Tandoor Cinders

Vilas Sarang was educated in Mumbai and at Indian University. He has taught English literature in Mumbai, Kuwait and Iraq.
One of the finest Indian writers of his time. -Dom Moraes

       "Tandoor Cinders" which is both fantasy and reality.The main character is Chandrakant Nayak and his wife Suchitra. The story begins with Nayak picking up the day's newspaper looking for the "Punishment News columns". He was looking for the day's quota for Punishment and News. He joked with his wife in the morning and said, "What is the opposite of Crime News?" She thought for a while and said it is Punishment News.
       

         That morning When Chandra, was glancing through the crime news column he sees the story of Jaidev  jakhad at the top of the page, but he did not want to tell his wife. He did not want to make her unhappy with the overhyped news from the newspapers, for it was their twenty fifth anniversary.

       “He felt it was a quarter of a century of standing together on the dais.” He wanted to take his wife to the best restaurant for a treat. So he chooses the Golden Goa.  After the treat he wanted to buy her a saree. She did not care much for the Goan food but could not spoil their anniversary celebration. She was ready to go for the celebration dressed in a shimmering mustard-yellow saree. As she was dressing she got reminded of her son who was killed on the Aksa beach when he went for a picnic. This filled her heart with remorse.

         Chandrakant  Nayak was a lecturer in Psychology in one of the colleges in the city. Of recent he had started lecturing in Philosophy also, on the day he went to his college for a lecture that same day Jakhad  was to be produced before the judge for an initial hearing at the high court his  picture had appeared in the newspaper.

        Jakhad’s hearing was a juicy piece of news to Chandra, so that day he changes his route to college and goes to the court. Suchitra does not know this. She finds some change in Nayak but she cannot locate why the change has come about.

      In order to be present in the court he takes the help of a lawyer friend Mr. Dipak Mahimkar. Dipak tells Nayak that if he wants to be present   for the hearing he has to get the permission of a defense lawyer. So he gets in touch with his friend Cyrus Poonawalla who is a defense lawyer and appears in the court for the session.The courtroom experience was suffocating for Nayak but he was determined to be present for the hearing “There was commotion in the court and then a loud cry announcing the judge’s arrival.” Nayak fainted when the trial was going on he could not tolerate the atmosphere in the courtroom. With result he had to be taken home escorted by two men. He did not want his wife to know about his adventure. Two days later Nayak hears about Jakhad’s escape from custody it was a shock to him and he decides to search for the criminal who goes underground.

        Nayak was determined to go in search of Jaidev Jakhad who recently escaped “I have never heard of such a macabre horrifying act” was the opinion of Suchitra and Nayak. So along with his daughter Leena he went in search of the criminal who according to the finding outs of Leena’s student, he was hiding. This student was the son of a five star hotelier. According to Leena’s student Sukumar, Jakhad was hiding in the basement of the Land’s end hotel which was financed by Jakhad himself so Nayak’s daughter set out on a motorbike so that they can track down Jakhad. Jakhad killed is girlfriend and burned her in a Tandoor Cinder, after a fight they both had.

      After the sixth chapter the Author starts Fantasy. The author tells how Leena and Nayak find Jakad and they cross examine Jakhad and threaten to burn him alive in the hot tandoor, to which Jakhad  jumps into the tandoor before it is fully lit and escapes underground  through a hole in the side of the tandoor. Leena and her father jump into the hole at the side of the tandoor and land in the place which Vilas calls as Patala. There the author shifts from reality to Fantasy. In Patala, Nayak and his daughter meet the dead like Jaishree jakhad’s girlfriend who is called Jayanti in Patala. In Patala they come across King Bali’s court and the sage Agasthya who tells them the fundas of Patala

        When they meet Jakhad they prepare the tandoor to burn him alive but he confesses and they bring him out to the Hotel from the same hole at the side of the tandoor. He is tried in the King Bali’s court and prevented from being burnt alive. He is then handed over to the police. And the author ends fantasy and comes back to reality. This is the style which Sarang uses, it is a complete an enjoyable read.

