Govind Lahari revolves around the life of the protagonist Govind Rao-an academic scholar and his love life. The story begins with Govind in his older years as a widower. A brief account of his ancestral past and his own past is given and there is a sudden shift towards his present where the other main protagonist Gowri enters. When the novel begins, Gowri is seen as struggling with an unconsummated marriage and perennial loneliness. Govind is one of the few visitors to her home, headed by Chandramouli, her father-in-law. She falls in love with Govind and asks him out openly for a boon-the nectar of motherhood. Govind is initially flabbergasted at such a controversial request and reasons with Gowri that it is impossible to accede to her request. Gowri wins him over, not by eliciting his pity or by seducing him, but through logical reasoning. Therefore, at the onset itself, the reader sees a different portrayal of a female character set apart from a stereotypical representation of a woman.
What happens after the boon is granted, whether Govind and Gowri manage to get married with the consent of Govind’s children, his father figure-Subba Rao and Gowri’s husband Satyam, and the impact of their decisions on other relationships and on themselves makes up the rest of the story.
What is common to almost all the characters in this book is a troubled past, their struggle to put their past behind, and make a new beginning. Govind has to deal with his past which had a failed love only to be followed by a bad marriage. Gowri has a traumatized childhood thanks to her stepmother and a failing marriage to overcome. Even the dubious but misunderstood Satyam has a past that justifies his frequent absence and sexual abstinence in his present marriage. All the main characters have a tragic romance as a part of their past, except for Prakash, Suha, and Cathy who have to move on from a difficult childhood. Subba Rao’s romantic past comes as a complete surprise, while his ancestral past becomes an important part in the latter part of the novel. In fact, an instance of meta fiction is seen there as a novel is authored and published within the main novel. The story inside the main story is used to depict Subba Rao’s ancestral past, though he is unwilling to own and publicize the facts and events related to his ancestry and publishes his book under a pen name. Yet again, one sees a character’s struggle to accept his past-ancestral or romantic and failure to move on. I would say this considering the fact that he did not let go of his romantic past and search for a better person to live with. Instead he chooses celibacy for the rest of his life. Publishing his autobiography as a fictional work under a pen name can be seen as a reluctance to own up his past and identity.
What ultimately makes you turn the page over is Gowri’s immense characterization. In spite of being a forced drop-out she is a good learner and a reader. The way she interprets and reacts to every new situation in her life and her good reasoning behind her actions is a strong point in this novel. Though Govind starts out as the central character, Gowri emerges stronger as the story grows and leaves a lasting impact on the reader. Though it is only natural to mistake Gowri’s intentions in the first episode, it seems to be the right course of action she takes and her positive influence over Govind, his children, and even Catherine overshadows the initial impression one has over Gowri.
The other strong point in this novel is its Indianess and its influence over every character-be it the parenting style, behavioural etiquettes, or the rich Indian heritage discussed in the form of old literary texts or classical music, and the ultimate decision of the US NRI Praksah and US citizen Catherine to stay back in India. Though the Indianisms lend a regional flavour to the happenings at Duvale, the transliterated Telugu or Tamil dialogues tends to slow down the pace of the novel and one tends to just look at the English translations explained in the parentheses and move on with the story. While using words such as the title of respect-Garu or describing the south Indian dishes can be seen as positive and curt instances of Indianess, long winding transliterations are a bit trying for even a Tamil or Telugu reader. Regardless of the authorial intentions, majority of the readers read a piece of fiction to see what happens rather than what is described.
Lastly, the novel’s main theme is search and mainly searching for the right person to live the life with. People do often make wrong choices and the repercussion of a wrong choice is inevitable. Yet the choices lies within each person to either hold on to his or her wronged past and mess up with the present or o derive a learning from the past and letting go of the past only to move forward with the search for the right choice. In that way, the novel leaves a positive impact through Gowri and Govind’s decisions and actions at each stage in their life.
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