Cocoon (Kosla) by Bhalchandra Vanaji Nemade

Cocoon (Kosla) was a path breaking novel. Not only was it revolutionary in terms of the plot employed but also, it broke away from the common linguistic technique applied in novels of that time with the usage of colloquial language and short terse sentences that were used many a times during the latter part of the novel which gave us an idea about the sorrow and the doubts the protagonist went through.

The novel begins with a twenty five year old Pandurang Sangvikar telling us how the only thing worth telling about him is the fact that he is twenty five years old. This he says because in spite of having spent ten- twelve thousand rupees of his father he has never really taken his examinations or future prospects seriously. Besides, he says that having come back after spending years in the city people expect him to walk, talk and dress up in a particular fashion which he doesn’t do. Neither does he take any interest at their farm and the work that it demands. All in all he is a disappointment to his family and society.

It is then that he starts narrating the story of his life. This novel is a complete retelling of the life of Pandu as a student in Pune and what happens after that which compels him to come back to his village and life a life stark opposite of what he and the world had expected of him. It is an honest account of what a youngster went through, his trials and tribulations, the pain of losing his younger sister and the impact all these had on him which drove him into thinking about the meaning of life and the purpose of his existence on earth.

Though it is considered to be a good work of translation by the popular mass, this public opinion must have been generated by the fact that Kosla was the most sought after novel of the 60’s and its translation was awaited for a long time which clouded their critical mind from seeing the shortcomings of the book. Some of these inadequacies are not entirely the translator’s fault though. For example, every name listed in Pandu’s college life has a deeper connotation to it. Surnames are implications of the caste and creed of any person born on Indian soil. A reader in Marathi will immediately know the background of the person in question while to the one for whom Marathi is foreign, its meaning is lost. The way the name of the addressed person is distorted is also another feature that the reader may not be accustomed to. By this Pandu becomes Pandya; Mangesh, Mangya and so forth, something which in Marathi is called ‘apabhraunsh’.

There are instances in the latter half of the novel where a lot of local village customs and rites have been spoken about. To someone who is not familiar to such things it may sound absurd to the extend foolish which is why I think sufficient footnotes had to be given along with the cultural context. In some parts, the translation makes no sense. For example, what is ‘baingan ka bharta’ has been translated as ‘brinjal mess’! When he has not translated words like ‘bhaji’, then why bother translating ‘baigan ka bharta’? There is another occasion where the word ‘battery’ is used which is the word many Maharashtrians employ to call a torch. No such thing is mentioned.

Pandu has talked about going to a Madras Café many times in the initial part of the novel. In the Marathi version it is called the Madras Hotel. The concept of café is still quite novel in India. Therefore the use of the word ‘café’ sounds anachronistic when translating a text from the 60’s. Kosla as a novel was appreciated because of its novelty. This newness seems to be absent in the English version. The quest of the writer simply cannot be felt.

We can see the gradual change in Pandu through the language used in every section. In the beginning before moving to the city the language is typical of the village he is from. Later as he starts living in the city he starts speaking in a more standardized Marathi which is called Puneri Marathi. Towards the end, especially after the death of his sister his words become very philosophical in nature.

The death of his sister Mani is one of the most disturbing episodes in the novel. She suffered much before she finally gave up. Because of the blisters on her body, even inside her eyes and throat she gradually lost all her senses. What is written next is something that can be subjected to many questions regarding how she died. “And two days later, without so much as washing or laving her body, they buried her outside the village. And with her they buried everything that had touched her bed. The schoolbag, her bed sheet—everything.” From this statement it is not even clear if she died first or they buried her alive. This sentence is perhaps the most disturbing statement in the novel. Pandu was broken after he learnt of how his little sister’s last few days were and the way she was treated. Even her memories were not allowed to linger in the house. He couldn’t believe how callous the members of his family could be.

