Indigo by Satyajit Ray

It was with some trepidation that I started this one. The ghost of my last experience with a translated book (Gulzar's Half a Rupee Stories) was still haunting me. Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but I said a little prayer anyways. It worked. Indigo is a good translation of some of Satyajit Ray's short stories. Somewhere in the first few pages, I forgot that I was reading the translated versions of Ray's original creations. The voice of the translator and author merged into one. 

Many of the short stories in Indigo revolve around the theme of the supernatural. Haunted houses, spirits, past-lives, spells, strange creatures take centre-stage. Other stories pivot on the evil that can emerge from the most commonplace appearing minds. I had always associated Ray with serious issue-oriented subjects on which his films are made. This, despite the fact that I don't remember seeing any of his films but that's the impression I held. These stories revealed a different facet of the creative genius. 

The only complaint I have is that the last few stories were a tad predictable. Maybe because they were read as a collection and so after a point if was easy to predict what way the author was likely to go. Since the stories were not written as a collection but as individual works over a stretch of a few years, they should have best been savoured like a course-by-course degustation rather than a happy meal from the drive-thru? 

Sea of Poppies

One of my favourite reads last year was Amitav Ghosh's first, Shadow Lines. In fact it made its way to my shelf of all-time favourites. What I loved about Shadow Lines was the unusual flow in the narrative. The story moved between different time periods with a nonchalance that made me envy the writer's genius. I have read one more book by the author, The Glass Palace. In this one, the author displays his prowess in placing created characters against actual events and real people. I remember wanting to visit the Burmese King's palace in Ratnagiri after I finished the book.

Sea of Poppies, thus, had a lot to live up to even before I had read the first line. Ghosh once again experiments with the narrative. The story starts off with three-four different threads which appear unconnected in the beginning but soon it is clear that at some point they are all going to intertwine. The author gives space to the back stories of all key characters so much so that as the reader I felt a bond with them and I connected with their angst. And by the end of it I was rooting for each one of them to get their desired resolution.

The irritation in the story-telling was the use of vernacular dialogue followed immediately by its translation. As a writer it is something that I fight to not do with a vengeance, however tempting it may be at times. And as a creative writing teacher, I have had many a classes run into overtime, because of a discussion on this subject. I wonder what Ghosh's reasons were to write so much of the dialogue in this manner. But, the plot was the winner, it gripped me and compelled me to push through the dialogue to reach the end.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

I am apprehensive about reading books or watching films on prevailing topics like terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism were just after 9/11 and rape was just after the Delhi rape incident. I often, find these stories gimmicky, written not because the writer had a story to tell but because it was a story that the audiences would like to see or read. Such stories read contrived and thus disappoint. So, it was with some trepidation that I added 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' to my reading list, the excellent reviews swayed me towards it.

And the story does not disappoint. For one, it is not about a young, innocent Muslim boy who is wronged by America or administration, turns into a radical but is killed just before he can bomb an American city into  oblivion. The story is about Changez, a Pakistani student who graduates among the top in his class at Princeton, and lands a dream job, but 9/11 happens and changes everything. In this story, unlike most others on the topic, the catalyst for the change in Changez is his inner conflict. Should he align himself to his inherent sense of allegiance towards his land of birth? Or should he continue on his professional journey in the country at war with his homeland? Or is there a middle path?

The hero of the novel though is not Change, or the plot, it is the narrative style that Hamid chooses to tell the story. By making Changez the narrator of his story, he gave me a singular point of view and allowed me to imagine the rest based on Changez's narration of events.
'Is he to be believed?
'No! He is he an unreliable narrator.'
'He sounds genuine enough, doesn't he?'
As the story twisted and turned towards the climax, I oscillated between the options, but not even after the end could I make up my mind. The author's movement between the present and the past is smooth. And, the clues he gives about Changez's listener through Changez's eyes are enough for the reader to get an inkling about his identity without it being revealed.
"Run, Changez, run," I almost screamed out. "Get away from this man." But, the warning stayed stuck in my throat.