Book Review | Yamraj Number 5003

Review | Aniruddha Jena 

A complex tale of power-game laced with humour

YAMRAJ NUMBER 5003 (Novel)

Original Odia:  Mrinal Chatterjee

English Translation: Nadeem Khan

Publisher: Rupa. Pages:127. Price: Rs 195/-

This work of fiction is truly a piece worth reading for the sole reason that, it will let an individual relate to the contemporary world of happening with the story. On the face of it one might think and say that it’s fun and humour reading but at the same, the way the story has been presented by taking mythological anecdotes and the current happenings will give a reader fully justified reason to read this work of fiction.

The author initially deals majorly with who actually Yamraj is and in what forms he is living and functioning his day to day obligations etc. The first chapter of this humorous piece is dealing with some of the mythological anecdotes and many other instances through which the author is trying to establish and understand the contemporary happenings of the world. Initially, the authors try to uncover the whole story behind the distinctive name ‘Yamraj 5003’ and what is the untold story of Yamraj with a numeric number. While unpacking the story, the author talks about many similarities between what happens in our earth and in heaven. To posit his claims the author brings many of the mythological anecdotes and its relevance to the floor in order to make the reader understand the wrapped story. And while doing that the author mostly talks about cloning and how Yamraj is also being cloned in order to meet the demands of workload. Towards the end, the author brings a certain character who has played a key role in justifying and establishing the main focus of this book, who is named by ‘Yamraj 5003’.

Here is one such character named Sumati, who is presented in the second chapter with a taste genuinity of the happenings in her life. And one can find it so relatable to the realities in the contemporary world. The whole chapter is dealing with the aspirations of a young girl from a not so well to do family on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, a village called Bharatpur. And the girl, who is aspiring to be an actor of reputation and respect. But as the story goes on, the dream of Sumati is getting crashed out because of the nasty habits of his father and brother. A lot of tragic incidents are happening in her life and that is compelling her to take the ultimate decision of committing suicide. The story of Sumati and her aspiration is not so unusual in the recent times. At a time, when the world is going crazy about money and so are the people. This chapter is a perfect presentation of what catastrophic change money can bring to a family and the lives of the individuals of that family.

The third chapter is revolving around one more important character whose name is Subrat, who is happening to be a medical representative and a lifetime lover of Sumati, who is about to commit suicide. This chapter is also talking about a young boy’s life, who is aspiring to do something and how his family compulsions are standing in front of him as bottlenecks. So finally from the dream of being a renowned doctor, Subrat is settling him with the job as a medical representative. And the best part of this chapter is about the coincidence when Subrata is waiting at the level crossing for the train to pass and suddenly he could see Sumati in front of her eyes, who is about to commit suicide and Subrat could able to save her from doing sin of committing suicide.

Then in the next chapter, Sumati after getting her consciousness in the hospital, she got shell-shocked after seeing Subrat in front of her eyes and also by knowing the fact that it was Subrat who saved her from death. The ultimate thing happens then after, when she realised the real love of Subrat for her and she confronted each and every happening in her life in last few years to Subrat semi-consciously, then she falls unconscious again.

The fifth chapter is about the problem Yamraj 5003 is facing after Sumati being saved by her lifetime lover Subrata. Since Yamraj 5003 is a bit different in his approach due to the installation of poetic cells in his brain at the time of his creation, he is finding it hard to take away the soul of Sumati to his territory. Basically, he has become emotional after seeing the love of Subrat towards Sumati. In the other hand, the two Yamdoots named by Babul and Habul are eagerly waiting for Yamraj 5003 to come with the soul of Sumati so that they can speedily wrap up the stuff and return to their territory Yamlok, where Urbashi is scheduled to present an item number.

The next chapter is dealing with the conversation held between Yamraj 5003 and Subrata. And the conversation is about taking Sumati’s soul, while Yamraj is trying to complete his duty by taking away Sumati’s soul but Subrata is not letting him to complete his task. Subrata is trying with every bit of his logic and emotion to stop Yamraj 5003 from taking his lover’s soul. He is trying to justify the importance of Sumati’s life in his life and why Sumati should be given one more opportunity to live. Since Yamraj 5003 is a bit different due to the cloning, he melted down and for the first time after Sabitri and Satyaban incident in mythology, this Subrata and Sumati case is perhaps the only second case where Yamraj is returning someone’s life to live.

What follows in the next chapter is very interesting. And it is about one more fascinating character at the Yamlok, who is none other than Chitragupta. He is also a son of Brahma and one of the most respected and learned individuals in the whole triloka. In this context, this chapter is about the kind of work he usually does in the day to day professional life of him. But this time he is facing an unexpected rather unusual problem because of Yamraj’s decision of giving a new life to Sumati. Because by giving Sumati a new life, Yamraj has violated the norms of Yamloka and Chitragupta is severely tensed and unhappy with that decision of Yamraj. And that resulted in a bitter and heated conversation between Yamraj 5003 and Chitragupta. And the chapter ends with the anger of Chitragupta that he is very determined not to work any further at Yamloka unless and until this issue is being resolved.

This is more interesting a chapter which is dealing with the happenings post the bitter incident took place between Yamraj 5003 and Chitragupta. When Narad came to know about the incident he informed to the world and the holy trinity decided to organise a meeting and to take a collective decision on the matter. As the meeting began, both Chitragupta and Yamraj 5003 were given fair chance to put their point. And specifically, Yamraj 5003 was asked finally that whether he is feeling guilty of what he has done back in the earth. But Yamraj 5003 was very confident in his reply that he is not at all ashamed of what he has done back on earth rather he is happy that he followed his heart. So after hearing that from the Yamraj 5003, the holy trinity ended the meeting and went for a closed-door meeting within three of them only and decided to burn Yamraj 5003 out forever, so that there won’t be any such situation in future.

In the concluding chapter, the author is presenting the only realities of one’s life, which makes a huge difference even after one’s demise. Talking about Subrata and Sumati, both them lived together happily ever after that incident and all thanks and credits goes to the hero of this story Yamraj 5003 and his creation, which made him bit different, which allowed him to grant a new life to Sumati. The story ends with the burning out of the lead of the story Yamraj 5003 and he became history with a strong message that true love, compassion, kindness and respect will always be there for eternity and above all mundane responsibilities and duties.

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Anirudha Jena is a PhD Student at University of Hyderabad.

stapanjena@gmail.com