Evol Story by Sharika Nair
Reviewed by Anusha Mysooru
Evol story (Out of Print 54, September 2024) is a clever narrative that takes readers on a journey through the reverse evolution of Prakash, who openly wears his heart on his sleeve. By the end of the first section, it’s clear there’s a girl and a boy – when their chemistry ignites, readers smell fire. The story unfolds in a reverse narrative style, alerting readers to play detective.
We follow Prakash, as he hides in the storeroom while his crush is pursuing an MBA. Through overheard conversations in the living room, readers witness that Prakash’s fate is largely his own. His fate is sealed – no chance for redemption. As we continue reading, we wonder if there was any trace of hope, for a different outcome.
As we travel to the past, readers meet Lekha and Suresh – and we bookmark them based on Prakash’s reactions to their visits, making a mental note to understand the emotional landscape of our protagonist. They offer clues, of his past and his impulses, anything at all to understand his current state – and in doing so, the writer gives us hope, even though we already know how it will end.
Just as Prakash is about to jump off a three-storey water tank, we face the pivotal event that we know can no longer be changed, filled with a foreboding sense of certainty. We are onlookers to Prakash’s frivolous love, driven by a sense of revenge and vanity. As the pain he may cause his family surfaces before he takes the plunge, we chuckle when Prakash craves biryani and ice cream, while he ultimately jumps to avoid embarrassment as the police arrive.
With no scope for redemption, we are transported to a ceremonial lunch, as seeds of mutiny are unknowingly sown in Prakash’s mind. While rice is mixed with sambar, proverbs about perseverance are served as the antidote to problems in love. Later, when Prakash faces rejection, we realize this too late, aching to shake him awake, to stop Prakash from making a mistake.
In the end, the writer sheds light on how it all began. A moment illuminated in purity and innocence, only to be tinged with an outcome that we are aware of. As the story concludes, we are no longer just readers but investigators, trying to trace when, how and why love transformed into something else.
By narrating this story in reverse, the writer leads you to question our instinct to apply the concept of cause and effect – common in life – to Prakash’s love story. Narrated in third person, the story nudges us after each section to examine the facts not to predict what happens next, but to question in earnest – why did it happen? Why did Prakash get to a state of stacking packs of Carefree sanitary napkins? By guiding us through this past-mortem, the writer doesn’t satiate our need for causality but instead fuels our spirit of inquiry.
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