Mani’s death shook him a lot. He got into a frenzy because of his rage. He didn’t know why he was so angry but he simply needed to vent it out. We see him temporarily going into a phase of madness at this point of time. “I bought a flame-yellow sari such as little girls wear. Cut it up into shreds. Then I lit them up one by one. In that blaze I burned my hands. Then—I emptied my inkpot on the floor and cooled my burning hands in the ink. Staining my hands again and again I marked paw prints all over—on the pillow, mattress, table, books and notebooks, the door, window, on the walls.”

The novel takes a turn from here onwards. Not only does Pandu lose interest in Literature and debate which he had acquired a taste for but he also loses touch with the world. His alienation is a modernist concept. His sole quest is to find meaning in life. He had come to the city to find what he couldn’t get in the village but he went back to the village in the hope that someday he might find answers to what he couldn’t find in the city.

At home he was not of much help to his family as he showed a total lack of interest in helping his father at the farm. If ever he did work for his father he did his tasks without enthusiasm. He couldn’t make his father proud and was not ashamed about it. His father’s attitude towards him however was a lot better from how it was in the beginning. He began to show his son some love in the hope that his son would understand the burden of the responsibilities that fell on his shoulders after his father’s death.

In the end Pandu comes to terms with the way the world around him works. He still does not accept it but he learns to tolerate it. This is evident by the fact that he says that he’ll do everything that is asked of him. He would not complain and quietly do it since he knows that ultimately the world will make him do what it wants him to do.

Norwegian Woods by Haruki Murakami

The novel is set against the backdrop of the student’s revolution that arose throughout the world in the 1960’s. It depicts Tokyo during this period which was also known for bringing in a fresh wave of new ideas in the earlier traditional society. Freedom of expression, western influence and sexual freedom are all parts of this revolution that Murakami employs to weave a tale around Toru Watanabe, the three women in his life and the impact they left on him.

Mahasweta Devi’s Mother of 1084 is set against the same background. However there is a major difference in the narrative of both the novels. The template of both the tales may be the same but in Mother of 1084, the politics or the students’ upheaval plays a more important role. This story is about a mother in pursuit of finding out the reasons behind her son’s death. While Sujata, the mother learns more and more about the conditions in which her son was killed, the nature of the revolution is unfolded for us as the son died for the cause of the revolution. Thus the revolution plays a central theme in the plot unlike in Norwegian Wood which deals more with the mind of the people living in a city which at that time was at the threshold of a new wave as stated earlier.

In the beginning we see a thirty seven year old Toru Watanabe who through his memories is taken back into his late teens when he had just shifted to Tokyo. This he does when an orchestral cover version of The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood” plays in the flight where he is sitting. He tries to recall the face of his first love, something he’s unable to do initially but when it starts coming back to him he’s surprised at the clarity of the details with which he remembers everything. This makes him realize that though he thought he had left his past way behind he couldn’t detach himself from them as much as he would have liked to as what happened then greatly influenced the way he perceived things, brought about a change in his personality consequently shaping the way his life turned out to be.

We see the misery of the youth in Japan unfolding through the eyes of Toru who has lost people close to him due to the havoc created in the young minds with the coming in of the new age. The first loss is that of Kizuki who was Toru’s best friend. Toru had no clue about the conflict in Kizuki’s mind as Kizuki had always appeared to be confident about himself and what he wanted from his life but it was only later that he learnt from Naoko who was Kizuki’s girlfriend that he had been obsessed with trying to improve himself. He put great effort in trying to hide his weakness from people except Naoko. He failed to see that he was fine and beautiful in himself but unable to be wanted he wanted to be drove him into taking his own life leaving behind a sense of incompleteness in two people who greatly loved him. Kizuki is the only true friend Toru had ever had. He does develop friendships with others, for example, Nagasawa but Toru could even after trying never agree with the way Nagasawa lived his life and therefore their friendship was that of pure convenience.

