WILDCARD ENTRY

Flirting with the unknown and being defiant yet uncertain, is the hallmark of the young modern day rebel. Why else would anybody spurn a laid back life in the tranquil and beautiful hills to live in a dog eats dog world of the city? That is exactly how it was with Madhav. But though he was young and brash, Madhav was couldn’t really be called a rebel. It was self discovery that he was looking for. He felt that he needed exposure to the real world to understand life better and enrich it as best as he could; to spread the canvas of his life beyond farming and a dull life spent in mediocrity. So one day he found himself in the Capital city of India. In a completely alien environment he was forced to do menial jobs but braved adversity and stuck to his task. Only eighteen, the boy was bright and well built and sure to overcome all odds. He had been brought up to always think positive and never to lose his faith in god. His father was a pious man and both his parents had provided him with sanskaras that made him a principled person. Glimpses of this are evident from wise though brief thoughts and revelations about karma which are sprinkled right through the novel. After shuttling from place to place, Madhav finally pressed the right buttons – on the key board of a typewriter. He was hired as a typist with a reputable newspaper and due to his dedication to work was soon made a Reporter Trainee. At about this time, circumstances arose by which he had to get married. It was to an exceptionally intelligent and loving girl who also became his moral support. Soon after, Madhav lost his mother. The story really unfurls now. Delhi had just about entered the throes of transformation into part of a National Capital Region. The burgeoning population needed to be housed and acquisition of land was vital at any cost. Madhav was assigned work in his newspaper’s Property Supplement. Close contact was established between Madhav, land developers and land owner farmers. The latter, through sheer luck, were becoming multimillionaires by disposing of their lands. The novel reveals the angst and frustration of these neo rich who are not accepted and so brushed aside by elite society. It is also about those among them who, being less fortunate, are overpowered by jealousy. Madhav, who came from an orthodox background, found himself amidst unscrupulous and unprincipled people whose only criterion in life was to generate wealth. What was worse was that, given to vices, this wealth was being used by them in the most ostentatious of ways. Madhav, a strong believer in karma, used it as his guiding beacon light to dispel the darkness around him. His work had led him to befriend a charming young lady in his client’s office. Though he was struck by her charm and enjoyed her company he never let this new friendship come in the way of his married life. But Latika, as she was called, fell head over heels in love with him and Madhav found it hard to extricate himself from her. His wife tried to help but the plot became quite intricate with two suitors vying for Latika’s hand. But she cared only for Madhav and pleaded that he marry her. One of her suitors was her own boss and the other a childhood friend and neighbor. Latika egged Madhav on to earn a lot of money with the unspoken motive of living a decent life together. Madhav was only interested in doing his karma well and left the earning part to the Almighty. The story now centered around how, being already married, he coped with the situation, rose in his career, and fought the temptation of making easy money. He skillfully handled situations full of intrigue, one-upmanship and romance while staying as close to righteousness as possible. In the process he achieved unimaginable success without really aiming for it. His message to the less fortunate, and also his role in putting things in the right perspective for his neo-rich friends, won him the confidence of those in his social circle. Everything fell apart when Latika found out that, unknown to her, Madhav was already married. She tried her best to somehow salvage the situation but failed. Resigning herself to fate she agreed to marry her boss to become a very rich lady. She however could never really reconcile herself to marrying anyone other than Madhav and committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. Her other suitor turned out to be diabolic in nature and swore to kill her boss blaming him for Latika’s death. He ultimately did manage to do that but lost his own life in the process under tragic circumstances. When Latika’s Will was read out it came as a huge windfall for Madhav. We thus see him emerging as an out and out winner from practically nowhere. Wealth was thrust upon him without actually his qualifying for it, making him a wildcard entry winner.