Review of Siddharth Gigoo's Book

The human angle

Abdullah Khan March 8, 2015 Leave a comment

Siddhartha Gigoo’s latest book highlights the mundane struggles of common men and women trapped in a vortex of political upheavals

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A few years ago, in one of his interviews, Siddhartha Gigoo said, “my interest is only human stories. Stories about people, their dreams, their loves, their perfections and imperfections.” And true to his words his writings as well as films always emphasise on the human angle of a story.

His debut novel The Garden of Solitude is a story of a Kashmiri Pandit in exile who flees his homeland to escape a bloody political conflict. At the same time, it is a human story of lost dreams and the author doesn’t, even for a moment, allow his prose to lose contact with the human angle of the story.

His latest book A Fistful of Earth and Other Stories continues in the same spirit of humanity as he tells the stories of men and women who have either been displaced from their homeland or are prisoners of a vicious circle of violent political movements. Poignancy, the author’s belief in the dictum that every single human being is basically good at heart, and a refusal to categorise or give political colour to a human tragedy are hallmarks of Siddhartha Gigoo’s writings.

The Search, the opening story, is about a researcher who comes across many strange incidents during his research and discovers disturbing secrets about a dying clan. The story is somewhat allegorical in content and is dedicated to the people across the world who have been forcibly evicted from the land of their birth due to socio-political reasons.

Another story Poison, Nectar depicts the difficulties of a routine life of a Kashmiri Pandit family in a refugee camp. An old man, exiled from his native place, dies without proper treatment in a tiny tattered tent which is not enough for two persons but has been housing a family of four grown-ups. A heart wrenching story Sleep Robbers is set in Kashmir (author doesn’t name the place but you can guess) where a boy mourns the death of his friend named Firdaus. He observes that this untimely death has shattered his friend’s parents, but in order to save their own lives from the state agencies his friend’s father disowns his own dead son branding him a disgrace to their family.

There are more such stories where the author’s main concerns are to tell the stories of mundane struggles of common men and women who are trapped in a vortex of political upheavals. Most of the stories bring into play the sense of desolation, loneliness, suffering and pain. But there is one story that is poignant and makes you smile with an unexpected climax. An old man’s sons’ insistence that their father should go on a pilgrimage makes the old embark on a journey to visit religious places. But before leaving his home what the old man does leaves his sons and daughters-in-law flabbergasted.

It is the funniest story of the lot giving respite to readers amid the sea of gloom and despair. The story raises many questions regarding the changing chemistry of our social structure in the South Asian countries. The idea of privacy has infected people so much that they consider their own family, like parents, as an intrusive presence in their lives. Titled The Pilgrimage, this particular story reminds this reviewer of famous Hindi writer Amrit Lal Nagar’s collection of short stories called Ek Dil Hazar Afsane which has many stories with deliciously surprising and fulfilling endings.

Siddhartha’s stories are basically about Kashmir and its people though he avoids mentioning it explicitly. It delineates the alchemy of political violence and its impact on human societies and human condition. Violence and counter-violence spare nobody. Everybody, including the active participants in the bloody game of the conflicts and those on the peripheries, has to pay some price at some point of time. For the author any loss is loss to the humanity. In his stories sufferings and deaths are not divided into ‘theirs’ or ‘ours’. And that is why he has not named characters or places in many of his stories and almost prevents readers to read his stories by using glasses fitted with political prisms and personal prejudices.

The way he deploys his language is sumptuous and fragrant with metaphors and similes. The narrative flows effortlessly and smoothly. There are two minor complaints about this collection. One, some of the stories end abruptly and, two, some are too abstract to be understood in one or two readings.

A Fistful of Earth and Other Stories
Author: Siddhartha Gigoo
Pages: 244
Publisher: Rupa 
Publications India
Price: INR195

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EK PURANI GHAZAL

Phoolon ki baharon ki aur sazar ki baat karte ho
Is sehra mein kis haseen manzar ki baat karte ho

Abhi to guzarana tumhe tarikiyon ke samander se
Abhi raat kahan guzari kyon sahar ki baat karte ho

Wo qatil hain, charagari nahin hai kaam  unka
Unse kyon ek inayat bhari nazar ki baat karte ho


Admi admi, har taraf hai bas admi hi admi
Insaan kahan hain kis shahar ki baat karte ho

Jab khuda ne khud hi mujhse nazar pher li 'abd'
To phir kin duwaon ke asar ki baat karte ho

Book Reviews in Wasafiri

Daniel Brook A History of Future Cities /

 Amit Chaudhuri Calcutta: Two Years in the City

Amalgamating the elements of social and political history with aspects of reportage and commentary, in his latest book the well-known American journalist Daniel Brook paints interesting, refreshing and sophisticated portraits of four mega-cities – St Petersburg, Shanghai, Mumbai and Dubai – which he claims are the future cities of the world.