This novel is known for being dark as death is one of the recurring themes. It began with Kizuki and later on we learn about another death through Naoko the added impact of which leaves her damaged. Naoko and Toru met in Tokyo a couple of years after Kizuki’s death. Their meeting was accidental but they were glad that they met because they knew that they could lament the loss of the one they were closest to only in the presence of each other thus becoming each other’s comforter- an arrangement through which they managed to develop the first true relationship after Kizuki’s death. As their relationship deepens Toru learns that Naoko’s sister too had committed suicide, the reason of which we are not told. However we do find out how shattered it left Naoko, who was the one who found her body hanging from the ceiling. Her sister was 17 then. Kizuki too died at the age of 17. Having lost two people she loved in the same manner had a terrible impact on her. In a fit of deep compassion and tenderness Toru happens to spend a night at her place and ends up sleeping with her following which Naoko leaves the city.

The novel so far is shadowed by a mist of gloom till Midori enters who with her spark lights up Toru’s life. She is quirky, happy all the time, shockingly blatant and speaks anything that comes into her head. Toru found her attractive but was not attracted to her initially but loved her company. Sometimes her actions were appalling but one cannot help but laugh at her forthrightness. For instance, she once asked Toru to think about her and masturbate and tell her how it was. Another time when Toru told her that her skirt was too short she told him that that is precisely the reason why she’d worn a nice and frilly panty. Toru himself felt that her behaviour was inappropriate but all the same admired and respected her for being happy all the time in spite of living a hard life. He knew that she was constantly trying to keep herself happy but needed to vent her unhappiness sometimes which is why at the hospital he offered to stay with her dying father while she could go out and spend some time alone. She is so absurd that one doesn’t know what to expect from her. When she lost her father she called up Toru to inform him of the same and asked him to take her to the movies to watch porn like he had promised before.

In the meantime he learnt that Naoko had enrolled herself at a place that took care and helped in the healing of people who are broken. It is when he went to meet her that he met Reiko who was Naoko’s close friend and roommate. Although she was older to them in age they could connect with her very well. Here, Toru and Naoko again have many sexual encounters never ending in fulfillment. Toru, Naoko and Reiko form a small family unit- something which they have not experienced in a while owing to the modern culture that has hit Japan at this time because of which families have lost their cohesiveness leading to individuals being left to their own devices with no support system to hold on to.

Throughout the novel we do not see Toru feeling strongly about anything. Even if he did, he failed to put it across effectively. He seems to be a mere spectator of his own life which is why although the narrative is interspersed with unpleasant events, the reader is not moved into feeling as bad as s/he should. Although the two women of his life are as different as women can get he is never judgmental about them, especially about Midori who we see is glad about this nature of his and would rather spend time with him than her boyfriend because she feels free to tell him anything or do anything in his presence.

Naoko unable to cope with the depression of having lost two important people in her life gave up and took her own life. Hatsumi, who was Nagasawa’s girlfriend, also took her life. Hatsumi had all along known that her boyfriend was cheating on her but her steadfast love for him made her unable to leave him. The end of their relationship was inevitable. Hatsumi did try to move on by getting married to someone else with whom she had a child too but unable to cope with her personal loss which we can only assume is having not being able to be with Nagasawa she ended her life.

Toru too got into a frenzy after the death of Naoko but Reiko helped him come out of it. She encouraged him to pursue a relationship with Midori as he had already started developing feelings for her before Naoko’s death, back when he was supposed to make a choice between the life-negating Naoko and the life-affirming Midori. That day Reiko and Toru had sex four times. In many cultures in East Asia the number four is often associated with death. Murakami may have meant that this was the death or end of Toru’s connection with the past paving way for a life with no more troubles; he could have meant that this was the end of the camaraderie between Reiko and Toru as it is not indicated that they ever meet again.

In this novel we see a young generation trying to make sense of its neurosis and pluralities in life in a culture that is commoditized where everything is in excess which is why they cannot feel deeply and therefore nothing seeps in beyond the surface. It is a culture that witnessed the gradual fading away of tradition and the coming in of new values. The chaos it thus created in the mind of the youth is beautifully depicted in this novel and gives us an insight of Tokyo in the 60’s.

