Early Indications

by G.B. Prabhat

"... racy, engaging, rich in literary and philosophical references... twists and turns... the use of acclaimed literary works - 1984, The God of Small Things and others - as major symbols beautifully intertwined with the plot... " THE SUNDAY TRIBUNE "... intricate and rich novel of boyhood and youth... the effect [of Early Indications] is immense and the aftereffect total." BOOK LINK "A mesmerising book that [holds] the reader's attention from the beginning to the end." THE HINDU - NXG "This book - much like Prabhat's earlier works - is a tribute to the genre of literary fiction." THE ECONOMIC TIMES - MADRAS PLUS "The five characters are sketched skilfully ... the interesting twists and turns lend the narrative shades of a thriller." BUSINESS LINE "... the author's depiction of Coimbatore is its biggest draw." THE TELEGRAPH THE STORY OF FIVE GENIUSES ‘If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.’ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Madras, December 26, 2004. Shiva has a miraculous escape from the tsunami. Twenty years before, a friend saved him from almost certain death – whose debt he was reluctant to acknowledge. Coimbatore, South India, 1969. It all began, most probably, because Shiva and his four classmates - all kindergarten students - were christened ‘the Five Geniuses’ by an old woman who was their doting first teacher. She does not stop with that simple declaration but, by careful personality divination, gives them their callings. Shiva would become a research scholar or a professor since he has a silver tongue and a prodigious intellect. Dorai with his abiding curiosity for automobiles would have something to do with cars; maybe he would invent a new one. Basketball is the future of Rohit who manages to score from the vaunted zero position. A droll couplet by Kani convinces the teacher that he is a future poet. Sarita’s full-throated rendering of ‘Doe, a deer’ makes it clear that she is destined for musical stardom. For different reasons, the Five Geniuses join the local engineering college for an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering. Soon the interplay between incidents traps them inextricably in a whirlpool. Innocent utterances can change lives. How would their lives have turned out if they hadn’t been called the Five Geniuses? Were they geniuses or did they so believe because a set of accidental circumstances conspired to create the impression? These thoughts bother Shiva in his post-Coimbatore existence in Madras. After being providentially spared by the tsunami, almost twenty years after he left Coimbatore, he decides to visit it to check what became of the past with which he severed connections. Early Indications is a haunting tale of friendship, oppression, disaffection, betrayal, guilt, false dawns, and the impossibility of redemption. It is about confronting the infinite shades of gray we are painted in, and wondering how much semi-serious pronouncements can shape the spectrum. The novel showcases the subterranean poetic charm of Coimbatore, which lies midway between the teeming metropolises and the overwrought village settings.

312 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 20, 2012

Reviews

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok

I felt that this story was very slow moving. I was waiting for the dramatic moment referenced in the beginning. It was a long time coming, and was not a surprise.
I do generally read suspenseful thrillers, so my opinion could be tainted by that fact.