Decoded by Sheeba Sojanar is an engrossing novel that takes us through two different worlds via one character Vidhuna. The theme of the novel is to observe special things in our life through autistic (privileged) people.
The novel is a combination of futuristic and contemporary genres, it traverses two timelines. As the novel commences, we see a special child is born in the Trappists planet around 2167. There all things such as children, grooming, happiness, parenting, and so on are sorted. The need of active and verbal communication is not needed that much. The girl Vidhuna is special, as she belongs to some different era. Sensing the same, her father sends her on earth (before destruction) in 2016. She is equipped with a chip for communication with her people.
However, on earth her sojourn was different. She finds herself quite naïve and doesn’t understand the mechanism of this world. She is helped by Rose, a school teacher. She is made to stay in Home, a sort of orphanage. She attends school and then college.
As the novel progresses, we came across two families: Rose and Theo, and Manju and Ranjan. Vidhuna is common to both. There is discord in both families, level varying. Through these families Vidhuna grasps many basic questions and their answers of this world. In fact, she was here for some learning. And she gets it before her departure.
The novel takes its firm stance on evaluating why relationships go berserk, break, and people grow so selfish. In fact, in both families, the main reason was dishonesty. It is like a sin. It breaks the family bonding and allegiance. Ranjan and Theo both were unfaithful to their wives. While Rose accepted it silently, Manju was seeking justice and revenge and created brouhaha.
Vidhuna’s character was of like omnipresent, she was able to understand things that normal people failed to do so. She had higher powers than others but the world reckoned her as autistic. Yes, Vidhuna was autistic but it didn’t come as a curse in the story, as a matter of fact, she was portrayed powerful. She not only gets acquainted with Revanth but also helps him in healing socially and mentally. Revanth was the autistic child of Manju and Ranjan. Due to this, Ranjan created disharmony in his family. He discriminated with him and loved his normal child.
The novel puts a special focus on family building blocks. It requires honesty and courage to live with autistic child in a home. Ranjan failed but Manju didn’t give up.
Vidhuna tried to teach the people of earth as why simple aspects like honesty and good intentions matter to shape the future of humanity. Her presence on the earth was being like an usher guiding people with light. She motivated and led by example.
Sheeba’s way of narrating events with alternate families is simple and effective, away from dilemma. The pace and language of the novel looked controlled. She sketched characters with an aura of peculiar idiosyncrasies, they were apt and perfect as per their roles and acts. However, the cast is slightly long, thus, you may love some and loath a few. Overall, it’s a lovely novel with a credible and pragmatic story with relevant messages for all of us.
Buy from Amazon/Kindle.
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