The Trial

Kafka is one of the founding fathers of modernism and is rightly so because he was one of the first to establish that our faith in the world is actually a myth. Modernism was the answer to Realism which had absolute faith in the world and its existence. Kafka’s incomprehensibility of the external world and the attempt to describe at least half the reality of this world failed because no words could describe this reality well enough which led to his total lack of faith in the power of language itself.

Kafka led a lonely life as he was continually working with his craft to quench his thirst and angst for knowledge. This is the first resemblance we see between Kafka and Joseph K. K’s loneliness is reflected in the fact that when he gets arrested there is no one he can expect help from. He is left to his own devices when one fine ordinary morning he realizes that he is under arrested. “Somebody must have made a false accusation against Josef K., for he was arrested one morning without having done anything wrong”. This is how the novel begins. The reader along with the protagonist is thrown into uncertainty from the very first sentence of the novel. This is the first glimpse we get about the essence of the novel and modernism. Modernism entails the complete disruption of time, reason and habit. This is exactly what we find here. K’s daily routine and privacy is disrupted by an external body of law which is bent on punishing K for a crime he’s not aware of having committed.

K’s question here is that when there is a set body of law governing and ensuring that everything is in order how can some other body of law come and disrupt his everyday life and make him a prisoner without walls. If indeed he is arrested he wonders why he is not put into jail but allowed to walk free but under supervision. He is at a loss about the nature of the crime that he has committed for which he has been subjected to such a punishment. The bewilderment that this disruption causes makes him aggressive and violent because this disruption has entered his sense of the ‘I’ by which his identity is endangered.

He confides in Fraulein Burstner who is another tenant in his apartment because somehow he thinks her privacy too was disrupted as her room was used for the trial by the supervisor. There is also an implication that he might have had some feelings for her since he got angry with Frau Grubach when she said things that questioned Burstner’s virtue. Also, towards the end of their discussion K, on a sudden impulse kisses Burstner. K very well knows that there is no way she can help him out but so meaningless is his understanding of the situation that he’s willing to go to any lengths to find a solution. Before this he even talks to Frau Grubach whose reply is very indicative of the core issue here. She said “you are indeed under arrest, but not like a thief is under arrest - it seems to me something scholarly, forgive me if I am saying something stupid, it seems to me like something scholarly which I don't understand, but which one doesn't have to understand either.” This simple statement from one of the most insignificant characters in the novel holds a lot of relevance. The other body of law is his mind and he is trying to make sense of this world but because K is not able to do so he feels like a prisoner caught in the labyrinthine maze of meaninglessness. This other body of law is a metaphor to this labyrinth fictionalized in the form of a novel. It is because K is an intellectual which not many people are, that he is grappling with his own questions about the meaning of life. Had he not been an intellectual he could have led a very normal life like the others. Being an intellectual is like opening Pandora’s Box. It may not contain evil things but its contents are capable of causing the same effect to mankind by making them lose sense of themselves and the external world. On deep introspection one might be led to believe that since K is a reflection on Kafka, Kafka is trying to put himself in the category of intellectuals thereby possibly explaining why he is so disturbed in his real life.

At the trial in the courtroom Ka and the magistrate simply do not connect with each other which shows that communication is an impossibility. The audience on his left and right represent the Left and the Right. He initially believed that the people in the courtroom were like him who had come seeking justice only to later realize that this feeling of belonging to a group is a disillusion and does not operate anymore.

Kafka has adopted a naturalistic style of writing owing to which there’s detailed accounting of every physical and emotional gesture on both descriptive and symbolic levels. But he doesn’t write about anything about the place he lives in, the kind of world he belongs to, even the name of the place he lives in is not mentioned. The style is underplayed but this doesn’t let the reader escape the immensity of the situation.

This obsession with the mindscape leads to two kinds of emotions typical of Kafka:-

· Utter loneliness

That is not being able to make any sense of the world and the helplessness that arises out of being left to one’s own choices and devices.

· Sense of meaningless

This arises out of being thrown into the world without values or any means of communicating, living with the feeling of being caught in one’s own mind without being able to escape.

