|
Literary Review
First Impressions
INDIA in 1756. Sati Edwards does not knew it yet, but soon her life will lead her up to events over which she would have no control. Sati is a cross between the two demarcating towns that house the natives and the British. What are their terrible burdens? And intermingling? Will it only yield disaster or will it ever bring happiness?
Her grandmother Jaya Kapur, nee Janet Jenkins, married an umpteen number of times to white men of lowly rank is now a corpulent old woman. But she genuinely cares for her granddaughter since the mother couldn't be bothered.
Then her daughter and her husband want Sati back. Jaya does not trust that. She is soon proved right as the daughter and husband try and use the girl to conduct a series of séances. Disaster befalls as it soon becomes apparent that Sati is actually possessed by a spirit.
At the same time Siraj Uddaulah in far off Murshidabad plots to get rid of the British. He lays siege to them in Fort William. As history tells us, the British are beaten and the survivors thrown into the infamous Black Hole of Calcutta. Sati too is part of this holocaust but survives by some miracle.
Meira Chand has written a book that skilfully moves between fact and fiction. She assiduously picks on the divisions of race and culture and successfully creates an ambience that blurs this distinction. Even if you do not agree with her interpretation of history, this is a spellbinding account.
A Far Horizon, Meira Chand, Penguin, Rs. 295.
THESE 12 stories bear witness to the pain of a country torn apart by strife. Sri Lanka, that idyllic place, with its warm trusting inhabitants seemed to have slowly disintegrated in the chaos of war and strife. Jean Arasanyagam is a recorder of events, tiny ones that form the backdrop of ordinary lives. Lives now touched by different facets of the war. Some lose loved ones, some run away only to return and others have left forever. The writer sketches a world where relationships, identities and places seem to fall apart. It is a voice of protest which forces the reader to take note of issues that simmer below the surface. This slim volume explores several crucial emotional issues that a large number of people, displaced due to war, face everyday.
The Dividing Line, Jean Arasanyagam, Indialog Publications, Rs. 195.
SOME families are touched by tragedy. Savi's for instance. Now 70, and looking back at the different stages of her porous life. She lives in her large house in Colombo with her daughter Padma and Padma's current lover Helen. Savi secretly hates them but cannot voice her sense of betrayal because she has a failed marriage.
Her other three daughters have had equally disastrous lives. Savi makes a clean breast of it all to David, Helen's young friend from England who comes looking for salvation. Savi and David recognise instantly that they are kindred souls. The two girls are nasty and upset but the 70-year-old and 25-something David, sit in a solitary circle of togetherness plying each other with balm so necessary for their spiritual cleansing. There are barbed jibes, honest-to-god confessions, never-told-before stories and finally the reckoning that they must each follow their own paths.
Presumptions regarding cultures, their structured meanings and a slotting of characters hold back what could have been an interesting story. Instead I'm already reaching out to call my analyst. Get the couch ready please.
One Last Mirror, Andrew Harvey, Penguin, Rs. 200.
TANTRA: the word conjures images of sorcerers, devils, evil worshippers, controllers of powers and above all the guardians of a terrible secret mystery. Over the years, tantra has come to be associated with something akin to devil worship and has been looked upon with awe bordering on fear. However it seems the truth is something else. In an effort to rid tantric rites and practices of the dangerous image it has got over the years, a practitioner of the Mahayana Buddhist Tantra, uses his knowledge of this ancient art to demonstrate its real identity and its real purpose. An interesting book for those seeking a meaningful spiritual path.
Mahayana Tantra, Shri Dharmakirti, Penguin, Rs. 200.
SUCHITRA BEHAL
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Literary Review
|
