Nemichandra's YAD VASHEM (A Review)

Yad Vashem - A Novel in Kannada

By Nemichandra

- Muraleedhara Upadhya Hiriadka

(Translated by K.S. Somayaji)

Nemichandra is famous for her adventurous travelogues. “Ondu Kanasina Payana” (A Dream Journey) and “Peruvina Pavitra Kaniveyalli” (In the Sacred Valley of Peru) are her travelogues. “Nemichandrara Kathegalu” is the collection of the short stories she has penned so far.

“Yad Vashem” is the new name Nemichandra has given to the revised version of her novel which had earlier been serialized in a Kannada Weekly in the name “Nooru Savira Nenapugalu” (One hundred thousand memories). She had visited museums in Israel, Germany, America, and Netherlands for a preparatory study for her novel. “Twenty years ago the cemeteries of the Jews at Goripalya (in Bangaloe) had given birth to a story inside me. This was a story of a Jew girl who was forced to move from the land of Hitler to the land of Gandhi. Pursuing the story, I kept track of the Jews – to see for myself the history which witnessed the annihilate ion of 60 lakh Jews. Then Germany was in flames and the world was a mute spectator. Hitler can be born anywhere today – in America, in Germany, in Israel, even in India which professed non-violence. He can be born anywhere amidst us. This novel is brought out in the background of a belief that it is our responsibility to prevent the birth of a Hitler within us.”

 Yad Vashem is a monument in Jerusalem to the memory of the Jews who were the victims the Nazi holocaust. Rebecca and Hanna – the two sisters who survived the Nazi holocaust are the protagonists of the novel. Bangalore, Washington, Frankfurt in Germany, Berlin, Dachau, Tel Aviv in Israel and Jerusalem are the centres where the action of the story unfolds. The novel develops in the narrative technology of the first person singular in flashback mode.

Moses, a Jew scientist, was living in Berlin with his wife (Helena) and the children – two daughters (Rebecca, Hanna), a son (Isaac). In 1938, when the Nazis start ‘ethnic cleansing’ (forced removal of a particular ethnic group like getting rid of dirt) Moses flees German family to arrive in Netherlands. In 1940, following the invasion of Netherlands by the Nazi army, the wife of Moses, the elder daughter and the son become captives and are thrown into the labour camp at Dachau. Left behind, Moses bolts to Bangalore with the younger daughter Hanna and joins the Indian Institute of Science there. He dies of heart attack in 1945 and Hanna becomes an orphan. The depiction of the childhood and adolescent days of Hanna in the novel is touching.

Hanna becomes Anita without the religious conversion. She is now the daughter-in-law of the neighbouring household in Bangalore where she was given shelter and grew up.

The novel takes a new turn when Anita with her husband Vivek sets out for Germany and Israel in search of her missing mother, elder sister and the younger brother. Anita succeeds in finding her sister Rebecca in Tel Aviva. Rebecca digs out her bitter memories to recount the terrifying and sickening horror stories of the Nazi holocaust. The novel ends with Sabeeha, who had been rendered an orphan following the communal riots in Gujarat, becoming the foster daughter of the couple Vivek and Anita.

It may be said that Kuvempu’s concept of “Aniketana” (the ideal homeless-ness) has taken definite shape in the character portrayal of Anita who not only despises the pogrom committed by Nazis in the past, but also is disgusted at the prevailing senseless violence resulting in mass murders, resorted to by the Israel government. This novel which sheds light on the ancient Egyptian history reminds us of another Kannada novel “Mrityunjaya” by Niranjana.

  

In these days when the mass hysteria of religious intolerance plagues our society, Yad Vashem induces us to introspect. That “literature drives off everything inauspicious” is a dream linked to social responsibility. This dream is artistically depicted in the novel like ‘Menorah’ (a candelabrum with seven branches used in Jewish worship and regarded as a symbol of Judaism) of the Jews. It appears as if Anita of Yad Vashem is getting ready to encounter Lakshmi of S.L. Bhairappa’s novel “Avarana”. In this encounter Nemichandra’s unbiased love for life and her intellectual maturity dazzles. The desire implicit in Allama’s vachana “Kendada maleya karevalli udakavagirabeku” (One needs to be water where it is raining glowing embers) is reflected in Yad Vashem.

Yad Vashem is a novel every thinking youth of the new generation must read. It needs to be translated not only into all Indian languages, but also into English and Hebrew. A challenging script for cinema directors is inherent in this novel. The success achieved by Nemichandra for her maiden novel is commendable.

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Yad Vashem by Nemichanda – Anita Book House (2007)