We can see that he’s so enticed with the workings of the mind that he’s not bothered about the society or driven by any sort of motivation to change the system. Through every character he comes across he’s trying to grasp the system but meets complete failure. Through this we understand that the Modernist doesn’t ignore convention. They are obsessed with it in order to find meaningless in it.

In this novel there is a reflection of the fearful bureaucracy that was beginning to be a part of the world (Kafka belonged to the pre-Hitler period). The only person who came close to understanding this bureaucracy is Tittorelli, the painter who knows that K would not be able to handle it and therefore tries to steer him away from its complexities.

The end shows us that once we’re sucked into this labyrinth it is impossible for us to find a way out. It is like a black hole and we only get sucked deeper and deeper into it. This is symbolized through the death of K in the end.

Raag Darbari

An overview of Gillian Wright’s translation of Shrilal Shukla’s Raag Darbari.

Raag Darbaari is a novel that captures ordinary life in a small village in Uttar Pradesh. Although this novel is not very widely read in many regions in our country, the reason why Gillian Wright chose to translate it is because no other English novel has come so close to depicting a rural village in north India. In Raag Darbari she could feel the smell of the soil of Uttar Pradesh emanate from every page.

Raag Darbari is a product of Shrilal Shukla’s observations of society and sense of humour as a result of which it became a best seller over thirty years ago. The novel deals with the various levels at which our society is corrupted. Interestingly, unlike any of the novels of its kind, this novel neither criticizes the corruption that is corroding our political and social system nor provoking us into doing anything about it instead, it looks as though it is celebrating the corruption and humourising the sad plight of people who get caught in the whole process. This is the governing theme and essence of the novel.

We get the taste of this essence in every sentence beginning from the very first page where an ordinary market place is described. Not only does it manage to make a foreign reader laugh but the Indian reader too who is very used to such a market scenario and often has looked at it with contempt cannot help but find humour in the new way in which Indian markets have been portrayed.

The central character is a young man whose name is Rangnath who has come to stay at his uncle Vaidyaji’s place owing to illness. He is city educated and therefore has never been exposed to village politics. Since the reader is from the same background as him, it is easy for them to understand Rangnath’s predicament and feel the same towards people and situations the way he does.

Another principle character is Ruppan who is Vaidyaji’s youngest son, a born politician putting his political caliber on display through the numerous movements he has led in school and is in no hurry to get promoted to the next level in education as he has been in the tenth grade for three years now. It is clear for all to see that he is Vaidyaji in the making who would one day define new dimensions of corruption.

Vaidyaji’s elder son is Badri, the Wrestler who is concerned only about his physical strength, has no interest in politics but from time to time helps Vaidyaji in coercing people to submit to Vaidyaji’s will, not that Vaidyaji needs it since whether a person believes or doesn’t believe in God in Shivpalganj, there is no soul who dare question the authority of Vaidyaji.

Vaidyaji as his name suggests is a doctor who over the years has acquired the kind of power very few have dared to challenge in the village of Shivpalganj, one of them being Ramadhin who politically tried to counter Vaidyaji in every way possible and aspired to displace Vaidyaji from the ruler’s throne and see himself there some day. Vaidyaji is so powerful and iconic that the centre of power in Shivpalganj is considered to be Vaidyaji’s sitting room where discussions on the village’s working is held, rules are formed and implemented.

Wright’s translation of descriptions of people, places, contextual history and situations is marvelous but one wonders whether it could have been better had some shortcomings been taken care of. For example, the parts where the Principal got into the mode where he sermonized and appeared to be self-righteous in the process of which he would start talking in Awadhi could have been done in a different way. The method Wright used was to use old English which was unnecessary and came under criticism. What could have been done instead was for normal English to be used, as, after every time the Principal spoke so, it was mentioned that he said it in Awadhi. So either the old English or the statement of it having been spoken in Awadhi could have been done away with. The presence of both is unnecessary and the reader cannot help but find it redundant.