                                                                                             © By  Anjana.V.Pai

In Pursuit of Ecstasy By Sujata Parashar.

      In Pursuit of Ecstasy by Sujata Parashar is a book which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. Reading this book really gives one the insight into how to deal with  the modern youth.
       The storyline consists of a group of modern youth who want to do  things without their parents knowledge. What they do is not what their parents want them to do. Afterwards they very cleverly convince there parents about what they are doing. The group consists of all good toppers in class. Sujata has all her  characters  Bengali with Bengali names.
        Each character is so vividly described so as to make reading interesting.Aparajitha, Deepanitha, Aniket,Siddhartha are a group of toppers
       Aparajitha and Deepanitha are good students they stay  after college for their dance practices without telling home the truth. If they tell their parents they will stop them  from attending dance classes.
        Sushanto  is the dance teacher and Ritesh is his brother. Sushanto teaches dance but at the dance performances he manages to smuggle drugs and pack them with  the luggage of the students and get them out the state for selling
      The  author tries to tell the readers that when one is in pursuit of Ecstasy be it dance or drugs one goes to any extend to attain the Ecstasy. Also it is a typical college life of students, they  make groups  and also form couples within the group.So also in this group Aparajitha, and Aniket couple up Deepanitha and Siddhartha couple up, here it is again the pursuit of love and its Ecstasies.
           So the whole book  is a lovely read showing the readers how people  go in pursuit of Ecstasy in different aspects in life. The spectrum is large, people vary from one degree to the other in pursuit of Ecstasy of different kind in life.
           The characters are described so vividly that it makes the read very easy to understand.
                     "Aparajitha looked at her plate and made a comical face of a daughter unwillingly doing a favor to her mother.She replied back mom, "I am already late besides I can't eat parathas everyday you are bent upon making me fat." shows  clearly that the youth want  to be in trend of what is in vogue at that time they convince their parents to agree with them.
        The book is a sure guide for all the parents who have college going children. So please read the book.      

Prisoners of Hate by C.V.Murali.

     One of the rare books that I have read, Prisoners of hate as the title suggests rightly shows how much of hatred and revenge the characters feel for one another is balanced by the end of the novel which shows unity among the same characters both Hindus and Muslims. The narrative technique used is a mixture of both first person and third person narration which makes the story crisp and readable. The story line is strong and the plot is a mixture of both descriptive and contradictory to some extent otherwise the story is simple and easy to understand.
Farhan Rasool is a sunni Muslim lives in a plush flat in Prabhadevi with his 3 daughters. His father Ghulam Rasool migrated to Mumbai from a village called Meerut. He is the first character in the novel. The author narrates a few incidences that take place in India right from the Quit India Movement, The Salt Satyagraha that took place in the Gandhian Era. This is revolved around Ghulam Rasool's life. Babri Masjid the terrorist moments and the Bomb explosions which revolve around Farhan's Life. Thus the author connects the political situations in India to the characters in the novel.
     The other characters in this book are Madhav Karve and Sanjay. The author is trying to portray in the lives of his character the Hindu-Muslim hatred and the riots caused because of this hatred. The author points out the cultural and religious differences in the country. Madhav Karve was born in the same year as Farhan. He was born in a nursing home near Dadar railway station. He belonged to the Chitpavan Brahmin community. His parents were Narendra Karve and Malati Karve. Madhav's father Dattaraya belonged to the era of swadeshi movements and the non violence or ahimsa movements of Gandhi.
   Sanjay was born during Gandhiji's quit India movement his father was Mayank Dhave. He was born during the independence movement and grew up to take part in all the political activities in free India. Sanjay is a reporter and lives to tell the story. Whereas the other two characters Madhav and Farhan die in a bomb blast. There is Hindu-Muslim hatred shown in the story which the author wraps up by showing that at the end there is unity among the Hindus and Muslims. And his character Sanjay falls in love with a Muslim girl named Nafisa and marries her.
     The author swings from one extreme of hatred to the other extreme of inter religious and inter caste marriages between the Hindus and the Muslims which acts like a contradiction among conservatism.
    The storyline is very strong and convincing, makes the readers to think twice about issues like political disharmony, ego clashes, religious prejudices and narrow-mindedness of the people in our country.
   The plot is intertwined and difficult to guess the future incidences in the story but speaks loud about the ethics like unity in diversity and loving our neighbours who belong to different religions. This book is a sure read. And should be included in the curriculum of the students of literature.
   In the epilogue the author tells how the story creates an aura of getting rid of hatred specially, religious and cultural, which makes us the prisoners of hate. The author feels its a death knell which rings loud and clear, which creates disharmony and division among the people of the nation. The message is clear that each one should give up hatred towards other religions and culture and not to be prisoners of hate.

