BUDDHA

All those who know Bob, also know her obsession with Japan and all things Japanese! Once she starts talking about manga and anime, she will not stop until you threaten to cut the call or start singing the Jungle Book title song in Hindi *sly grin*

Two years back, on my birthday she gifted me the Buddha (Manga) Box Set by Osamu Tezuka. I remember muttering ‘touché’ under my breath when I opened the gift wrap. Skip started jumping up and down saying “cartoon books for me”. I gave him the bubble wrap and that had him placated.

Mangas are comics created in Japan and unlike the American comics, these books tell a story in its entirety over a series of chapters which are then divided into volumes. Comics on the other hand live on for over a 100 years and more. Mangas are mostly in black and white, merely because these are hand drawn and the mangakas do not rely on technology but “human assistants”. Also Mangas let their art do the talking and hence you find very few dialogues in some chapters. This series too is printed in black and white but unlike traditional mangas, this translated version doesn’t have the script from right to left. These are the primary differences. But as Bob tells me, Japanese culture is very accepting of people and hence has no censorship when it comes to Mangas. In most countries certain books are not sold to children because of censorship or because it has mature content.The Japanese that way are sly – Mangas meant for kids between ages 3 to 12 are written in Hiragana and Katakana but Mangas that have mature content are written in Kanji. (Chinese characters which can often be confusing if one hasn’t learnt them. Hence if you want your hands on something adult you need to get your education.)

I picked up the set of books and placed them in my bookshelf where they sat looking pretty and colourful for quite some time until Bob kept enquiring whether I’d started reading them. (In my defence, ever since I’d gotten the Kindle, I very rarely resorted to reading paperbacks).

We are all mostly familiar with Buddha’s story or at least his travails. The only other book that I’d read on Buddha was Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha and I still fail to understand what made it so popular with people spewing out quotes aplenty (more than the wisdom doled out on WhatsApp) in their review of this book. 

I love reading comics and it had been quite some time since I’d read one so I finally picked this up (it was also my first Manga). Buddha comes in Eight volumes, covering the life of Buddha right from the start, at his birth as Prince Siddhartha, weak of mind and body, him running away from home conflicted with the questionable practices of caste system and untouchability, his spiritual journey fraught with sufferings-self imposed and otherwise, his interaction with the other characters and then finally him attaining enlightenment.

Having said that let me make it clear that this series is not just about Buddha. In fact, he doesn’t even make his appearance until almost the end of the First Volume. The series is a complex web of stories, each story having its own protagonist, treading through his or her own life, unaware of what the future holds. As you keep progressing into the next volume, you find that these stories and characters are interlinked with each other, with Buddha being the glue that holds the fine threads of their lives together. Each character is held responsible for the deeds committed by them in the past and in the final act, the characters yearn to meet Buddha for varying reasons. The entire series is a summation of Buddha’s teaching that the whole world is interconnected and that all actions, good or bad, shall have consequences.

Having read the above, you would assume that the books are preachy, with sombre dialogues being exchanged between the characters. Well, please stop assuming that. Here’s why I loved the series:

v The book is filled with eccentric writing. One moment you are reading about the cycle of life and death and then suddenly you have a dopey face pop up comparing Buddha with E.T. and then just as suddenly, you have a few characters dying. (Thankfully, GoT has made me insensitive to character deaths in books) (Okay, not entirely insensitive)

v The series has strong messages of Buddhist philosophy and teachings conveyed in a light-hearted manner.

v The characters are well-etched and some, even lovable (As(s)aji- a young boy who tags along with Buddha in the Third Volume, who has the ability to prophesy)

v The landscapes are so beautifully drawn; I would spend a few seconds just admiring them.

If all of that hasn’t got your attention, this should - there’s nudity in the book.

I would definitely recommend this series and would advise you to read it at a stretch if you want to avoid returning to the previous volumes repeatedly to figure out who is who.