Also, there are instances where a culturally rich term has been used which may sound alien to the foreign reader only to be explained immediately in the very same sentence. It could have been put in a footnote. The fact that the explanation is contained in the same sentence is a poor example of a nearly ideal translation as in this way the translator is adding her own input into the sentence originally framed by the author which is not a sign of an adequate translation. For example, in the text when it was being explained why Sanichar’s name had been changed from Mangal, Wright says that Mangal means ‘Tuesday’ or ‘auspicious’. In the current context the right word to be used was ‘auspicious’. The availability of another meaning is misleading and unnecessary. Also, this explanation is given in the same sentence. Had it been given as a footnote there would have been a scope for better understanding of the context thorough the details given.

The events that follow after Rangnath’s arrival in Shivpalganj show in great detail the social condition typical of any village in north India. One thing that strikes the reader is the shocking absence of women which is an indication of how insignificant they are in the society. There is only one woman mentioned from time to time in the novel who is Bela and that too purely as an object of desire and later scorn of the society. Ruppan is in love with Bela and has not entirely tried to hide it. Later during a court trial Bela is called a woman of bad character in the presence of many people from the village where Bela herself is not present so that it can be verified whether the accusations that have been hurled at her are true or not. It is taken for granted that they must be true which further proves the fact that women have no say in anything. Thus Bela obtains a bad name in the village and the culprit is let to go free. At this point it is revealed that Badri is in love with Bela and that they’ve had an affair going on for some time.

While Vaidyaji makes a great show of how accepting he is of this inter-caste alliance between Badri and Bela by declaring that he would be happy to get them married, in the absence of public he shows Badri his anger and disappointment with the whole affair. While we are already used to the placid viciousness of Vaidyaji we are still let down when he shows this discontent. This shows that the reader still yearns for some sign of a saving grace in this god-forbidden village.

Another underlying theme is the helplessness of the people not in power. They are literally treated like mere pawns in this game of politics whose only job is to live according to Vaidyaji’s whims. The ones who don’t, no matter how hard they try they never get what they want. The only person we see who belongs to this category is Langar, who again as the name suggests is lame. This is a sad reflection of a society that addresses people according to their inabilities. Langar has resolved to get some documents made through the right channels without shelling out a single paisa as bribe. As a result we see that what could have been done with the help of five rupees in a couple of weeks couldn’t be done till the very end when he got the one and the only opportunity to get his documents made but missed it owing to illness and never got his job done. After this he lost heart and decided to go back to his village and live the remaining of his life in peace. Langar is the symbol of the common man who is an idealist. He represents the small minority of this country who has resolved to live in the right way doing the right things but in the end gets caught in the rut and never manages to come out of it effectively.

What happens in the end is what we hadn’t expected of Vaidyaji’s sons. While Ruppan who had already been considered to be the future Vaidyaji turned against his father, Badri on the other hand joined politics on the insistence of his father or rather to keep the coveted position in the family. There had been no promises of change or redemption from the very beginning so the reader could predict that nothing could happen of this village, it would always remain the same and no matter which external force or revolutionary idea threatened to uproot the corruption here, Shivpalganj would always remain Shivpalganj.

This is a delightful book and due credit should be given to the translator for bringing out the satire and pun quite effectively despite the few inadequacies. No matter how light-hearted this book is we must not disregard the seriousness of the issues which one easily can owing to the light narrative of the novel. Although amusing, the fact that such novels are still relevant is a very sad commentary on our society.

Mother of 1084

Mother of 1084 is based on the template of the naxal movement in the 60’s which shook the education framework of Calcutta as students plunged into the field of politics with the hope of bringing about a radical change. It is a mother’s quest to find out the reason and the circumstances under which her son was killed. It is the awakening of a passive woman who took the comforts she lived in for granted, never questioning the inner workings of her family and the hypocrisy of the people in her world.