These cities lie in different geographical zones. Their demography, culture, social composition and weather vary. But, according to Brook, there is one element these four cities have in common and that is ‘dis-orientation’. The word ‘orient’ manifests both its meanings here. They are cities socio-culturally inclined, or oriented, towards the West. But in so being they are also ‘Dis-oriented’, which, in other words, can simply be interpreted as something which is not oriented towards the East. And this is the basic thread that runs through the book.

Brook links Mumbai and Shanghai because they were built by Westerners for people who wanted to have their own versions of London or New York in India and China. Famous British architects of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, like T Roger Smith, F W Stevens and Sir Gilbert Scott, created some of the landmark buildings. Britain's leading practitioner and proponent of the Gothic Revival style, Sir Gilbert Scott, for example, designed the historic University of Bombay and was also one of the designers of the majestic Holy Trinity Cathedral in Shanghai. Importing the architectural sensibilities of European and American cities – like Vatican City, London, Manhattan and Oxford – what the colonial powers created was meant to make them feel closer to home. In doing so, they often ignored local cultural traditions.

Built on reclaimed land, Bombay (now Mumbai) was divided into two parts: the prosperous district, which boasted the best amenities and which looked like a European city; and the other, mostly inhabited by the native population who were crammed into ghettos which were infested with disease. In Shanghai, similarly, the Chinese lived in the segregated impoverished quarters and were treated as second-class citizens. But, by the early twentieth century both Indians and Chinese began building ‘their own versions of the institutions Westerners had imported but held beyond their grasp’. Today, these cities are cosmopolitan financial hubs of their respective countries.

Brook argues that St Petersburg and Dubai share similarities because both these cities were the culmination of their rulers’ desire to recreate a European city in their courtyards. The Tsar of Russia, Peter the Great, was so enamoured by ‘the tree lined and canal-laced’ city of Amsterdam that he built his own version in Russia and called it St Petersburg. Amsterdam at the time was a cosmopolitan trading hub and hosted people from around the world. The Tsar spent a year there, incognito under the name of Pjotr Mikhailov, and was employed in the ship building industry, mastering the art of ship making while also imbibing the city's liberal spirit. Modelled on Amsterdam, Peter the Great's St Petersburg became known for its openness and tolerance towards worshippers of different Christian denominations who were allowed to build their own churches, despite opposition from Russian Orthodox clerics. Like St Petersburg, Dubai was also a dream of its crowned head of state, Sheikh Rashid, who modelled it on London. When his vision began to take shape, the Sheikh started ‘to foster a freewheeling internationally linked economy while monopolising all political power’. He bartered the loyalty of his citizens with a lavish welfare state. While maintaining Islam as its official religion, Dubai welcomed people from all over the world and from all religions and nationalities. Today, Dubai's position as a global business hub and financial capital of the Middle East and South Asia is clearly established, and it has become one of the world's most ethnically diverse cities with ninety-six per cent of its population being foreign-born. But, in order to become a global metropole, Brook argues, the emirate of Dubai has separated itself from its roots by whitewashing its Arabic identity and culture.

Despite all the material progress and cosmopolitanism, Brook suggests that each city ‘experienced periods of loss of faith in modernity’. He reminds us that the Bolsheviks emerged in St Petersburg, the Communist Party of China came into existence in Shanghai and the Indian National Congress was born in Bombay. The October Revolution brought a brutal end to the Tsarist era in Russia and the army of the Communist Party led by Chairman Mao, claiming to represent both the poor and those living in the countryside, seized political power in China. The author terms the city Dubai as ‘an urban Frankenstein’ and warns the rulers of the possibility of similar revolutionary changes in the Emirate.

