Surabhi ke Sau Sawaal

The book presents one of India's most popular TV series in the printed, and irresistible, format.

Surabhi ke Sau Sawaal
Compiled by Siddharth Kak
Rupa
2005
Culture, Indology
Pages: 208
Price: Not mentioned
ISBN: 81-291-0544-6
Format: Large, all colour coffee table
Hardcover

HT Image

This is one for the Indophile. It takes the essence of one of the most popular television series in India and presents it in the printed version in a way that is quite irresistible.

Surabhi burst onto the Indian mindscape in 1991, and for the next few years remained a major talking point across the nation. It received many testimonials of its popularity – from being discussed at metropolitan parties – to being part of the education-awareness campaigns in numerous small towns and villages across this varied land. Proofs of popularity also came from the thousands and, on occasions, millions of letters the programme was flooded with. The anchors were accorded a star status usually reserved for the biggest and brightest Bollywood stars.

The programme became part of the average urban Indian’s life for about a decade. Now, about half a decade after the last episode was aired, comes this tome that seeks to capture the magic of the series.

It takes the most popular segment of the programme – the question the viewers responded to – and presents it in a question answer format. ‘What is so special about Aina Mahal and where is it located?’, ‘Which is the only place for Jesuit education in India?’, ‘In which present day village in India do all the inhabitants speak only in Sanskrit?’, ‘Waazwan! What’s that?, ‘What is the meaning of the word Surabhi?’ – these questions helped many across the land get in touch with what was for many a forgotten or unexplored facet of our sprawling and multifaceted country.

Every question is answered in two pages - about 300-400 words of text with two to three accompanying photos. The range of questions is varied and captures the amazing variety of India.

There are some shortcomings though: the text on Nalanda mentions that Chanakya taught there, and Buddha and Mahavira visited the university in sixth century AD. Well, as all these individuals lived and died hundred of years before sixth century AD, this is an amazing claim!

Another stunmbling block are the picture captions. Amazingly, they are not with the photo in the first page but at the end of the second page, which readers may not always find easy to handle. Sometimes there is just one caption for more than 1 photograph. Even if the caption is similar for more than one photo – the reader deserves that every photo be individually labeled.

Surabhi burst onto the Indian mindscape in 1991, and for the next few years remained a major talking point across the nation.

Also in most of the second pages of the questions, the text is short leaving a lot of unutilized white space on the page which could have been used better. For instance, the question on Pari Mahal (pages 41-42 has just one paragraph on its second page!

Coming back to positives, the book has an index by subject in the end making it easier for the readers to locate topics of their interest. It also has lists of awards the progamme received and the people associated with the programme.

A good buy for those interested in a nostalgic revival of their Surabhi days, and also for those who are keen to get acquainted with the fascinating land that is India.