This novel in many ways runs on par with the theme of Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Woods which again takes place during the 60’s in Tokyo which is the period that brought along new ideals and thoughts like, freedom from having to live with one’s family as everyone was moving out, freedom of expression causing students to protest which was a feature of student-dom throughout the world at that point of time, freedom of sexual expression, etc. Although the backdrop of both the novels are the same, Norwegian Woods concentrates more on the trials and tribulations youngsters went through due to the change in social pattern. Although we know that all this happens during the course of the student’s revolution, there is hardly any mention of it.

Sujata is the wife of Dibyanath who owns his own chartered accountant’s firm. She belongs to a family in which everyone is very well established and economically independent. She herself works in a bank which is not required of her but she does so in order to have a breathing space of her own away from the family. From the very beginning we are introduced to the isolated world of Sujata where she feels alienated from everyone else. She is a docile and nice woman but it is this niceness of hers that Mahasweta Devi is problematizing and blaming for being the reason why society is exploiting her. She never lived her life as an individual. She never questioned her husband’s ambitions for their children especially her youngest son Brati. She simply cannot feel the bond that ties her to her husband and children, Jyoti, Neepa and Tuli. She believes that the only reason she is in this family is because there is no way out. It is this belief of hers that is uprooted in the end when she gets jolted out of her cocoon which is caused by her search for answers concerning Brati’s death and the realizations she hits upon in the process.

This novel functions on many layers. The first being, the story of Brati’s death and Sujata’s attempt to find the reasons behind it and the second is the Naxalite movement, the template on which the story is set, which keeps getting mentioned from time to time. The past is shown through dreams and memories, personal memories of Sujata that included only her and Brati. This shows that there was a lot more depth to this relationship than we are allowed to guess initially. Both of them had always shared a special bond and understood that they stood separate from the rest of the family as they knew that no one else could understand them. She knew that Brati never confided in her much but if there was anyone in this family he cared about then that was her and she is re-assured about this every time she thinks of the last time she saw Brati walking out and turning just once to look at her in a way that conveyed a lot which then she couldn’t understand.

The entire story consists of events that occur through the course of a single day. The narrative is divided into four parts, namely, Morning, Afternoon, Late afternoon and Evening. Each section is indicative of the stage of Sujata’s realization. The morning begins with preparations for Tuli’s engagement. Sujata feels as if no one but her remembers that it is Brati’s birthday, coincidentally also, the day he died. She however is not surprised by this considering her family had done everything to erase his memories from their house as much as it could be socially possible. At this point she feels deep anger towards her husband who on the day when the news of Brati’s death arrived didn’t bereave his son’s death instead, set about trying to hide the reasons behind his death lest someone in the society found out. One is unable to comprehend why the father of a dead son would behave this way. It is the reflection of a society where social status and power define relationships. Sujata was one person who could not see herself as a part of this.

Towards afternoon Sujata meets the mother of Somu who was one of Brati’s closest friends and who was killed with him. There she learns that on his last day he had stayed at Somu’s which she realizes is because he felt that the people in Somu’s family were less hypocritical than the ones in his own. Here we see how fate has brought together two women separated by a world of power and wealth, with nothing in common except for the deaths of their sons.

Her next stop is at Nandini’s who she knew Brati was in love with. Many things happen here. Not only does the get to hear the whole story about the series of events that led to Brati’s death but for the first time ever someone shook her mentally. When she told Nandini that she didn’t know the story, Nandini said “I know. You people never know anything. For people like you, these are just stray episodes. But you now know that it’s wrong to carry on presuming that one needn’t know why and how such things happen.”. This was like a slap on Sujata’s face. All this time she had thought that she and Brati stood on the same plane, that there was nothing that stood between them. But the fact that Nandini included Sujata in that category she contemptuously referred to as ‘you people’ showed Sujata that she herself belonged to the category that was responsible for her son’s death. She realized how ignorant she was about the world she lived in and that it was necessary to get politicized. She found no meaning in her passive life anymore. Here we get an insight into Sujata’s exploration of the complex relationship between the personal and the political.

