‘Mahe & Mano’ book review: An extraordinary life

Express News Service

In 2020, among the people nominated for a Padma Shri was 84-year-old Chennai resident Manohar Devadoss. A government official, sent on behalf of the prize, went to Devadoss’s home to talk to him—and spent a good bit of time trying to figure out what category Devadoss needed to be nominated under.

Devadoss, after all, has been a scientist and chemist, philanthropist and writer, and in all these fields, he has made significant contributions. Eventually, it was in the category of Art that Devadoss’s name was listed, perhaps because art is not just one of the biggest reasons for Devadoss’s popularity and stature, but also because the very fact that he creates such exquisite art is a testimony to Devadoss’s spirit. Devadoss began suffering from retinal degeneration in his 40s, and some of his best art has been made when he has been close to blind.

This in itself would be reason enough to admire Devadoss. But when you realise that he and his wife Mahema spent most of their life with Mahema suffering from quadriplegia, you cannot help feel more than simple admiration for the couple. That two people, one with severely impaired vision and the other with no sensation or mobility from the shoulders down, could scale such heights: that deserves not just admiration, but emulation.

In Mahe & Mano: Challenges, Resilience, and Triumphs, Manohar ‘Mano’ tells the story of his life with Mahema ‘Mahe’. He begins the story with an account of the tragic road accident that snapped Mahe’s spinal column. From then on, how Mahe and he coped with the trauma alternates with the story of their life together that far. On the one hand, Mano writes with humour and obvious love as he describes falling in love with the beautiful Mahe and marrying her; on the other hand, he writes of the pain, the heartache, the moments of near-despair in the wake of the accident.

This alternating of narrative periods works well to show how the nine years they had been married at the time of the disaster had strengthened the bond between Mano and Mahe. The humour between them, their mutual support of each other’s interests and strengths, the deeply passionate love, the shared joy in giving to others: all of this served to help Mahe and Mano cope with the twin tragedies that struck them.

Instead of waxing eloquent about the strategies Mahe and Mano used to overcome adversity, Devadoss opts to describe, in a candid way, the triumphs, the obstacles, the humorous anecdotes and the progression of their respective physical problems. You see here a glimpse of what it means to live as a quadriplegic, not only when it comes to physical issues, but also the reactions of other people. More than that, you see how two people together surmounted seemingly overwhelming odds to make their lives full, glorious, and immensely successful.

This is a poignant and inspiring book, a book that will help a reader appreciate how strength of spirit and purpose can help turn one’s life around. My only complaint is that in a book about Manohar Devadoss’s life, there is so little to be seen of the art that he describes so eloquently in the book.