Battlefield

 

This book reminded me of George Orwell’s Notes on Nationalism. Orwell’s strands of thoughts on colonialism, nationalism and anti-semitism are woven into this slim work of fiction - Battlefield by Vishram Bedekar, originally published as Ranaangan in the year 1939, translated from Marathi by Jerry Pinto.

“If we’re thinking of Nationalism as revenge, if this becomes rooted in our history as a way of thinking, what becomes of man’s evolution? I shudder to think”.

“Perhaps the boundaries of narrow patriotism need to be broken all over the world.”

“The Nazi philosophy seemed to see the nation as an avenging angel, flaming sword in hand, righting wrongs that might be real or imagined”.

"My mother was born in Poland. I was born in Berlin. My children, should I have any, will be born in Shanghai. When your grandmother is Polish and your mother is German, and you are Chinese for whom will you fight?"

Europe is on the brink of WWII. Chakradhar Vidhwans feels it is wise to leave London and return home to Mumbai, India. On the ship back home, he meets Herta, a Jewish young woman forced to flee her home in Germany and seek exile in Shanghai. Many like Herta, heavily persecuted by Germany, are also headed to Shanghai, unsure of their future.

Chakradhar, who’s nursing a heartbreak, vows to make merry on the ship for two weeks before disembarking at Mumbai. Herta who has lost her job, home, love of her life, everything for being a Jew, is intent on clinging onto the smallest sliver of hope. She cares a hoot for the morals of the world that has shut her out. A heady mix of romance & desire brews between the two leading to a passionate, short-lived, plangent with melancholy affair.

“When you need a drink, you go and get one and you are rejuvenated. Which hotel you drink in does not matter.” - Chakradhar’s thoughts on desire for women’s company (there are more such lines) may feel misogynistic and irksome. But I pushed his notions and the romance between him and Herta to the background for Herta wouldn’t have been on the ship and would’ve led a quotidian life in Germany if the Nazis didn’t drive her out. The circumstances that brought them together were more important than their state of togetherness itself, for me. The little titbits of history on 'comfort women' from England ushered to service the French soldiers and a very rich arms dealer called Basil Zaharaoff (1848-1936), Shanghai being the home for Jews who fled Germany before WWII grabbed my attention more than the melodramatic love story itself. 

The ship, a tunnel of light and dark, is a microcosm of the world we lived/live in where human beings estrange and exploit those different from themselves (based on race, color, gender and religion) with an inexplicable madness. And for highlighting this, Battlefield, a classic stays extremely relevant.

Alka and other Stories

 

Goutam Das’s Alka and other stories packs fifteen short stories, translated from Bengali by Ratna Jha.

Most stories here are set within the family fold and delve deeply into relationships between family members. There are stories (‘Awake’, ‘Duty-Bound’, ‘Courtesy of Rain’, ‘A Change of Mind’) where the family is a tightly knit unit, its members earnestly care for each other. And there are stories (‘A Tale from Anandganj’, ‘Alka’, ‘The Servant’, ‘Second Birth’) where complete strangers shower love and care just like one’s own kith and kin.

While most stories brim with positivity and have neat closures on a hopeful note, two stories, quite like a kink in the graph - ‘Cuckoos’ and ‘The Cremation Ground’ are immensely moving and sad, these are my favorites too. 

The story ‘Wish’ about a bank employee who opts for voluntary retirement to dedicate more time to his interests - reading & writing despite everyone around dissuading him from doing so closely mirrors the author’s life.

The characters in these stories are mostly uncomplicated beings, quick to forgiving human error. Though these stories are mostly restricted to the domestic sphere, the author adds titbits of Bengali socio-cultural scape, the widely prevalent economic divide and political rivalry in hinterland claiming innocent lives in the background. 

There’s abundant love for Rabindra Sangeet as the first verse written by Tagore (‘Jol Poday Pata noday’ which translates to ‘water falls and the leaves move’) & many others poems (Tumi Sandhyar Meghamala, Amar Praner Poray Cholay) feature regularly. There is even a mention of the famed love story between Chandidas and Rami. 

