 Book cover | |
| Author | Monideepa Sahu |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Pooja Pottenkulam |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy novel, Children's novel |
| Publisher | Zubaan |
Publication date | 2010 |
| Publication place | India |
Published in English | 9 October 2010 |
| Media type | Print Paperback |
| Pages | 164 |
| ISBN | 978-8189884802 |
Riddle of the Seventh Stone is a 2010 novel by Monideepa Sahu. This fantasy novel for children is set in Bangalore, India. The book was longlisted for the Vodafone Crossword Book Award for 2011. [1] [2]
Set in a herb shop on a bustling road in Bangalore, this book is about a spider and rat magically turning into human children. As children with help from their vermin friends the duo gang up with the grandchildren of the herb shop owner to save it from a land shark. In the course of their adventures they come across an ancient riddle, solving which leads them to the treasure of Kempegowda, an ancient king who founded Bangalore. The vermin's transformation to humans in nature and thinking, and their improving in the face of adversity is an underlying theme of the book.
Many places described in the book are in the old parts of Bangalore [3] dating back to the times of the city's founding. The City Market, Avenue Road, Bangalore Fort and Kote Venkataramana Temple are real places.
Monideepa Sahu got the idea of writing this book after meeting the owner of a shop selling rare herbs while doing research for an article for the newspaper Deccan Herald . A big spider weaving a web in a corner of the shop and a rat scurrying about the shop were the inspiration behind the main characters of the book, Rishab and Shashee. [4] In the course of the author's conversations with long-term residents of Old Bangalore, she learnt about local life, and discovered old temples, churches and mosques. Hearing tales of local life, temple chariot festivals, the early morning flower market etc., related by people from diverse communities, inspired the characters and plot of her book. [5] Although the book was written in 2003 it was rejected by a number of publishers for failing to follow established stereotypes, before being selected by Zubaan in 2008 as an anonymous pitch in the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. [6] The book was formally launched in Bangalore on 9 October 2010. [7]
A review in The Hindu noted the unusual storyline and praised the book for a realistic portrayal of children and language. [8] The reviewer praised Rishab as an adorable character and appreciated the book's humorous touches but found the decoding of the riddle weak. [8] The Deccan Herald appreciated the fact that this novel as a fantasy set in India unlike most children's books. [9] They noted the mix of adventure, fantasy, insects, vermin and a little bit of love made the novel fast-paced. [9] The Bangalore Mirror found the description of Bangalore's underworld populated with rodents and roaches and not crooks, as a world full of fantasy and adventure in the labyrinths of drains and nooks of the old Bangalore. [10]
Ranjana Kaul in the Book Review noted the "unlikely protagonists drawn from the world of vermin and insects, a world which humans generally tend to ignore or treat with disgust and repulsion. The book straddles these two antithetical yet interdependent worlds with ease through its unlikely heroes, the rat Rishabh and the bossy spider Shashee (spelt with a double 'e' for astrological reasons!) who find themselves catapulted unwillingly into the world of humans." [11]
It has been noted, apart from nuggets of history of Bangalore, the novel also deals with ecological concerns, coexistence and the discovery of self-reliance. However, the author has denied having put in a moral in the book. [3]
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Sindhu Rajasekaran is an author, academic and filmmaker. Her debut novel Kaleidoscopic Reflections was longlisted for the Crossword Book Award in 2011, while her latest book of non-fiction is the best-selling Smashing the Patriarchy – A Guide for the 21st Century Indian Woman. Sindhu's prose and poetry have appeared in internationally acclaimed literary magazines. She has also published a collection of short stories titled So I Let It Be; it released in 2019.
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Fraser Town, Bengaluru or Mootocherry, is a locality of Bangalore Cantonment, located in the central part of the city spread over 4 km2. It was established in 1906 and is named after Stuart Mitford Fraser (1864–1963), who was the tutor and guardian of Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV, Maharaja of Mysore. Fraser Town was established to de-congest the growing Bangalore Civil and Military Station. The foundation of Fraser Town was laid in August 1910 by Mrs. F J Richards, with a commemorative plaque on the corner of Coles Road and Mosque Road.
Cox Town, Bengaluru is a neighborhood of the Bangalore Cantonment, located in the central part of the city and named after the last Collector and District Magistrate of the Bangalore Civil and Military Station, Alexander Ranken Cox, Indian Civil Services. It is one of the suburbs which came out of the plan to de-congest thickly populated areas of the Bangalore Cantonment after the bubonic plague. Agricultural fields were converted for this purpose, and town was planned according to modern hygienic standards, with drainage and conservancy conveniences. Sarvagnanagara is bound by the Bangalore-Madras Railway line on the North and East, Wheeler Road in the East and the Ulsoor Polo Ground in the South. It consists of posh localities like Heerachand Layout and other localities like Sindhi Colony, Jeevanahalli, Doddigunta, and roads such as Assaye Road, Charles Campbell Road, Wheeler Road, etc. and is adjoining the suburbs of Pulakeshi Nagara, Sri Krishnaraja Wadiyar Nagara and Cooke Town, with easy access to the Bengaluru East Railway Station, Halasuru, Lingarajapura, Shivajinagara. Sarvagnanagara is a well planned, posh and preferred locality in the Bangalore Cantonment, created during the British Raj. The residents of Sarvagnanagara follow a liberal 'live a let live' attitude, with suburb still retaining much of its green cover, without excessive commercialisation. In 1988, the BBMP renamed Cox Town as Sarvagnanagara, after a 16th-century saint poet.
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