Sujata goes back home a changed woman. She neither feels responsible towards her family nor does she care about them anymore. She knew that each one of them had forgotten Brati and she wanted to have nothing to do with people who could so easily forget her beloved son. Here we get a clear view of the kind of social circle she belongs to which is utterly hypocritical. It becomes unimaginably dramatic at the arrival of Saroj Pal who was responsible for the annihilation of Brati and can not come in because apparently he’s ‘on duty’. This along with the fact that he’s come in a ‘black car’ brings back memories of the same day two years ago when Brati had left Sujata. In the end, Sujata’s appendix bursts. This is extremely symbolic. Throughout the novel we are reminded of Sujata’s ailing appendix that needs to be treated. This symbolically corresponds to her ailing heart that pines for her son and the hurt caused by the unfair way in which he had been treated all his life. In the end she decided to leave the family if required or do anything that would bring about a radical change in her life. This is her breaking away from years of living a passive life, from years of being dominated by her husband, mother-in-law and now Tuli, from not having been given the right to show her love to her son when he was alive and grieve his loss when he was gone. This is her finally thinking about herself and the new beliefs she stands for, for the sake of her son, his memory and her acknowledgement of the fact that her son died for a cause that he deemed worthy.

RENT

The heart may freeze or it can burn…the pain will ease if I can learn…

There is no future. There is no past. I live this moment as my last.

There’s only us, there’s only this. Forget regret or life is yours to miss.

No other road no other way, no day but today!

The songs never cease to inspire. Neither do the characters leave without making you think about them, their lives for hours after the credits. That’s RENT for you!

My first rendezvous with it was when I heard the A cappella of Seasons of love being performed by my friends in the auditorium in college just before they were to leave for Malhar for the finals.

5,25,600 minutes, 5,25,600 Moments so dear. 5,25,600 minutes How do you measure, measure a year? In daylights? In sunsets? in midnights? In cups of coffee? In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife? In 5,25,600 minutes How do you measure A year in the life? How about love? Measure in love… Seasons of love।

The words so simple, yet thought provoking managed to strike a chord. The next few days involved running around to all the possible Music Worlds to hunt for the DVD. I have always loved musicals. Finally found it at the Crossword in Kemps Corner.

Fellow hostellers thought I had gone mad coz I saw the movie before sleeping every night. In fact those RENT watching sessions were the best part of my insomniac phase.

Its not that the movie is that exceptionally good (I think it is) but the songs are so down to earth and close to life that you’d want to learn them so that you can keep humming them.

Of all the songs of RENT La vie Boheme I’ve seen is the most popular। It can any day become a rebel’s anthem. It talks about everything. From "...Creation, Vacation Mucho masturbation Compassion, to fashion, to passion When it's new To Sontag To Sondheim To anything taboo Ginsberg, Dylan, Cunningham and Cage Lenny Bruce Langston Hughes To the stage! To Uta To Buddha Pablo Neruda, too Bisexuals, trisexuals, Homo Sapiens, Carcinogens, hallucinogens, men, Pee Wee Herman German wine, turpentine, Gertrude Stein Antonioni, Bertolucci, Kurosawa Carmina Burana To apathy, to entropy, to empathy, ecstasy Vaclav Havel- The Sex Pistols, 8BC To no shame- Never playing the fame game To marijuana To sodomy.....!!!!!!!"

Would you light my Candle? being another song you would love to hum. And if you by any chance become a die-hard fan of the musical (like me), dont blame yourself if you say Well its gotta be close to midnight the next time someone asks you What's the time?

The story revolves around six characters Mark (a filmmaker), Roger (songwriter, HIV +ve, and ex-junkie), Mimi (a dancer at a Night club, HIV +ve, a junkie), Maureen (a bi-sexual, Mark’s ex-girlfriend), Collins (HIV +ve, ex-professor at NYU), Angel (HIV +ve, Transvestite and Collin’s girlfriend), the two supporting characters being Joanne (Maureen’s girlfriend) and Benny (Mark, Roger and Collins’ ex-roommate-turned landlord of their apartment).

It’s the story of their struggle against poverty, AIDS, discrimination of homosexuals seasoned with an honest script the reality of which hits you hard on the face. Its a must watch!!!