‘Thank you, Mr. Glad!’ Tuesday, Apr 11 2006

I read a Gujarati translation by Vasudha Inamdar of a Marathi novella by Anil Barve. Apparently, Barve became a celebrated Marathi author by this opening work of his. Unfortunately, he passed away in his 32nd year.

The story is such that a translation gives you enough fuel for thought and emotion. It is set in the original Naxalite movement era. A doctor-turned-Naxalite, Virbhushan Patnaik, is handed the capital punishment for killing several policemen. He is to be lodged in Rajahmundry Central Jail for a year before he is hanged.

The jail Superintendent is a Britisher, Mr. Glad, who has lived in India since the end of WW II. He lost his Jewish wife Miriam to the Nazi gas chambers. He had fallen to the feet of the Nazi soldiers who were dragging his wife away, only to be reprimanded by his strong wife to be a man. Their little daughter, Jennifer, had survived the Holocaust and since had grown into a young woman, happily married in England.

Mr. Glad is as cruel and emotionless towards his prisoners as can be, using his stick, belt and shoes as often as he can on them. He drinks a lot of whiskey every night and returns to belt some prisoner or the other the next day. It is in this setting that Virbhushan Patnaik arrives, and instantly disarms Mr. Glad by his polite but firm retorts, clearly showing that he is not just another prisoner.

Through the year, the process of transformation of Mr. Glad on his interaction with the Naxalite continues. So changed a man does he become, he spends entire days without thinking of hitting anyone, insists on the Naxalite signing a mercy petition to the President of India (which he doesn't), gives all help to the visiting wife of the Naxalite, tries to read Marx, Lenin and Mao (but is frustrated by his lack of understanding), and finally, brings his visiting pregnant daughter Jenny to meet Patnaik. The daughter is equally favourably influenced by Patnaik's courage, strength of character and his appreciation of poetry. She requests her father not to hang Patnaik, but to give him a death more fitting of a revolutionary.

The end is deeply moving as the lack of all medical help on a stormy, rainy night, forces Mr. Glad to ask Dr. Patnaik to perform a Caesarean section on his daughter. Breaking all jail rules, Mr. Glad does this, and Patnaik performs the delivery successfully. Just as he is about to enter the jeep which would take him to his death by hanging in a few hours, Mr. Glad calls him 'Comrade' and shoots him in the chest, tearfully clarifying that he had not shot him in the back. Thus, the Naxalite dies a hero's death and Mr. Glad becomes a prisoner in his own jail.

The author does not push any ideology here. The novella is not about any 'ism', but about the play of circumstances and their influence on human behaviour. Its style is appropriate, with short sentences and short and pithy dialogue. It leaves a lasting impression on the reader's mind.

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‘Charitraheen’ Wednesday, Apr 5 2006

I read a Hindi translation of this Bengali novel by Sharatchandra Chattopadhyay recently. It is a very finely etched story, too fine, in fact, for me. The emotions depicted in the novel are very fine, and I, whose emotions are too gross in comparison, could not relate with any definiteness to the story and the characters.

The novel is set in Bengali society of the early 1900's. The story has four main women characters – two major, Savitri and Kiranmayi, and two minor, Surbala and Sarojini. The former two are the ones on whom the accusation of being charitraheen (of loose character) is made. It is most interesting that all four characters are totally different. Savitri is born a Brahmin, but poverty has forced her to become a servant, doing tasks appropriate only for a 'lower caste'. She is, and remains, pure of character, and devoted to the man she loves – Satish. Surbala is Upendranath's wife. She is young, pure in character, pious to the point of blind faith in religious texts. Sarojini is educated in the Western style, and is forward-thinking, but hampered by familial circumstances and a forceful mother. She does get to marry Satish in the end, though. Finally, Kiranmayi is the most striking character of the novel. Young and extremely beautiful, she is also very intelligent and argumentative. Her emotions and desires have, however, always been repressed by a husband more intent on learning and on teaching her than on conjugal matters, and by a nagging mother-in-law. She surprises and impresses all the three main men in the novel – Satish, Upendra and Diwakar – but her life is ultimately reduced to a shambles by these unthinking men.

The three men play very important roles in the lives of the four women, but most of the time, their actions are detrimental to the women. They are orthodox, unthinking, and not in control of their emotions. Satish brings about Savitri's downfall and acts strangely with Sarojini till the end, when he brings about a final reunion of sorts on Upendra's deathbed. Upendra helps Kiranmayi a lot initially, but thinks the worst of her relationship with Diwakar, and actually causes Kiranmayi's compulsive elopement with Diwakar. Diwakar is weak-kneed and immature. An orphan, he is delighted by Kiranmayi treating him as her brother, and eventually shirks education. He acts totally irresponsibly after his elopement with Kiranmayi.

There is a redemption of all the women in the end, Savitri being considered a devii, Kiranmayi's compulsions understood somewhat and her ill-treatment regretted implicitly, Sarojini getting to marry Satish, and Surbala dying a natural death. But one feels that this redemption has come too late. Wrong done to the women cannot be righted just like that, even if the women themselves feel so.

The depiction of orthodox Hindu society in conflict with Western thoughts brought in by British rule is good. The character sketches are the best part, and their emotions, swinging from one end of the spectrum to the other, make for thoughtful reading.

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‘Nirmala’ Saturday, Apr 1 2006

This Munshi Premchand novel has always been associated in my mind with the Doordarshan TV serial based on the novel that was telecast in DD's Golden Age of the 1980's and early 90's. However, I was too young to remember the exact story, and so I took up reading this novel.

Premchand's typical style, word & idiom usage continues here, in describing the feckless Nirmala's life. Her life has no real cheer in it, right from her early childhood when her marriage is first fixed upto her death. Forced to marry a once-married lawyer, Totaram, 20 years older to her, she finds herself in strange circumstances. Her father's sudden death changed her life this way, and she suddenly has to mind a household which has three young boys from the earlier marriage of her husband, the eldest son being a year older to her.

From then on, whatever she touched, turned out to have adverse consequences. Her husband's sister is cruel to her right from the beginning, though her attitude softens and becomes much more sympathetic toward the end. Her husband tries a lot of different things, from the noble to the ridiculous, to please her and to assuage his own feeling of guilt, but Nirmala sees through him and remains cool toward him, although serving him faithfully on a day-to-day basis. Her attempt to win over the children results in a terrible misunderstanding about her relation with the eldest son, Mansaram, and this ultimately leads to splits in the family and ultimate ruin. She even, unwittingly and by sheer chance, plays a role in the destruction of her friend Sudha's family. It's not a cheerful story to read.

What Premchand excels in is in exposing the social evils of the day, most of which continue to this day. The custom of dowry is the real turning point in the life of the child Nirmala, when her greedy in-laws-to-be refuse to marry their son to her after her father's death. In orthodox India, all morality comes down to the nature of the male-female relationship, which plays the central role here in the destruction – physical & mental – of not just Nirmala, but her entire family. Nirmala's character is, however, kept flawless throughout the novel – her desires never being allowed to come to the surface, her sense of duty, service and sacrifice always coming to the fore. Her thorough goodness is understood only in the end by her husband, foster sons and her sister-in-law, by when it is too late to remedy anything.

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