It is 1953 in colonial Kenya, and eightyearold Vikram Lall witnesses the celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, even as the Mau Mau guerilla war challenges British rule. Vic and his sister Deepa, whose grandfather came to Kenya from Punjab to build the railways, must find their place in this uncertain world of violent upheaval, confusing loyalties and conflicting ideologies. And among their newly acquired playmates, the brother and sister, neither Black nor White, find themselves in between British Bill and Annie, and the African Njoroge. These friendships will haunt them the rest of their lives. We follow Vic from the changing Africa of the fifties, to the sixties— a time that holds immense promise. But when that hope is betrayed by the corruption, fear and repression of the seventies and eighties, Vic finds himself drawn into the official orbit of graft and powerbrokering. Njoroge, on the other hand, can abandon neither the idealism of his youth nor his love for Deepa. Neither the cynicism of the one nor the idealism of the other can avert the tragedies that await. Acute and bittersweet, vividly portrayed and finely nuanced, The InBetween World of Vikram Lall is told in the voice of the exiled Vic from the shores of Lake Ontario, as he contemplates the historical events that have shaped him— `one of Africa’s most corrupt men’— and the choices he has made.
Archives: Books
Love will follow
Train To India
FROM THE AUTHOR OF OPEN SECRETS, THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE HUMAN TRAGEDY IN BENGAL BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER PARTITION.
Maloy and his mother board the Dacca- Sylhet Express from Bhairab in 1950. The young boy notices a tick mark in white chalk on the side of the carriage, a sign that worries him. The train enters the Anderson Bridge, and a blob, of fresh bloos hits Maloy’s face. Bodies roll down to the river…
As a young boy, Maloy Krishna Dhar, made the perilous journey to India from the East Pakistan. Politics had taken a communal colour in this region-age-old bonds between Hindi and Muslim Bengalis had deteriorated. The situation was made worse by near famine conditions and the brutal suppression of unrest. Villages were torched, marauding attackers had a free hand, and trains became charnel houses on wheels.
The partion in Bengal had its share of tragedy, of lives unmade and lost, but it is relatively less chronicled than events in Punjab. Maloy Krishna Dhar’s Train to India is a graphic and moving account of that turbulent and unforgotten era of Bengal History.
The Face you were Afraid to See
Economists talk of prices rising or falling in response to excess of demand or supply in the market, but are at a loss to explain who sets the price in a market of many players where no one has the power to dictate price. They then have to invent the ‘invisible hand’ of a mythical god called ‘price mechanism’ to create the image of the market operating as a self-regulating system. While unregulated free trade amounts to groping in the dark, the situation is far worse when the prices and other rules of the market are set by the state on behalf of large corporations-as has happened in globalizing India in the name of economic development.
Large corporations, aided and abetted by the land acquisition policies of the central and state governments, are indulging in massive land-grabbing. We witness the perversity of development in the destruction of livelihoods and displacement of the poor in the name of industrialization, in the construction of big dams for power generation and irrigation, in the corporatization of agriculture despite farmers’ suicides, and in the modernization and beautification of our cities by the demolition of slums.
One of India’s foremost theoretical economists, Amit Bhaduri contends that we have abjectly surrendered to the conventional wisdom of our time-that there is no alternative to corporations and the type of globalization that they lead. The result, he warns, will not be a freer market and more freedom, but a disastrous and deepening chasm between the India of privilege and the India of crushing poverty.
The Face You Were Afraid to See is a collection of compellingly argued essays that draws attention to the other India that we turn away from. Fiercely critical of financial liberalization, corporate-led globalization and neoliberalism that celebrates unregulated free trade, the essays together make for a forceful critique of India’s economic policies.
Laburnum for My Head
Every May something extraordinary happens in the new cemetery of the sleepy little town – a laburnum tree, with buttery yellow blossoms, flowers over the spot where Lentina is buried. A brave hunter, Imchanok, totters when the ghost of his prey haunts him, till he offers it is a tuft of his hair as a prayer for forgiveness. Pokenmong, the servant boy, by dint of his wit, sells an airfield to unsuspecting villagers. A letter found on a dead insurgent blurs the boundaries between him and an innocent villager, both struggling to make ends meet. A woman’s terrible secret comes full circle, changing her daughter’s and granddaughter’s lives as well as her own. An illiterate village woman’s simple question rattles an army officer and forces him to set her husband free. A young girl loses her lover in his fight for the motherland, leaving her a frightful legacy. And a caterpillar finds wings.
From the mythical to the modern, Laburnum for My Head is a collection of short stories that embrace a gamut of emotions. Heart-rending, witty and riddled with irony, the stories depict a deep understanding of the human condition.
Tilism-E-Hoshruba
Tilism-e-Hoshruba is an epic narrative of the adventures of the legendary Persian hero Emir Hamza—the protagonist of Hamza Nama—his sons and grandsons. The epic opens with the commander-in-chief of the Islamic army, Hamza, pursuing Laqa, who makes false claims to divinity. Laqa takes refuge in Kohistan, adjacent to the enchanted land of Hoshruba, ruled by the formidable King of Sahirs, Afrasiyab Jadoo. Afrasiyab reveres Laqa and deputes his sahirs or wizards to help him fight Hamza.
