Sivam

The plot is complex, and is tightly structured. Marriage is hard. Culling common place characters and everyday situations from sprawling Andhra Pradesh Murthy weaves the story spicing it with social awareness, penetrating insight, irony, wit, humour and mysticism. ‘Incantation, invoking and divination’ is the sub-plot, which is mind-blowing and fantastic. It has levels. At the highest it bridges the east and west, and breathes spirituality. Sivam comes in contact with Girija, Madhavi and Margaret at different stages. Girija is beauty, Madhavi, intellect and Margaret, matter. He marries Girija first, and deserts her. She understands the futility of beauty, and develops unfading beauty of the soul, and attains telepathy. Her invisible force acts on Sivam. He seeks Satyam, who saves him from a critical illness, and reunites him and Girija. The three stand for the trinity-- truth, holiness and beauty. In holiness, marriage is truthful. Blazing the path of happy marriage in simple and lucid prose, the novel scripts a complete man, purna purusha, who conquers the body and mind with the spirit. The Sivam, proverbial, spiritual and divine, proves that Murthy is a great novelist of all ages

Saraswata Siromani, D.V.S.R. Murthy is novelist, short story writer, biographer, critic, linguist, lexicographer, book-reviewer, researcher, radio talker, astrologer, mystic and so on. 25 books stand to his credit. He taught English language and literature to the students of the degree classes in Andhra Pradesh for more than three decades before he had settled down as an advocate. His literary career took off as a critic. 22 articles on literary, political and other subjects were published in almost all leading journals of India. He wrote 39 short stories till now. Four of them won cash awards in competitions. Murthy wrote the biographies of Mahatma Gandhi (1967) and Gopalakrisna Gokhale(1969). His popular work is English in 60 Days (1986) in Telugu and Hindi. Maugham's Novels: A Study (1991) is his research work for Ph.D. A Manual of History of English-Language and A Handbook of Literary Forms (1991) are in great demand by college students all over India. His Telugu English Dictionary(1991) is his magnum opus. His forte is creativity. He wrote four Telugu novels, and the first one, Mithyabimbaalu, stood eighth in more than 100 novels in a competition by Andhra Prabha Weekly and was serialized in 1979. Reviewing his second novel, Satyam Sivam Sundaram, in Andhra Prabha Weekly, D.R. said, 'I think that a novelist, who will climb high peaks, novelist is born.' (9-1-1980). He carved out a niche for him as a writer. The Glimpses of Life is his 14 short-story collection. Sivam andThe Love Letter are his English novels. A Stab, a collection of short stories, is ready for publication.