Revenge of the Naked Princess

This is a story that happened 450 years ago. But the messages that it conveys are relevant even today. To know why, read my story of a courageous tribal Princess Darshana Kamya Kathodi who was raped and killed because she refused to yield to forcible religious conversion. The brave 18-year-old princess returned to avenge the crime against her and the forcible conversions of her people after she died. How can a raped and murdered Princess Darshana ever succeed in avenging the murder and mayhem committed in the name of conversion by the military brass and aided by the religious hierarchy? Revenge of the Naked Princess is an incredible story made credible by the vigorous narrative, the fascinating characters, the breathtaking descriptions and the powerful but easy flow of language. Fast-paced and full of twists and turns, the author uses his skills of language and story-telling to make the unreal, surreal and paranormal appear real.

The story begins on a hot, humid morning on May 28, 1560, when hundreds of beefy Portuguese soldiers armed with a monstrous six-horse driven cannon and scores of mean muskets raid the palace of the beautiful tribal Princess Darshana Kamya Kathodi at Yehoorwada in Tana. The raid is not meant to capture the princess or the palace, but to cow her down, her soldiers and subjects into conversion. Based on the success of the small Yehoorwada kingdom raid, the Portuguese King John III, dubbed ‘Grocer King’, hopes to convert into Catholics thousands of natives in mainline kingdoms in the rest of the country.

By multiplying the flock of faithful native Christians, the insomniac ‘Grocer’ King who spends the night tallying countless bags of spices stocked in royal storehouses in Portugal, aspires to build a captive market for spices. Rome’s avowed objective of conversion is to open the gates of heaven to the natives by bringing them into the fold of the Lord of love, mercy and compassion. But the real attraction is the employment opportunities for blue-eyed priests and the lucrative market for gold and silver crosses and sacred holy water that the land of the converts offers.

Though the fat but ferocious commander Brigadier Antonio de Braganca conducts the raid, the real leader of the conversion brigade is Govind Laxman Prabhu, recently christened Joseph Lawrence Pereira Prabhu. New-born Catholic Joseph, exclusive wholesale supplier of agricultural produce to the palace — whose family and well-bred pigs have grown fat from the ‘royal income’ — is the only person in the raiding party familiar with the palace’s location. Soon after conversion, he swaps his red-flowered langoti, white dhoti and banyan for a pair of tailored underwear, white starched ‘full pants’ and a matching white shirt. Braving the red blisters hurting in his feet because of the closed leather shoes that he has worn for the first time in his life, Govind ‘Joseph’ guides the marauding Portuguese army into Princess Darshana’s palace tucked away at the foot of Yehoor Hills.

When Princess Darshana resists King John III’s conversion order, a dozen army officers led by Brigadier Braganca rape and kill her. Enter the zealous but frail Franciscan missionary Reverend Father Pascal Francisco, Brigadier Braganca’s partner in conversion. Father Francisco can’t control his tears that come streaming down his light-blue eyes when he sees the dead princess — naked, disgraced and humiliated — now covered in a blood-stained white sheet.

The priest has been the commander’s ally in conversion for a few years. But the paradox of the alliance is that Father Francisco and Brigadier Braganca seem to be working with different objectives. Father Francisco has a single goal of attaining a higher place in the kingdom of God by bringing more people into Christ’s fold. Braganca’s aim is to gain favour of his temporal king, get richer and rise in the hierarchy.

Revenge of the Naked Princess will keep you hooked from start to finish.

Indeed, the theme of forced conversions that the novel addresses is real and relevant even today, as conversions still take place, through more ‘civilised’ means of monetary and social inducements.

Revenge of the Naked Princess may seem like historical fantasy to the casual reader but it is one book that succeeds in highlighting the brutality of forced conversions through a riveting story that seems so real and topical ― like it happened only yesterday.

Beyond the Newsroom

Oswald Pereira's debut novel, Beyond the Newsroom, was published in January 2007 by Frog Books, Mumbai. The novel describes the unholy alliance between India's Fourth Estate, governance and the underworld. The book reveals the many hidden aspects of a black-and-white piece of newsprint. An exciting and immensely readable work of 'fiction', Beyond the Newsroom features complex and interesting characters who show how nebulous the lines between the 'good' and 'bad' can be.

Beyond the Newsroom Review in DNA

"THIS BOOK IS A FILM CRYING TO BE MADE."
Ranjona Banerji

Ten pages into Beyond The Newsroom and a huge cinematic screen takes over your mind. The pages fade and you see Ram Gopal Varma’s name bursting on to a screen. Varma only because he has a little gangster film oeuvre. This book is a film crying to be made.

Beyond The Newsroom, then, reasserts itself as a book quite quickly. In fact, it’s a racy read. It is also a roman à clef of sorts that lifts the lid on the murky goings-on in the world of newspapers, the police, the underworld and politics. The writer is a journalist, a former crime reporter, and this book has several thinly disguised characters who once ruled the cityscape.

The police commissioner, the reporters and editors mentioned, and the underworld don himself are all familiars. Narayan Swamy, Oswald Pereira’s don, is of course, the famous Matunga godfather Vardarajan Mudaliar. Swamy is an odd mix of criminal and do-gooding social worker, who is himself confused by his two opposing roles. As the novel progresses, Swamy the social worker tries to take control of developments but is always thwarted by Swamy the underworld don.

Hell-bent on destroying Swamy is Mumbai police commissioner Donald Fernandez. Known as the supercop, Fernandez is a tough customer who tries every trick he can to end Swamy’s stranglehold over the city. But although Fernandez has his friends in the media — notably Oscar Pinto, a young crime reporter with “The Newsroom”, India’s most venerable newspaper —Swamy’s ties in the media are stronger, more effective.

The political reporter in “The Newsroom”, the crime reporter in the Marathi daily, the business journalist known for his incisive analysis, the beautiful and lethal reporter in Madras — they are all on Swamy’s payroll and use their publications to further his various causes. The police force, the editor of “The Newsroom”, and the narrator, Pinto, find that Swamy’s people easily run circles around them.

The book in fact opens with Pinto’s exclusive story about Swamy’s arrest being proved embarrassingly wrong. Pereira makes a scathing indictment of corruption in newspapers. He details the way articles are planned and stymied and even planted. He also provides fascinating insights into how Swamy’s men infiltrate the media. Shamefully, in real life, Swamy’s formula was successfully repeated by one of India’s leading industrialists who, at one time reportedly had 50 top Indian journalists on his rolls. Pereira explains exactly how this can happen.

However, where the novel falters is when it comes to sustaining the main threads of its story. Pereira begins with the workings of newspapers but later switches completely to Swamy’s operations. Pinto’s character is therefore not developed. And later, Stella Kutty, the beautiful reporter, does not ring true at all. These are minor quibbles. If you want to know about life in Mumbai before the invasion of television and long before Dawood Ibrahim took over, this book is a wonderful ride.

Cutting the Chai

Cutting the Chai

Times Of India, May 5, 2007

The Times of India, Mumbai carried a good review of the novel. Here it goes:

"A fast-paced, no nonsense novel."

BEYOND THE NEWSROOM

Oswald Pereira

To use a journalists’ cliché, this book is a ’scoop’; the ‘real’ deal about the unholy nexus between the underworld, the government and the Fourth Estate. A fast-paced, no nonsense novel explaining in surprising detail, the intertwined fellowship between the system and the ‘unsystematic’ underworld. It comes as no surprise that the novel is by an accomplished crime reporter himself. The crisp chapters captivate your attention without trying to glorify characters.

Starting off in 1986 with a brief about the central character, Oscar Pinto, a typical reporter perennially looking for that ‘one big story’ which will change his short-changed life. Gradually, the antagonist, Narayan Swamy, a white dhoti clad, god-fearing, mafia don is introduced. Smattered with journalism lingo, the story is extremely gripping what with its real characters and their ‘common man’ syndromes.

For a short book, it beautifully explores the various minutiae of Mumbai’s dreaded underbelly. Right from the hooch dealers in Dharavi to the ghastly brothels of Falkland Road, the author manages to convey the gangland’s dastardly deeds without offending the reader’s sensibilities. It beautifully enunciates the multifaceted working of a news house and the typical rapport shared between the scribes and the police as also the scribes and the mafia.

A very good read and as the clan of journos would say –This is learnt from ‘highly reliable sources’!

- Robin Singhvi

Beyond the Newsroom Review

Deccan Herald went to town over Beyond the Newsroom and gave it a rave review. Here's what the newspaper had to say:

"A thriller which can be read at one go."

'Bad journalists'

M K Chandra Bose

The book reveals the underbelly of the media and is a good read for anyone interested in the news...



Beyond the Newsroom,

By Oswald Pereira

Frog Books


Pages 255

Rs 245.

In the eighties when a coterie of reporters in Bangalore were acting as the drum beaters of a chief minister, some of their ilk in Bombay were dancing to the tunes of an underworld don.

They included journalists from the lowly tabloids to the mighty national dailies. The unholy nexus between politicians and journalists has been written about but very little is known about the underworld clout with the fourth estate. Beyond the Newsroom fills this void.

Truth is often stranger than fiction. Through this work of fiction, journalist Oswald Pereira manages to bring out the bitter truth of what goes behind the news– crime news in particular. It is the horror story of suppression and distortion of news to suit the needs of a mafia don. The don is Narayan Swamy, the semi-literate bootlegger -turned Bombay’s most dreaded crime lord who manipulates ministers, legislators, criminals, police officers, lawyers and journalists to do his dirty jobs.

He has a special liking for journalists as he has found them to be ideal intermediaries.

A handpicked triumvirate of journalists including a leading business writer acts as his eyes and ears. It is their job to alert him, to suppress unpalatable news, to intervene on his behalf at the right time and advise him on making his ill-gotten wealth white. Those on his payroll never fail him. His escape to Madras by hoodwinking a posse of 400 policemen makes big headlines.

Not many of the interesting characters are fictitious. The Godfather is modelled on notorious Varadaraja Mudaliar who ruled the Bombay underworld with an iron hand. He built a multi-crore financial empire but wanted to turn over a new leaf. Some of the politicians and the super cop on the don’s trail are easily identifiable. One of the crony journalists has shades of a scribe who writes on Bombay underworld.

It is a thriller which can be read at one go. As a novel Beyond the Newsroom is a modest success. It is more like investigative journalism at its best but won’t find a place in any newspaper. The harsh truths tumbling out are severe indictments of a noble profession debauched by unscrupulous scribes.

What appears as a scoop is often a plant by some vested interests to serve their ends. Often the reader won’t get the real news as there are journalists willing to hide it for a few pegs of Scotch. Pereira’s expose on the dirty deeds of some black sheep is a timely reminder when the Indian media scene is witnessing a churning process. The book will be of interest to every one who cares for news.