The ‘needle’ of painful experiences

We have no shortage of autobiographies of successful people. Some have the name of a ‘ghost writer’ on them, some do not. Some of these people are famous, some are not. Most of these books have a sense of accomplishment, are filled with struggles, successes, sweet family memories and colorful photographs. On the surface, it seems like one of those books, but in reality it is a very different experience, which is the autobiography ‘Silver Needle’. This authentic citation of Sanjay Hiraskar’s experience as a memoir has been written by Sumedh Vadawala.

Sanjay, who eventually took up his father’s tailoring business due to lack of progress in his studies, had the urge to break free from ‘tailoring’ and do something from his youth. After trying various businesses, he finally made a name for himself as a businessman. This autobiography tells this journey; but the specialty of this autobiography lies in two other aspects.

One of them is the disgusting experiences of corruption in government offices. Hiraskar has written about those things in great detail. How these snakes of corruption, lurking at every step, sting the person in front of them, making it difficult for them to do business.

The illustrations in this book of how Urmi kills and how fragile her skin is are enough to make any sensitive person uncomfortable. Corruption in the government system and the police system is nothing new, in fact, we are well aware that it is everywhere. But the way Hiraskar has presented this truth makes it even more embarrassing. There is a kind of prejudice in society about the person ‘construction professional’, but even he sometimes has a ‘beginning’ and then he is not capable of ‘giving and receiving’, which is something that even a common man does not think about, but the descriptions in this book of how the government system is ready to break his resilience, the people and their tendencies are literally embarrassing. Moreover, whenever he meets a person who contradicts this, Hiraskar also mentions them.

After this ‘familiar’ trend, the second most shocking and unusual thing is that Hiraskar’s mother

Father’s profiles and experiences regarding their behavior. Usually, parents play a supportive, helpful, and supportive role in such conflicts. Hiraskar’s parents were an exception to this and they have expressed it in clear and explicit words without hiding it.

Many families may feel that their son will not be able to do anything in life and continue to disappoint their expectations; but when reading about the mother who acts as if she is hostile towards her son and daughter-in-law, the father who has become dependent on that mother, and their behavior and attitude, it rarely seems exaggerated and even false. But when you realize that this is a real autobiography, you have to accept it. The implication in TV serials that women are the enemy of women often seems flamboyant and fake. However, after reading the book ‘Silver Needle’, our serials start to seem realistic. The distinction between ‘son and daughter’ is still made in some families, but the incidents given in this shatter the image of the institution of ‘mother’ as the ‘form of love’, the ‘indhu of affection’. The author

Yet, it is also noticeable that he must have said all this with patience.

Because of this background to Hiraskar’s struggle, when his success story begins in this autobiography, our eyes also water and we realize the value of that success. This autobiography, which would otherwise have seemed like the journey of any successful businessman, is striking because of this. Sumedh Vadawala has presented the author’s feelings and experiences in very effective words, but still the language of this statement has become a little too elegant in some places, which seems a bit out of place with the overall personality of the protagonist. He has tried to provide a basis for this style by mentioning Hiraskar’s obsession with reading, but still this elegance is a little jarring. However, this flaw is negligible. The experience that comes from reading the book is more important than that.

Silver Needle

Author: Sanjay Hiraskar, Text: Sumedh Vadawala (Risbud), Publication: Manovikas

Publication, Pages: 232, Price Rs. 320