Rogues Among the Ruins-Achala Moulik

Book: Rogues Among the Ruins
Author: Achala Moulik
Publisher: Niyogi Books

Do you think bureaucracy has changed from the colonial times to today?

Rogues Among the Ruins by Achala Moulik portrays the conflict of civil servants caught between ideals and thirst for success. The novel adopts the style of great masters like Gogol and Cervantes who, in their search for truth, evoke laughter through tears. The first part of the book is basically a fictionalized account of the workings of the Archaeological Survey of India and the painful predicaments of a dedicated but naïve scholar faced with temptations. The scholar’s son, a morally indifferent bureaucrat, chronicles a later era in the second part. It tells the story of how bureaucracy works and how the drama unfolds in the corridors of power.

The idea that the book wishes to portray is that of the evolution of bureaucracy and it uses a generational change to explore the same. The author starts with the work of ASI and how it was a cover for the British to collect information, and how that very idea changes post-independence. The issue that I faced was that the book was not able to deliver on this front as it could have. The first part of the book seems to have no connect with the second one, and more importantly, they are two unequal halves, and we see more of Raman, than we do of Elangovan. While there is a call back in the end, the reader might not continue till the end to see the same. The language used in the book is easy to understand and simple, and matches the tone of the characters and the situations. There are no grammatical errors, and the plot moves seamlessly. The plot has a relatively straight arc and travels in that motion throughout, with a bit of humor that crops up now and then. The climax is good and executed well.

The characters are well defined, though the primary characters are a bit varied, and a lot is dependent on the scene playing out and the perspectives change, though most of the book is told from Raman’s and Elangovan’s Point of View. The character descriptions are vivid and quite detailed. I loved the fact that whenever the POV changed to either Raman or Elangovan, there was a clear mention and a very unique one at that.

Overall, it is a decent read that could have been executed better to put the message across. The book scores a 4/5 from me.

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