Hope on the Horizon - A review

Hope on the Horizon - A Review by Shishir Rao

Every love story is fundamentally different from any other. `Hope on the Horizon' is just another love story, the love an individual harbors for his fellow humans. This book follows Dr. A. R. K Pillai through his lifetime and documents the events which led him to dedicate himself tothe welfare of those who lacked the privileges we take for granted. The genre of this piece of literature is purely subaltern, since it chronicles the life of a servant who served and to this day continues to serve society.

The author, Dr. Sudarshan by way of this book has shown us that the great struggles Charles Dickens and Mark Twain write about in their fictious accounts, can actually take place in real life. While following the skeletal framework of the classics, the book makes us peep intothe life of an ambitious young boy from an obscure village in Allepy district, called Mavelikara.The fact that the boy was poverty striken, rebellious and with a burning desire to achieve, makes him fit with tremendous fluidity into the familiar jigsaw.

The fairy tale does come true, the book is rich with pictures of the who’s who of film industry, sporting world, politics, religion and the like. What makes these pictures even more special, is that they were clicked not when our protagonist was gunning for glory, but when he had surrendered himself to stop the regress our society had come under the spell of.

Dr. Pillai as of this crucial moment in history; is an octogenarian and has been working for the people for more than four decades. Eventually culminating in the form of his brain child, Indian Leprosy Foundation (ILEF), later to be known as Indian Development Foundation (IDF). His dedication and passion have been instrumental in motivating a lot of people around him, thebook aims to do the same on a much broader scale. With a foreword by Dr. Swaminathan; thefather of the green revolution, the book awakens a sedate mind and pushes its reader to self discovery.

`Hope on the Horizon' - Life and Times of Dr.A.R.K. Pillai - 210 pages (HB) - Rs.400/= - proceeds goes to health, education and rural development projects of IDF. To place order contact idfhopeonthehorizon@gmail.com

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Shishir Rao, intern at IDF from Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune