The sequel to the award-winning and critically-acclaimed Those Days, First Light is a magnificent novel set at the turn of the twentieth century in a Bengal where the old and young India are jostling for space. Prominent among its many characters are Rabindranath Tagore or Robi, the young, dreamy poet, torn between his art and the love for his beautiful, ethereal sister-in-law, Kadambari Devi, and the handsome, dynamic Naren Datta, later to become Swami Vivekananda, who abandons his Brahmo Samaj leanings and surrenders himself completely to his Guru, Sri Ramakrishna. The story also touches upon the lives of the men and women rising to the call of nationalism; the doctors and scientists determined to pull their land out of the morass of superstition and blind beliefs, and the growing theatre movement of Bengal, with its brilliant actors and actresses who leave behind the squalor of their lives every night to deliver lines breathtaking in their beauty. Through all this runs the story of Bharat and Bhumisuta – one an illegitimate prince, the other a slave who rises to become the finest actress of her age – who cling to their self-respect and love in a society which has little time for people like them. Grand in its scale and crackling with the energy of its prose, First Light is a rich and comprehensive portrait of Bengal, from its sleepy, slow-changing villages to the bustling city of Calcutta where the genteel and the grotesque live together. Equally, it is a chronicle of a whole nation waking up to a new, modern sensibility.
Catagory: Fiction
Fiction main category
Book Of Shadows
The avengers of my vanity have broken me, humbled me with these small depredations of skin and bone and tissue, leaving me less than I was.’ Scarred by her lover’s suicide and an acid attack that has left her permanently disfigured, Rachita Tiwari has sought refuge in a remote house in the Himalayan foothills. In this rambling house, built by a foolhardy missionary over a hundred years ago, she lives alone”save for the company of the ancient and mysterious manservant, Lohaniju”painting and repainting her nails a bright red, careful not to look into mirrors. As she retreats into herself, battling for her sanity and fearful of a world she no longer trusts, a different dimension claims her and the tremendous history of the house is played out before her. There is the vain fool, Captain Wolcott, and his tragically sensuous mistress, Dona Rosa, -of the wandering heart’; the doomed lovers Marcus and Munro, disciples of Aleister Crowley, infamous dabbler in black magic; Father Benedictus, -seeker of knowledge’, at peace with himself and his God; and the all-knowing, sage crows. With and above them all is the resident ghost of the house, solitary and sad, at times merely an observer as the fantastical destinies unfold around him, and at times unable to remain detached. After a century of silence something compels him to speak”words that the injured woman now inhabiting the house will hear; words that will give her back to herself. Part ghost story, part erotic romance, The Book of Shadows is an ambitious book that investigates the nature of reality, love and faith. It is a work of startling originality by one of India’s most daring and talented writers. -Our kind is not nourished by the sun: it is the moon which gives us sustenance. We wax and wane with the moon, except when harnessed by a human energy, when the pull of the tides loses its grip. As dawn broke over the mountains, lighting up the still white presences of the snows, I fled to my refuge, my fated spot. This night of passion, my first, had initiated me into the sorrows of mankind; the unfaith, the terrible and tenuous link of love.
Servants Of India
In Servants of India, R.K. Laxman profiles ten hilariously idiosyncratic people, who are among the countless men and women who run the lives of the middle class in India. The tales are put together by Ganesh, a freelance journalist trying to write a feature article on servants he has known. As his chronicle progresses, what emerges is a richly embellished narrative starring unforgettable characters. There is Swami, the cook, who finds his true vocation as a godman; Kumar, who deserts his household duties to pursue his tinsel-town dreams; Anthony, the driver, who makes money on the side by giving lifts to strangers; the maid Shanti, whose lift is thrown into turmoil by the neighbour’s servant who is besotted with her; and Ramaswami, a trusted retainer who reappears mysteriously, much to the consternation of his employer, long after he has been presumed drowned. Marked by Laxman’s trademark wit, and including pencil sketches drawn especially for this edition, Servants of India is a delightful read.
Himalayan Love Story
With this haunting novel about romantic loss and fatalism, Namita Gokhale confirms her reputation as one of PBI – India’s finest writers, and one with the rare gift of seeing and recording the epic in ordinary lives. This is the story of Parvati, young, beautiful and doomed, and Mukul Nainwal, the local boy made good who returns to the Nainital of his youth to search for the only woman he has ever loved. Told in the voices of these two exiles from life, this spare, sensitive book is a compelling read.
Afterwards
There is always, if not exactly a ‘happily ever after’, at least an ‘afterwards’ to every story — When Rahul Tiwari arrives in Kerala for a short break from London, he has no premonition of a life-changing moment. But one glance over the fence at his lovely but reticent neighbour Maya is enough to launch him on a path of no return. He finds himself playing friend, partner, co-conspirator, and finally the entirely unexpected role of saviour as Maya, suffocating under the weight of a loveless marriage and a suspicious husband, turns to him for help. Together, they flee India with Maya’s one-year-old daughter Anjali and life seems to hold all the promise of a new beginning, until destiny strikes — With characteristic ease and insight, Jaishree Misra writes in her new novel of the transforming power of love and of the joy and heartbreak of giving yourself to another, for better or for worse.
