Across the Seven Seas
Saat Samundar Paar
by
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My Personal Chat With : Author Kamlesh Chauhan Prof. M.S.Verma Q. Ms Kamlesh what is it that convinces you that your book should be reviewed? Why should people be interested in reading your book? K. I have lived in this beautiful country for …40….years and have done my best to keenly observe the culture here. I have particularly noticed the clash of American and Indian culture. Most people in India aspire to migrate to America or to some other western country. The life here as portrayed in Hollywood films or what they have heard about it from NRI's who occasionally visit America and paint very rosy picture of their own life here is mostly misleading. Though human feelings round the globe are similar and akin to each others’, the cultures are miles apart. Any foreigner who comes to America finds another world here and it is almost an uphill task to get adjusted here and assimilated into the western culture. I have attempted to give an idea of the problems the Indians who come here face. This trend is not healthy either for them or for the American society and I have tried to discourage these Indian aspirants to stay back in India and make the most of their life there. Q. Kamlesh from what you have told me I gather that your main concern in the book has been on the predicament of the migrating Indians. How do you feel the American readers would benefit this book? K. I wonder if American public has any authentic picture of the NRI’s life as they live here. The younger generation comprising the children born in America has a different perspective of the Indian life and to them India and her culture appear as aliens. I would like to be forgiven for a question that I feel I should ask you as an American. Would you like an American to forget his country and severe roots from the American soil and the countries’ people? Of course the question of loyalty to the country is not involved in our discussion as Indians who have become naturalized citizens of the country are as much loyal as any Native American and are advancing the excellent image of America. There are NRI's who have key posts in many governmental and other organizations. Similarly no American would betray his country’s interests. But I am convinced people in both countries need authentic information so that international understanding and peace could be augmented. Q. Do you think your book would meet the expectations of the American readers? K. Yes . The tastes of reader everywhere differ. I feel thrillers and crime fiction has a large readership and novels on social themes don't have that large readership. But still a big section of the society seeks novels on social themes. Books like the mine would be welcome in libraries and teaching institutions if they are in English. But the NRI's would certainly benefit from the book as the nuances of English or American English are not fully comprehensible to most of them. But there are Native Americans too who know Hindi and would welcome the book. I would like to say that the book deals with a powerful social theme that is of universal interest. It has a web of human relations we find in our day to day life and has a universal appeal. The general public would find this book very interesting. The author has observed life from the perspective of a true Indian who shares the joys and sorrows of the people of Indian origin and would like her compatriots to avoid the pitfalls of western life. The style is so simple and yet it gives a very good picture of the suffering of the women who were victims of circumstances to go to America and were destined to suffer there. Theirs was a journey of no return. Besides certain aspects of literature and art have to be subjectively appreciated and can't exactly be described in words. America is a land where all the immigrants come and settle here. It will not only appeal to Indian living in america it will appeal to all americans since this is a translation of Hindi Novels of the Author Kamlesh Chauhan
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About the Book
The novel tells us very poignantly the story of Sundari, an educated, intelligent, sensitive lady who has imbibed Indian cultural values to the grass roots and struggles in vain to live them in her life. The story begins with the growing up of a girl into a woman; her craving for love that proves to be a mirage for her as the story moves on. A saying goes that ‘The drowning man catches at a straw’. It fully applies to Sundari for every firm catch of her turns out to be a straw and she consistently suffers. The initial blow came when she was married off to the uncle of her lover who had a heart of pure gold. The uncle on the other hand is all guilt through and through. Life of Sundari starts going down the hill as all her hopes and dreams are belied despite her best efforts to make her married life a success and life turns into a mockery. The tragedy becomes all the more painful when her lover Akash again makes an entry into her cursed life. She is forced to ride two horses which she can hardly manage, to function as an ideal housewife and an ardent lover. The author introduces a few moments of transitory but suspenseful relief during which too the reader trembles and is afraid of the next blow that Sundari is bound to receive and he starts sharing the miserable life of Sundari with numerous disastrous compromises in the same way as Sanjay shares the pain of Dhritrashra in the Mahabharta.
About the Author
Kamlesh Chauhan was born in India. She was a teenager when she married and became mother at her very young age. She was blessed with two beautiful angels. A boy named Ranjun Chauhan and a girl named Kiren who is often called by her Nick Name Minu Chauhan. Both are very lovely children. Kamlesh believes it does not matter how old your kids are and no matter how grown ups they are, kids will always be kids to parents. Today society is taking parental love away when we lose the bonds between parents and children by saying, "Grow Up." Kamlesh Chauhan Firmly Believes our kids need to know when teenager or adult children abandoned parents for outsiders they give permission to the world to use them, abuse them, manipulate them against their parents. Gap between parents and children grow wider which are harming the growth in later life. She strongly believes one should always keep their mother language alive. Our children should learn their inheritance language, culture and faith to modify their own personal life as Marcus Garvey said, "What is a tree without roots" Very much Americanized, Kamlesh became a citizen of America and takes an active interest in American politics. She firmly believes all Immigrants should be faithful to America since we chose this country as our adopted lands. At the same time, Kamlesh cares for her motherland and its issues. She firmly believes “NO NATION SHOULD BE DIVIDED IN THE NAME OF RACE AND RELIGION" There will be peace in the world only if we respect each other and don't force our own beliefs on those who chose to follow separate paths. The planet earth will be one happy place – only if we learn to live peacefully with each other. She is a natural born writer and she had been writing songs, short stories and poetry for her school and college. Kamlesh writing was encouraged by her father Pritam Dass Rajput who adored India and America both the countries. When she came to the United States, after her marriage to her Indian husband who was already settled in America, she start witting about the difference between the American culture and the Indian culture. It was very hard to adjust in America at that time. She was not happy to settle in America, but slowly and surely she started writing a diary as she travel in Europe and Canada. Across the Seven Seas Novel is the diary she has written day to day life of others and herself hurts, Pain, Joy and Cultural barriers.