Like Mumbai and Shanghai, Calcutta, now Kolkata, was a colonial creation, an outcome of the deep yearnings of the British colonial rulers to create a home away from home. Once the capital of British India, this city has been left behind in the race to modernise. It is no more the cultural capital of India, and the typical ‘Bengali Bhadralok’ with a fine taste in music, art and literature, is fast becoming a rare species. Instead businessmen who care little about the art and poetry now populate the social circuits of Calcutta.

In his book, Amit Chaudhuri writes about this new Calcutta/Kolkata. Born in this historical city, Chaudhuri spent his formative years away in Mumbai and Oxford, but Kolkata remained an integral part of his identity. Indeed he returned to his beloved city to live in 1999 but was dismayed to observe how it had changed, and not for the better. Tastefully built colonial buildings had made way for ugly sky-kissing apartment blocks and multiplexes. Many of the city's famous bookshops had vanished and those which survived were more interested in selling stationery and greeting cards than serious literature. The city was losing its left-leaning temperaments and had discovered the ‘goodness’ of capitalism. These changes compelled him to write Calcutta: Two Years in The City.

This book is not an historical account of the city nor a sociological study of its people. Rather, it displays Chaudhuri's personal engagement which at times flows into broader narratives about marginalisation and urban decay. He walks the streets, keenly watching how the lives of the less privileged, bypassed by the city's economic progress, have fallen under the new social order. He portrays the mundane existence of street beggars, road-side food vendors, servants and rickshaw pullers with empathy and understanding. He also examines the lavish lifestyles of the city's élites with microscopic precision. He feels disturbed by what he sees but finds himself incapable of initiating any change.

As always, Chaudhuri's prose is comparable only to the sweetest of the cupcakes at Flurys, the city's best-known cake shop, his observations are insightful and intellectually stimulating, and, his arguments are sharp and to the point.

EK GHAZAL

Wo charagar nahin hai,ke wo tujhe dawa dega
Ilaj  uska, tere zakhm  ko  aur  badha  dega


Bhale sara zamana ho dushman tera kyon na
Lekin tera koi dost hi tujh ko daga dega


Kai sadiyon mein wo zarre se aftab hua hai
Khuda ne chaha to ek lamha use zarra bana dega

Mere zehan mein rahega wo ta-umr ab to
Aur wo mujhe pal do pal mein hi bhula dega


Zindagi se na koi ummeed to na hi sahi
Azal ek din tera har dard mita dega

EK GHAZAL

Aaiye  zara raqs-e-zulmaat   dekhiye
Siyahi  mein lipta hua aftab dekhiye

Roz-e-mahsar  jab  ayega, tab dekhenge
Aaj  to bas  qayamat  ki raat dekhiye


Na sochiye ki lafzon ka matlab kya hai
Sirf alfaz mein chhupe jazbaat  dekhiye

Apki batein hum ne  suni hai bahut
Ab mere bhi to kuchh sawaalaat dekhiye

Aap to afsurda hain mausam ki be-rukhi se
Apne aas pass ke bhi zara haalaat dekhiye

An article about JLF in The News International

Literary pilgrimage to the pink city

Abdullah Khan February 1, 2015 Leave a comment

Monstrous in its size, this year the JLF 2015 hosted more than 400 writers, poets, journalists, film personalities and musicians from all over the world and witnessed a total footfalls of almost a quarter million

Literary jamboree.

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Jaipur Literary Festival (JLF) is the largest literary festival of the world which has become some sort of an annual literary pilgrimage for the connoisseurs of literature and book lovers. Monstrous in its size, this year the JLF hosted more than 400 writers, poets, journalists, film personalities and musicians from all over the world and witnessed a total footfalls of almost a quarter million.

Spread over five days (January 21-25), the eighth edition of JLF had 170 sessions at the lawns of the beautiful Diggi Palace hotel which remains to be the main venue of this literary jamboree.

Like every year, the literary enthusiasts from every nook and cranny of the globe gathered in the pink city to participate in the JLF 2015.

But what brings so many people to this festival? Reply comes from the young banker and poet Mohammad Zahid who hails from Anantnag district in Kashmir — “For the booklovers it is a rare opportunity to meet the writers they admire. And for aspiring writers, the festival provides a platform to have a chance to interact with their favourite authors and learn the tricks of the trade. Some people also come to see their favourite film stars or celebrities from other fields”.

Zahid’s friend, Jose Varghese, standing next to him, from the Indian state of Kerala seconded his views and added that he had been to other literary festivals also but they were nowhere near to the majestic JLF.