Grandparents here enjoy telling stories from Thakurmar Jhuli to their grandchildren. The author also acquaints us with the tradition of Baul (folk) songs too in his story ‘Human Gems’. Sounds of the seaside, boatman’s oars cracking up the river, Chandi paath during Durga Puja and Baul songs from Jaidev mela adorn the story ‘The Poetry of Sound’. The mention of rain, dark clouds, fragrant swarna champa flowers, magpie robins, food like khichudi, hilsa fry, luchis, nolen gur sandesh are a feast to the senses. The translation by Ratna Jha offers a comfortable reading experience. 

In the story 'The Servant', a loyal servant unlocks his master's mind to some essential questions on life; likewise the simple stories here collectively move 'something' in us, help us slow down and appreciate the little beautiful things around us. 

Perfect for weekend or ‘de-stress’ reading, in genteel and compassionate storytelling, this book’s a nice bunch of stories. 

A History of Objects

 

A History of Objects by Carlo Pizzati is a collection of 23 short stories (more precisely 22, the first story ‘The Hard Drive’ is a prelude to the book) with each story named after a certain object. From the mundane sweater, a pair of shoes or slippers, a bench, an umbrella to the currently obsolete VHS tape, the recently ubiquitous mask and hand sanitizer, there are many objects that find a place here. In some stories, these objects are clearly the focal point, in some these are catalysts that precipitate life-changing events and in others they only make a guest appearance.

Apart from taking us places - Italy, Germany, the USA, India & Philippines in his stories, the author gives us an array of diverse characters and a gamut of emotions to explore. His writing is lucid, carefree & marked with ‘dry’ humor and ‘out of the box’ imagination. One cannot predict when the object in the title will appear in the story or how it will alter its course. For instance, everything in the stories ‘The Teddy Bear’, ‘The Candy Box’ is far from ‘mushy cute’ or innocent, there’s nothing scandalous in ‘The VHS tape’ and nothing related to rain/greenery in ‘The Umbrella’. These stories, mostly open-ended, are differently structured too - story within a story as in ‘The Coconut Scraper’, starting from the end and moving backwards in ‘The Slippers’, a series of interconnected vignettes in ‘The Teddy Bear’. 

It is no secret that objects are reserves of stories & memories, they have a life of their own. But not all objects are embodiments of nostalgia - with cached ‘sweet’ memories waiting to tumble out, the author points out. Here a wind-up cockroach toy and a mantlepiece fish destroy relationships, a portrait warns a man of his future, a man changing his baby’s diapers vows to turn vegetarian. Characters in these stories largely suffer from self-doubt, depression, failed relationships and heartbreak. There is an undercurrent of violence and dysfunctionality. A young man who announces he's gay to his family and is looking for acceptance, a woman who cannot open herself to the love of mortals on Earth openly embracing the skies, men and women authors debating about the idea of equality as preached by feminism - their stories lie curled up within the objects that appear in these stories. 

Reality in fiction gets an expression as the author incorporates Monica Ghurde murder case & MV Greenpeace voyage in his stories and even lends an autobiographical ‘feel’ to some parts.

A quirky potpourri of stories (better savored slowly) where objects are as potent as characters in flesh and blood.

The Puppet's Tale

 

“We are but puppets; an Invisible One is pulling the strings''. Most of us dance along to the whims of this invisible puppeteer, but some desire freedom, protest constantly for greater control, they either rebel till their strings break or are forced to a meek surrender. The Puppet’s Tale (Puthulnacher Ithikatha in Bengali) by Manik Bandyopadhyay, deftly translated by Ratan Kumar Chattopadhyay, in bare bones is about how ‘all the world’s a stage’ and the show’s always on.

