The Man with a Naked Face (Ramaswamy Balakrishnan)

Prashanth realized very early that the key to getting what he wanted was to know what other people wanted. He studied the affairs of others very closely.

(p. 31)

He knew very early that his freedom came from the fact that others would never see his thoughts; that they would never know, unless he chose to reveal them. And that they would have to believe that what he told them was what he really thought.

(p. 32)

Arwindh loved the company of people who found pleasure in thinking, in challenging their own thoughts, in discussing their thoughts, openly in order to seek questions from others, and to discover the truth of their thoughts. Most such people liked to be alone by themselves. They never felt lonely alone... Others found him to be aloof.

(p. 54)

The man of power never dirties his own hands. He never acts alone. He needs other men to collude with him. The man of power carefully watches other men around him, especially any person who controls, regulates the flow of money. He will first get other men to track or to fish out all the information about this man - where he goes, what he does, what are his values, what does he believe in, who are his family, what are the problems he faces, what are his weaknesses, what is his past record, what are his ambitions etc... Then he'll entrap this person into some sense of fear, guilt, anger, or hatred with an objective of making this person serve his needs.

The club of the men of power is small and limited only to those who stand in the path of money. Most of the people who are not part of this exclusive club are workers - I call them slaves - who toil to keep the money flowing but do not control the flow. These people are encourages, motivated to keep working hard. And who are the men of power in this world... you just have to follow the flow of money - the industrialists, the religious heads or spiritual gurus, the criminals and the politicians. The politician is the most powerful as he controls all the people who control the administration of justice.

(p. 297)

Remember that these are men of supreme intellect anyway, but they use their intellect to find newer ways or newer victims to loot.

(p. 300)

When you are acting in collusion with other people, make sure to give the impression that you hate the sight of each other. Engage in public fights. Criticize, find fault in public.

(p. 301)

"Oh! You mean that if I accept this offer now, in this hall, I would be doing so based on the expectations of the rewards later, outside this hall?"

"But then wouldn't you be the one holding the cards outside this hall?... And the positions of power would be reversed. Correct?"

Prashanth realized that Arwindth had always been able to see the contradictions in his words, appearances and the eventual objectives that it sought to achieve.

(pp. 309-310)

Some people are adept at faking adherence to societal values, like the character Prashanth in this novel (he appears to be the hero in the initial part of the novel, and later becomes the villain). They do so to impress others or gain popularity in order to achieve their ends (power, money etc.). Since their adherence to the values is just a mask, it's easy for them to remove that mask when it is no longer needed to fake those values, leaving others stunned.

We often encounter people who appear to be quite nice, when we are useful or profitable for them, and as soon as we become useless for them, they would reveal an entirely different character.


Exactly what Prashanth does in this novel.

(RKP)