Such a long journey

                                                                                     By Rohinton Mistry

     “Diaspora literature involves an idea of a homeland, and a place where the displacement occurs and narratives of harsh journeys undertaken on account of Economic compulsions. Basically Diaspora is pertaining   to a small minority community.”  Rohinton Mistry is yet another “writer from elsewhere” as Rushdie put it. He was born in Bombay,a city which stands tall in his writing, in 1952 and was of a Parsi origin. Mistry makes his confessions in the Journal Rough(1993) that he left India because of the expectations of his peers, especially those of his generation.

        His novel,‘ Such a long journey’ was short listed for the prestigious Booker prize, in 1991. This  was the first novel  which  portrays Indian culture and family life, setting it against the back drop of  the movement when war breaks out between India  and Pakistan over the Bangladesh  issue and the Indo-China war, three years before that. Mistry paints a lovely picture, making  political life as the canvas upon which  the  troubled life of Gustad and his family is painted out, Gustad is the undisputed  protagonist of the novel. Mistry cleverly  synchronizes  the major events in the  private lives of the Gustad family and the other  characters in the novel. He tries to intertwine the family dimensions of the storyline with the political back ground in the country. The story is weaved into an intertwining of political and personal realities, since the lives of the characters are deeply affected by local corruption and government inadequacy.

My favorite lines are found on pgs 11 and 12 of the book.

     ‘Gustad, however left the blackout paper undisturbed. He said it helped the children to sleep better. Dilnavaz thought the idea was ridiculous, but she would not argue because his father had passed away recently in the nursing home. Perhaps she thought he found the darkness soothing after deaths visitation.

     “Remove the   black paper whenever you are ready baba. Far be it from me to force you”, she said.

     But three years later, the Pakistan’s attack to try to get a piece of Kashmir as they had done right after partition and blackout was declared once again. Then Gustad triumphantly pointed out to her the wisdom   of his discussion.’

    In the above lines the author has very cleverly intertwined the political situation in the country with the personal life of the protagonist, Gustad. Dilnavaz tells her husband to remove the black paper that was stuck on the window glass of the house after the Indo-china war. The political issue that the author brings out is the betrayal by Chou-en Lai which caused the Indo-china war in 1962. During the war blackout was suggested to the civilians so that the enemy will be unable to identify the important places in India and destroy them. The blackout was that every house should stick paper over the window pane, so was the case with Gustad’s family. This irritated his wife, Dilnavaz and so she suggested to her husband that he remove the paper after the war was over. But Gustad would not do it, he wanted darkness to remain because he had darkness (sorrow) in his own mind due to the death of his father.

    Later on after three years, war broke out between India and Pakistan over the Bangladesh issue. So here Gustad is happy that he did not remove the black paper he stuck three years ago because it helps him again. War broke out again between India and Pakistan. So he tells his wife that he won the decision of not removing the paper as it has helped in the second situation of the blackout.

    The author tells the readers how the two wars and the political situations caused darkness in the minds of the civilians. The blackout is used symbolically by the author to bring out the fear and uncertainty in the minds of the civilians.

                                                                                   

                                                                                                                   ©-Anjana.Pai.