"Those horrific 15 days" by Vilas Vare. Translated from Marathi to English by Prof. Vikram Apte- COVID days!
This book is published by Scion publications in 2025 and has 254 pages.
Deshmukh, co-editor of ‘The Janaswarajya’ is detected with Corona during second wave and is admitted to ‘Girija Mata Hospital’ for Covid patients. The hospital is run by an honest politician, Lankeshwar. Author spends 15 days in the hospital ward and meets other patients, people from various walks of life.
Who will he meet? How many will survive? Will the author survive? What happens in those horrific 15 days?
It’s an interesting collection of characters. Nilesh is true social worker. Selfless. Interested in service of downtrodden. Digambar is a Varkari. Dada Karnik, a Brahmin by profession who has a change of heart. Ahmed sells chai at vari going to Pandharpur. Tarachand is a teacher and a poet. Madhu is the idealist school teacher. Akshay is a Tamasha artist. There is an aboriginal graduate youth, who works on daily wages. Author Deshmukh, the journalist who fights for people and has left many jobs because he refused to compromise. Then, there are characters like Sadhana and Vidya, who author never meets. Also, there is Sister Jagdale, Ward boy Ithape, two doctors etc.
Author takes us through the story of each patient. His life, aspirations, emotions, sorrows and suffering. Author has collected a good set of characters from all strata of society and life. None of them is rich or well off. Each one has a life story to tell. The common thread binding them is their sorrow and suffering exacerbated by corona. It’s the central theme of this book.
One by one the patients leave either due to death or because they are cured, leaving author alone for one night. When the author is alone, there is a free flow of thoughts. Although they are free flowing thoughts of the character of the journalist, author should have written it in a more structured manner. Instead, it’s messy. It’s full of contradictions, oxymorons, jumps from one subject to another and irrationalism. In one paragraph he is extremely critical of government and in next he praises them. In one para he rants about not having enough vaccines, in the next he praises for the vaccine production. By the time you are aligned with authors way of thinking he has jumped to another line of thinking. Agreed that these are the thoughts of author and need not be orderly. But there should be some semblance of order for the readers to follow them. This last section is messy and unorganized. He is all over the place. Or may be it was by design.
It’s a good book. You keep reading.
Author Vilas Vare is known for writing books that address social issues and highlight the sorrows and suffering of the affected people. His books, however, are not dark or dystopian. They are realistic with a ray of hope. That is his USP! Author has done huge social work in his real life and real life experiences make his story telling authentic and honest.
Translator has remained true to his role. He has translated what was written rather than trying to improve it or tweak it.
Why did I read this book? Interesting and current topic.
What I didn't like? The last section.
What did I like? The characters.
Recommend reading.
Disclosure: The translator is my father.