Shashi, the protagonist, a Calcutta-trained doctor returns to his ancestral village Gaodiya. Torn between ethics, selfless service and his personal desires, he tends to villagers with great care and commitment, a far cry from his father, Gopal Das who’s the village usurer. Shashi’s world is largely shaped by his friend Kumud, a free-willed & headstrong man, Kusum, a capricious & enigmatic young woman from Gaodiya for whom his love blossoms only to die of neglect over time, Bindu, his sister whose life’s irrevocably changed by her affluent husband and Jadab Pandit, a holy man who embraces death at his will at a self-ordained time.

Just like contrast sharpens a picture, the author by portraying opposite forces at play within us humans and in society adds depth to the story. The tussle between village and city life, tradition and modernity, Ayurveda and English medicine, rational/scientific logic and superstition, believer and atheist, the many contradictions that confound the human mind makes the novel’s lifeforce.

The father-son relationship here, fraught with tension, is a luminous example of the above, we notice that Gopal feels insecure as his son Shashi’s popularity and reverence grows. He is definitely concerned about Shashi’s health and lifestyle but would like to have him under his thumb all the time. This is evident as Gopal mulls -

“When the son is grown up, what a difficult task it turns out to be to interact with him. Not a friend, not a debtor, not a boss, god knows in what relationship a man stands with his adult son.”

It is notable that the author chooses to start the novel with death of a certain villager, Haru Ghosh, who is scorched to death by lightning during a thunderstorm at the village’s banyan grove but places immense importance on Haru’s family members- his daughter, son and daughter-in-law, they are characters who have a huge hand in propelling the narrative forward.

The first half, markedly slow, demands reader’s attention & patience for we have to understand a motley bunch of characters, each one multi-dimensional and mysterious. By detailing how they talk and act, the author teases us into analyzing how their minds work; the second half flies by effortlessly.

Manik Bandyopadhyay took to writing after his debut short story ‘Atasi Mami’, written to fulfil a challenge thrown in the college canteen to get himself published in a reputed magazine in three months’ time, earned him laurels and fame. Over a literary career of nearly 25 years, plagued by abject poverty, alcoholism and illness like epilepsy, his works bore the clear intent to expose unabashedly the bleak reality of life, the meanness hidden in civil society. Mostly set against the rural backdrop, his works dwelled on unravelling the complicated schemes of the human mind. 

 

And in matters relating to human mind, his acumen is rare and astonishing. 

This is evident as he writes –

 

“In every human being, there dwells a child who loves to play at any hour with poetic perceptions of the mind, with its imagination, its bizarre unreality, and its craziness.”

 

“The world is a web of truth and falsehood. Falsehood has significance too. A lie can even reign perpetually as truth”.

 

“A single spark had set a dry thatch on fire; no one had the power to extinguish it. He realized for the first time today that the collective opinion of people with whom we have no relation whatsoever in our daily lives could grow into an ineluctable, blind and ruthless force.”

 

 

I read 3 Stories by Manik Bandyopadhyay, published by Bee Books, translated by Arunava Sinha two years back and it served as a good primer to understanding the author’s writing style. The Puppet’s Tale, ably translated by Ratan Kumar Chattopadhyay, only widened my understanding of the author’s ideas, beliefs and written word. The foreword by Samantak Das on the author’s debut short story and his foray into writing is not to be missed. The Boatman of the Padma translated by Ratan Kumar Chattopadhyay and published by Orient Blackswan is another book I wish to read by the author - a literary giant of the modern classic Bengali literature, one of the Bandyopadhyay triumvirate. 

A classic by a master storyteller, The Puppet’s Tale is a ‘realistic’ chronicle of life and human frailty. 

Going: Stories of Kinship

 

Going: Stories of Kinship by the eminent poet-writer Keki N Daruwalla consists of five stories centered around family relationships and kinship ties.