This year, the famous names that attracted the maximum crowds at Jaipur were Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former President of India, Nobel Laureate V.S. Naipaul and actress Waheeda Rahman.

On January 21, the festival was inaugurated by Vasundhara Raje, Chief Minister of Rajasthan, followed by keynote speeches by three well-known poets, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Ashok Vajpeyi and Vijay Seshadri. The Pulitzer Prize winning Poet Seshadri said that “imagination is the foundation of a democratic society because it permits us to act as equal partners in nature and society.”

This year, the famous names that attracted the maximum crowds at Jaipur were Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former President of India, Nobel Laureate V.S. Naipaul and actress Waheeda Rahman.

Later, a session on V.S. Naipaul’s much celebrated novel A House for Mr. Biswas drew a packed house as four eminent writers, Paul Theroux, Hanif Kureishi, Amit Choudhuri and Farukh Dhondy, discussed the book. Paul Theroux, the novelist and travel writer, who once used to be Naipaul’s friend and then fell out with him, had all praise for the Nobel Prize winning writer. In his words, A House for Mr Biswas was the most complete novel he had ever read.

Another session which was hit with the visitors on the first day was a show titled Gata Jaye Banjara of Javed Akhtar which was about the lyric writing in the Hindi film industry. The lyricist and poet lamented that there was decline in the quality of lyrics as poetic imagination has been replaced by vulgarity.

The second day of festival was marred by intermittent rain and all sessions had to be conducted indoors. Despite bad weather, there was marginal decline in the number of visitors. In the middle of the drizzle, an interesting discussion titled Descent into Chaos — Pakistan on the Brink featuring Ahmed Rashid, Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, G. Parthasarathy, Anatol Lieven was moderated by Indian journalist Suhasini Haider. During the discussion the former foreign minister of Pakistan said that the expectation of talks between India and Pakistan and a resolution of conflicts was “not just a glimmer of hope but a lot more.”

The main highlight of the second day was the announcement of DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. To everyone’s surprise Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri walked away with the prize money of $50000 which had contenders like amazing Sri Lankan-British writer Romesh Gunasekra and the renowned Urdu novelist from India, Shamsur Rahman Faruqui. Two very talented Pakistani writers, Bilal Tanveer and Kamila Shamsie, were also in the shortlist. Later, when Romesh Gunasekra was asked to comment on the DSC Prize, his reply was: “What can I say? I was there. Hopefully the books gained a few readers.”

The JLF is also known for promoting new talents. And in this series, a session titled A Thousand Stories: Tales of Hope & Dispossession had two debutant novelists Aruni Kashyap and Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar. Both the authors have got rave review for their respective novels. Sowvendra Shekhar who was shortlisted for this year’s The Hindu Prize for Fiction for his novel about the tribal life The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey, feels that the JLF provides a huge platform for the authors like him and helps them to reach out to the wider readership.

On the subsequent days, there were many exciting and insightful sessions, including a discussion on the Pakistani contemporary art with Salima Hashmi and Kamila Shamsie, Nissim Nicholos Taleb’s delineation of his famous ‘Black Swan theory’ and Farukh Dhondy’s conversation with V. S. Naipaul.

Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was cynosure of all eyes as all his programmes were overcrowded and at times there were chances of stampede. The debate on Israel Palestine issues saw Israeli Journalist and Haartez columnist, Gideon Levy, lashing out at the Israeli government for its illegal occupation and inhuman treatment of Palestinian people. Famous tv journalist Ravish Kumar attracted huge crowd at the book release of his short story collection Ishq Mein Shahar Hona was released. Later, young readers were seen thronging the book signing counter.

India’s top two bestselling authors in English and heartthrobs of the generation X, Chetan Bhagat and Amish Tripathi had also been part of this year’s JLF. Tripathi, the author of The Shiva Trilogy, was part of two well attended panel discussions about mythology and faith. Tripathi also announced his next book series which is going to be based on Ramayana, amid thunderous applause of his fans.

Chetan Bhagat, on the other hand, arrived in Jaipur on the last day of the carnival to talk about a wide range of topics and that included his writing and its impact on his readers, and also about the political scenario in India.

This year two new prizes related to art and poetry were instituted. Mumbai based poet Arundhati Subramanian was awarded the inaugural Khushwant Singh Memorial Prize for Poetry for her poetry collection When God is a Traveller and Artist Bhajju Shyam became first winner of Ojas Art Award.

