking whether mendicancy was his goal,that in those wild and solitary retreat a tremendous awakening was about to befall on him!

But it was what that had happened later splendidly!

Then by virtue of bestowal of the boon by nature , he desceneded down the mountains , entered in to the valleys,looking down at the people who seemed significantly small and wretched in their hustle and bustle.And he changed them considerably for a better cause , as if the God had made him omnipotent.

Later , when he had embarked on his journey , he was acknowleged by the people all over the world with a flourish of worship.And there was nothing around to distract him;as if there were neither sun,wind nor sound could distract him.Then his whole life was unrolled easily and rapidly before the people like a scroll !

It was sheer awakening! And the people saw a different light that was so close ;the light that came close to save the sparks of life!

Before the people , only one single image stood out more and more distinctly,with a benign smile appeared on his lips.A man in full possession of all his past,all his feelings,his powers and all his soul.The Mendicant with his boundless love and dedication who came to serve them with all his precise calculation and wisdom!