The Anonymous Birthright

About the Book

A Hindu soldier in the army of Tippu Sultan loses his young wife in childbirth at a time when he was to report back to fight in a war that the English army was readying for. In order to save for his child's future, he burries his wealth, but is killed soon after. The grandparents, unable to lookafter the very sick infant, abandons her at the doors of a Catholic Convent, where she is brought up. Her grandson, four generations later, trying to lift the family from dire poverty, finds that society and the world at large is merciless and unforgiving. Only unnerving stoutheartedness, and an unusual twist in destiny is all he can fall back on….

About the Author

The Author has been in the Coffee Planting industry as a Coffee Grower himself, as were his father and grandfather before him, the grandfather choosing the industry as an occupation, in 1910. The older generation who had experienced life in the Malnad and Coastal Mangalore and South Canara areas of South India, would remember the living conditions, the traditions and the customs narrated in this book. The author also wishes to state that he wanted to highlight the ignominious manner in which the low-caste tribes and peoples lived and were treated. They were dispossessed, cursed, ill-treated, and looked down upon, and forced to endure untold miseries and suffering, as though they were some leprous animal ‘untouchables’, the irony being that they themselves accepted their status. This was their plight from the beginning of the time that the Aryans invaded India from the North West, and created the caste system, till after India gained Independence, when efforts were made to better their lot. These tenets being so ingrained in the people and those efforts notwithstanding, there are pockets in India even today where untouchability is still practiced. Care has also been taken to phonetically project the local words and phrases as closely as possible to the actual words. It has been the Author’s intention to deliberately portray the day to day existence of the people of the time and their eating habits, especially of the staple food, kungee. It must be remembered that their needs were few and wants even fewer, as almost all households grew their own rice and vegetables, and the surplus obtained was bartered for other goods. There was very little cash money circulating, and most of it was in the hands of an elite few families.