The JLF ended with the news that the festival would now travel to international shores as the festival would have a British incarnation at the South Bank Centre in London in the month of May and also have an American edition in Colorado, USA in autumn season.

http://tns.thenews.com.pk/jlf-literary-pilgrimage-to-the-pink-city/#.VM1-7J2Ue7o

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Abdullah Khan

The writer is based in New Delhi and is a literary critic. He can be reached atabdullah71@gmail.com

My Review of One Thousand and One Nights in The Hindu

BOOKS » LITERARY REVIEW

January 3, 2015

Updated: January 3, 2015 19:04 IST

Bedtime tales

ABDULLAH KHAN

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Special Arrangement

One Thousand and one Nights by Hanan Al-Shaykh.

TOPICS

arts, culture and entertainment

books and literature

An engaging retelling of stories from the Arabian Nights with an erotic twist.

The timeless Arabic classic One Thousand and One Nights has enthralled people all over the world for more than a millennium. Most of us are charmed and captivated by characters with magical powers and quirky idiosyncrasies, but how many have realised that erotic love and adultery are common themes that run through this magnum opus?

Yes, it is true and the author (or authors) of these stories inserted those elements so slyly and discreetly that they escaped the eyes of the censors of that era. In this latest retelling, Lebanese author Hanan Al-Shaykh removes the veil of discretion and gives the stories an erotic twist. Her retelling of 19 Arabian Nights stories is strictly for adults only, though the framework and the characters are retained.

As in the original, the King Shahreyar discovers that his beautiful queen whom he loved dearly is unfaithful to him and has been sleeping with a slave. The furious king kills his wife and her lover. Subsequently, believing that a woman is deceitful by nature, he announces that he will marry a virgin every day and kill her the next morning. The Vizier’s daughter, Shahrzad, decides to marry the king hoping that with her wisdom and knowledge will stop the king from his bloody path. On the first night, Shahrzad, offers the king to tell a story. The story is so powerful and engrossing that the king puts off her execution by a day in order to listen to another story. For the next few years, the king keeps postponing the killing of Shahrzad and keeps listening to her stories. A few hundred stories later, the king finds himself in love with his new queen and finally forgets the idea of executing her.

The stories chosen by Al-Shayk for retelling are the ones with strong female characters in which men mainly play second fiddle. The women are independent and intelligent, understand their sexuality and are also sexually liberated. Each story also teaches us something about love, faith, relationship and other aspects of human existence.

The language is ornamental and colourful, and effectively conveys the sense of time and the sense of culture. The descriptions of sex are beautiful, but explicit. The scene of orgy, for example, at the beginning of the book is so graphic in its detail that it appears to be straight out of a porn movie. Nonetheless, it is an entertaining and engaging book.

One Thousand and One Nights; Hanan Al-Shaykh, Bloomsbury India, Rs. 350.

http://www.thehindu.com/books/literary-review/review-of-one-thousand-and-one-nights-hanan-alshaykh/article6748567.ece

EK GHAZAL

 Raat  hoti hai par dareeche pe chirag nahin hota

Zulmato ke shahar mein koi mahtaab nahin hota

 Bas khar hi khar ugte her shakh pe yahan

Is shahar mein kisi dal pe kabhi gulab nahin hota

 Hazaron farishton ka khoon baha hai yahan

Ya illahi kyon is shahar pe nazil azaab nahin hota

  Wo hakim-e-shahar hai aur munshif bhi hai

Isliye uski gunahon ka koi hisab nahin hota

 Sabhi ko shauq hai insanon  ke lahoo ka  yahan

Is shahar mein kisi paimane mein  sharab nahin hota       

EK GHAZAL

Khuli ankhon ka ek khwab mila mujh ko
Kitab-e-jist ka ek naya baab mila mujh ko

Ham ne si liye the har jakhm sabr ke dhagon se
Lekin phir ek dard-e-nayaab mila mujh ko

Bas ek tisnagi tari rahi musalsal yun hi
Zindagi sehra rahi aur saraab mila mujh ko

(Saraab= mirage)

Uska lahza shokh tha aur hothon pe tha tabassum
Phir kyon uski ankhon mein aab mila mujh ko

Teri qismat mein gham-e-hizran hai to main kya kroon
Aaj zindagi se kuchh aisa hi jawab mila mujh ko