White Mughals
James Achilles Kirkpatrick landed on the shores of eighteenth-century India as an ambitious soldier of the East India Company. Although eager to make his name in the subjection of a nation, it was he who was conquered—not by an army but by a Muslim Indian princess. Kirkpatrick was the British Resident at the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad when in 1798 he glimpsed Khair un-Nissa—’Most Excellent among Women’—the great-niece of the Nizam’s Prime Minister. He fell in love with Khair, and overcame many obstacles to marry her—not least of which was the fact that she was locked away in purdah and engaged to a local nobleman. Eventually, while remaining Resident, Kirkpatrick converted to Islam, and according to Indian sources even became a double-agent working for the Hyderabadis against the East India Company. Possessing all the sweep of a great nineteenth-century novel, White Mughals is a remarkable tale of harem politics, secret assignations, court intrigue, religious disputes and espionage.
Collected Stories
Story-writing is, to me, a way of exploring the world,’ says best-selling novelist and short-story writer Shashi Deshpande. In this, the second volume of her collected short fiction, we travel with her into a world of characters and situations that are identifiable, and experience emotions that are at once complex and cathartic. Intensely felt and beautifully rendered, these are stories that will stay with you a long, long time.
Distorted Mirror
R.K. Laxman, cartoonist par excellence, is also one of the country’s most entertaining writers. The Distorted Mirror brings together some of his best short stories, essays and travelogues. The collection begins with ‘An Accident’, a most unusual mystery story where the murder weapon is a newspaper. In other stories, we are introduced to Gopal, a schoolboy in an ordinary small town that is transformed one day when the Viceroy visits; Shantha, a little girl who makes an interesting discovery in the midst of a wedding; and Bhasker, a writer who is suddenly confronted by his past. Each story is marked by Laxman’s ability to delineate a character or a moment with a few deft strokes and imbued with his trademark wit. No less fascinating are the travelogues-about the United States, Australia, the Andamans, Darjeeling, Mauritius and Kathmandu-which are brought to life by Laxman’s vivid descriptions and his inimitable way of looking at the world around him. The collection is rounded off with a few rare and delightful anecdotes about Laxman’s cartooning career, a subject on which he is usually reticent. Accompanied by Laxman’s illustrations, the pieces in The Distorted Mirror will amuse and entertain every fan of R.K. Laxman’s.
Sari Shop
A gem of a novel about the stuff life’s made of It is another working day in Amritsar, and Ramchand is late again. He runs through the narrow streets to Sevak Sari House, buried in the heart of one of the city’s main bazaars. There, amongst the Bangladesh cottons and Benaras silks, Ramchand and his fellow shop assistants sit all day, patiently rolling and unrolling yards of coloured fabric. Then, one afternoon, Ramchand is sent to a new part of the city with a bundle of saris carefully selected for a trousseau. His trip to Kapoor House jolts him out of the rhythm of his daily routine and his glimpse into this different world charges him with an urgent sense of possibility. And so, armed with a second-hand English grammar book and a battered Oxford Dictionary, a fresh pair of socks and a bar of Lifebuoy soap, Ramchand attempts to realize the dream that his childhood had promised. But soon these efforts turn his life upside down, bringing him face to face with the cruel reality of his very existence. The Sari Shop heralds the arrival of a writer who combines a profound sensitivity with humour and unflinching honesty. Rupa Bajwa’s story is both heartbreaking and very real, and depicts a modern world in which hope and violence are permanently entwined.
Corridor
The story of Corridor revolves around an enlightened dispenser of tea, Jehangir Rangoonwalla, who has a shop in the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi, Connaught Place. He also sells second-hand books and dispenses wisdom to his customers. All of the main characters of the novel have this shop as their common local haunt and Mr Rangoonwalla interacts with these residents of Delhi when they visit his shop and at times gives them his words of wisdom. They come to him for tea, books, conversation and advice.
The story is about a plethora of characters, each from a different strata of society and different background. These customers are Brighu, passionate for obscure collectibles and a real love life, Shintu, the newly married on a quest of the ultimate aphrodisiac, and Digital Dutta, a person mostly torn between an H-1B visa and Karl Marx. Dutta is portrayed as a man who lives in his head.
Each of these characters has a story of his own and the author ties them together in a brilliant manner for his book. While narrating their stories, Banerjee subtly touches the greyer shades of their lives and presents them vividly to the reader. The entire novel has been captured in the corridors of contemporary Connaught Place in Delhi and Calcutta. Various pictures and objects have been shown in the background frame and the author ensures to refer them, thereby touching upon the different cultural references.
Sarnath Banerjee presents a different flavour to the art of storytelling by mixing various other art forms such as sketches, illustrations, and photographs. These heighten the impact on the reader in a beautiful way. The author uses an imaginative alchemy of words and images, of a script and artwork, to present the alienation and fragmented reality of the Indian urban life. Thus, the novel presents a delightful tale with interesting twists and turns.