The Best is Yet to Be

THE BEST IS YET TO BE

By

C.K.Mathew

The best is yet to be

Author:

C.K.Mathew

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

© C.K.Mathew 2006

Price : Rs. 150/-

All characters in this book have been created out of the imagination of the author. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Published by :

Dr. Geeta Mathew

I/15, Government Quarters,

Near dispensary,

Gandhinagar, Jaipur, Rajasthan 302 015

Printed by :

Rajasthan Rajya Sahakari Mudranalaya Ltd., Jaipur

Telephone : 91-141-2751352, 2751417

AUTHOR'S NOTE

It has been about three years since I brought out my first novel, The Mustard Flower. For me it was a labour of love, the fulfillment of a long cherished dream. Along with the other coordinates on my visiting card, I can now legitimately title myself as Author.

I have less than eight years to retire from active service in the Government. I sometimes wonder whether I would prefer to be remembered as a bureaucrat or as an author. There is no doubt that my official work has been the central driving force in my life. Today, I cannot believe that I have been at it now for almost three decades. It has kept me fully engaged, heart, soul and body, in the thousand and one things of governance, from the petty to the grand, from the ridiculous to the sublime. I would not have it any other way.

But the joy I have derived from the writing of my first book has been incomparable. It has done well, comparatively speaking. The 750 books printed and published have been sold out and I have made a tiny profit in the first of my literary ventures. As for the book itself, it did generate interest amongst colleagues as well as literary buffs here and there.

The story line of The Mustard Flower was unique, but perhaps not as much as the literary quality of my writing. There were poor patches scattered throughout the length and breadth of the book including small, easily avoidable, printer's devils. But, there were also, a few paragraphs, the reading of which makes me, even now, proud of myself. Friends were critical and the common point of their asperity was that all the characters in the book, including Sarasu, are good souls; in fact, too good to be true, with hearts of such pure gold. How could every character be of such sterling virtue, they asked me? It's not a real world your characters live in, Mathew!

This, the second of my books, is, therefore, and perhaps deliberately, more complex in story line and characterization. The main protagonist, Manjooran, has eccentricities that alienate him from his family. There is also a black-hearted evil genius that would preside over the early life of the other main character, Rekha. Several of those who people this book have oddities in personality that make them different from the pure gold protagonists of "The Mustard Flower." The other difference is that where there were three milieus in my first book - Kerala, Rajasthan and England - here in this oeuvre, though Brighton and Mumbai have their moments, there is mainly only one, my native State of Kerala. It is almost as if to accommodate the comparative complexities of its characters, the locale has been limited in this work. I guess this reflects my limitations too: the choice before me was, either simple characters and varying locales, or complex characters and one locale.