Hamza’s grandson Asad then sets out to conquer Hoshruba, assisted by the clever trickster Amar, who possesses divine artefacts such as a cloak of invisibility and a magic pouch containing parallel PBI – Worlds. Aided by powerful allies and beset at every step by magical snares, dangerous enchantments and seductive sorceresses, the Islamic army finally conquers Hoshruba.
Tilism-e-Hoshruba has enthralled generations of readers with its chivalrous heroes, breathtakingly beautiful princesses, powerful sahirs, sahiras and demons. This brilliant condensed translation by Shahnaz Aijazuddin sensitively reinterprets the highly Persianized Urdu of the original text into this eminently readable book that retains the essence of the original.
A Tale Of Two Revolts
Two wars––the 1857 Revolt in PBI – India and the American Civil War—seemingly fought for very different reasons, occurred at opposite ends of the globe in the middle of the nineteenth century. But they were both fought in a PBI – World still dominated by Great Britain and the battle cry in both conflicts was freedom.
Rajmohan Gandhi brings the drama of both wars to one stage in A Tale of Two Revolts. He deftly reconstructs events from the point of view of William Howard Russell—an Irishman who was also perhaps the PBI – World’s first war correspondent—and uncovers significant connections between the histories of the United States, Britain and PBI – India. The result is a tale of two revolts, three countries and one century. Into this fascinating story Rajmohan Gandhi weaves the choices of five extraordinary inhabitants of PBI – India—Sayyid Ahmed Khan, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, Jotiba Phule, Allan Octavian Hume and Bankimchandra Chatterjee—and of three towering figures of PBI – World history—Karl Marx, Leo Tolstoy and Abraham Lincoln—to show the continuities between the nineteenth century and the PBI – World we live in today.
Scholarly, insightful and gripping, A Tale of Two Revolts raises new questions about these wars that changed the PBI – World.
The Confession Of Sultana Daku
7 July 1924. Sultana Daku, notorious leader of a gang of bhantu dacoits that terrorized the towns and villages of the United Provinces, awaits Lt. Col. Samuel Pearce’s arrival in Haldwani jail.
It is Sultana’s last night. In the morning he will be hanged.
Wrapped in a haze of charas and nostalgia, the daku speaks all night as the Englishman listens. He recounts tales of incredible feats and narrow escapes, of the camaraderie he shared with his bhantu companions, of his love for the nautanki dancer Phulkanwar, and of the shocking betrayal that brought him to the gallows. But even as Pearce and the reader are drawn into Sultana’s confession, the contradictions that emerge reveal the daku’s own demons—his fears, superstitions and ruthless excesses—and an unshakeable belief in his criminal destiny that clashes all too often with his secret longings and hopes.
Combining swashbuckling adventure with a moving story of human frailty and fortitude, The Confession of Sultana Daku is a grand narrative that is as mesmerizing as it is unsettling. Told with remarkable flair, passion and a rare sensitivity, it seals Sujit Saraf’s reputation as a master storyteller.
The Diary Of An Unreasonable Man
Pranav Kumar is:
(a) An advertising executive
(b) An aspiring writer
(c) An anarchist
(d) A fugitive from the Mumbai Police
(e) All of the above
Pranav Kumar has had enough. He’s sick and tired of being a corporate drone convincing people that their lives are meaningless without the newest product he’s peddling. He hates that commercialism is the new mantra and people actually believe that you are what you own. Pranav Kumar wants to change the world.
But how does one man make a whole country question the way we are when no one is interested in listening?
Pranav and his friends decide to capture the eyeballs of the nation and shake up the system. Their methods are unorthodox; their message unique. They take over a TV station; expose an environmental scam; strike out at patrons of brothels; sabotage a glitzy fashion show; and paint-bomb a local train.
But as the Anarchists of Mumbai ignite sparks of a much larger movement; they realize that doing good comes at a price; that the means are as important as the ends and that being hunted by the Mumbai police is perhaps better than being hunted by contract-killers.
Bold; fresh and darkly comic; The Diary of an Unreasonable Man is an exceptional debut.
Stupid Cupid
I had set up an agent. For want of a better name, let’s call it love agency, to provide a decent meeting place where men and women, lovers and friends, colud rendezvous without too much sweat… People only want to be alone together. They need time to meet and talk. They want to find themselves through a moment of love.’
Drawn to New Delhi from the hills of the North-East by hopes of adventure and the love of a married man, Anda opens a guest house for lovers and friends. In a small bungalow on a quiet lane, an unlikely assortment of couples and singles come together, for an afternoon, a day and sometimes for months. While in the big city death, like Cupid, stalks the streets and strikes at random.
This second novel by the acclaimed author of The Legends of Pensam is a graceful, quirky and ultimately moving story about relationships, complete with all their complications and joy.
‘Dai’s prose is beautiful, flowing as easily as the waters of the Siang’
The Telegraph