A young man, Vikram throws a bomb at a tea-estate bungalow in Dibrugarh, Assam. But is this a terror attack by a ‘hungry for independence’ Indian rebel or an act of personal vendetta? In three sections linking the past to the present, the first story ‘The Brahmaputra Trilogy’, delves on a son-father relationship where the son’s not kosher. Set in the period between WWI-II and its immediate aftermath, the evocative writing here renders a series of daguerreotypes of India under British rule. Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies, shots fired from .410 muskets, the mist covered Brahmaputra river with foam drenching its banks, the smoke from a steam ferry on the river feel real and stay in our head long after the story is over.

The story ‘Daughter’ set in a Parsi family in Delhi examines how history (the battle of Kudesia and Nahavand, Yezdegard - the Iranian king & the Arab general, Mosanna), racial attitude and memories drives a wedge between a father and daughter.

Highly nuanced, well layered and extremely insightful of the culture, communities and the time period, these two stories, each about 40 pages long, are huge favorites in the collection. That the locals are irked with the steady inflow of Bengalis, Santhals and Biharis who come to work in the tea gardens in Assams under goras is evident and touched upon in The Brahmaputra Trilogy. The traditions and beliefs of the Parsis (their menstrual taboos sent a mild shockwave in me), the realization that their community faces the threat of near extinction due to celibacy, late marriages, sterility and inbreeding is brilliantly woven into the story.

Men who willingly renounce everything to embrace solitude are principal characters in ‘The Bird Island’ and ‘The Long Night of the Bhikshu’. In the former, a reticent son remains ‘missing’ for his parents for 10 years. In the latter, a man deserts his home, village & faith, switches Gods, talks only to a scarecrow and roams like a mendicant but is unable to cut ties with his mother who unfailingly appears in his dreams.

‘Going’ is an immensely moving story of a woman who’s closer to her maternal grandmother than her mother. By a sense of intuition, she arrives at her grandmother's home to be with her in her final moments but does she ‘really’ manage to be there by her side? A poignant tale of a grandmother-granddaughter who miss out on a few ‘crucial’ moments in each other’s lives though they have been there for each other otherwise. The green barbets in a human-like chatter, the measured movements of peahen-peacock - the description of many birds that flock the grandmother’s house’s garden are absolutely beautiful.

Keki N Daruwalla’s writing taps into the subliminal and gently wakes you up to your own experiences. There is a quiet magic about this poet's prose.  

“Postponement is only another form of neglect. When I put something off I don’t just slot it on another diary page. I erase it from the mind. The mind is used to erasures, but nothing is wiped clean for good. Everything has a clock of its own, each anxiety, each problem and you choose to face or shove under the rug” (from the story Going).

“Memory was a flame and there was a lot of dry tinder in the void of his heart” (from The Brahmaputra Trilogy).

He delves deep into human emotions and relationships, portrays them with a certain tenderness and sensitivity and cushions them well with additional details of history, traditions and culture. For instance, this in my limited experience feels so true -

“When the aged are correcting you it means they feel that they are still in charge. It is when they consent to whatever you say that you need to be wary” (from Going).

 “Tranquility is not a garment one can put on. It has to descend on you on its own”. And it does, in Keki N Daruwalla’s words. A BRILLIANT collection! 

A little about the author:

Keki N Daruwalla, a former Indian Police service officer, is an eminent poet and writer. Recipient of the Padma Shri award, he received the Sahitya Akademi award in the year 1984 for his poetry collection The Keeper of the Dead, the one he returned in the year 2015 after the death of Dr MM Kalburagi, in wake of rising intolerance and the threat to freedom of expression in writing, citing that the Akademi didn’t stand up for beleaguered writers. The story ‘Going’ from here features in his collection - A House in Ranikhet, ‘The Bird Island’ in the collection Island and ‘The Long Night of the Bhikshu’ is available online on The Indian Quarterly site. I would have loved to see a little endnote on when each of these stories were written and if they appear in the author’s other collections. Going - stories of kinship published by Speaking Tiger Books is an amazing primer, a marvelous short read, that teases us to read more written by the author.