Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

I am a fan of Indian writing in English and have read most of the commercially successful work publsihed in the last ten/fifteen years. There are some very good writers in this trade namely Rushdie, Vikram Seth, etc. but in my view Amitav Ghosh is the master of this fast growing community. Those who have meandered with him on the Irawaddy in the Hungry Tide or traveled from the forests of Burma to the western ghats of India in the Glass Palace will often share the view that his writings have a certain unputdownable quality in them. But the manner in which a he has told the story in his latest historical and literary fictional work the “Sea of Poppies” has taken his craft to a new level altogether. Very rarely does it happen to me that I do not want a novel to end due to the void that finishing it will cause. All through the reading I was mildly concerned that once I finish the book I will miss the characters and the story. That was the extent to which the writing made me engage with the story, the characters and the settings. Almost as if it was part of me. The statement “Getting lost in the story” characterized what I went through, I think.
However, Sea of Poppies is not just about the story, the age in which the book has been set and the granularity with which the historical aspects of that time have been crafted have an equal if not greater role in making it a compelling read.

Set in the early nineteenth century Bihar and Bengal, Ghosh brings alive the implications of the forced cultivation of Opium as a cash crop in the region and its implications on the lives of every one around it. The other important part of history that the book reflects on is the movement of Bihari indentured workers (girmitiyas) to work in British islands like Mauritius and the West Indies. The latter subject has been a great source of curiosity for me and names like Ramnares Sarwan, Chandrapaul and Ramagoolam have fed that curiosity over the years. The treatment of this era, the lingo that was used, the culture, the rites, rituals, fears, hopes, events and happenings have been expressed in a manner that you get the feeling that Ghosh has actually traveled in a time machine and been able to observe the people from a vantage position. This treatment of the time and age coupled with fascinating events that unfold create a truly magnificent read.

I am glad that this is the first of a triology and am very eagerly waiting for the next one to come out. Just to make sure that I do not feel the void for too long, I have immediately started reading one of Ghosh’s much earlier novels, “The Shadow Lines”. Reading this one is making it clear to me how much Amitav Ghosh has evolved as a writer in the last ten years or so. If I project the same slope of progress in the future and assume that the trend will continue for another ten, then there is a very good chance that we may look back at him as the best ever.

I am now very curious about the “White Tiger” by Arvind Adiga which won this years booker ahead of the “Sea of Poppies”, if that was seen as better, then it better be mind-blowing. I hope the expectation of greatness does not come in the way of judging a very good piece of work. More on that later.

Denial

Andrew Symonds recently accused Harbhajan Singh of passing a Racist comment. An enquiry found Harbhajan guilty as accused. There was a lot of understandable indignation and anger in the Indian media, as the verdict may have been passed without solid evidence (if media reports are to be believed). India was also denied a victory at Sydney due to very poor umpiring and hence the chance to win a series on Australian soil for the first time. We all know that this team had the ability to win the series and I was devastated on the final day when we lost. I also believe that the judgment against Bhajji was unfair if the evidence was not solid. Being a fanatic fan of the Indian Test cricket team I was very upset and angry as well.

Additionally, in the media, there was a strong sentiment of our National pride being hurt. The argument being, “how can an Indian be accused of being racist, after all, we have suffered Racism for so many years so how can we ever be racist? We are from the land of Mahatma Gandhi and hence none of us can ever be racist”. This was the position that many eminent speakers on talk shows took with much drama and emotion. This emotion was only to be outdone by the “public” that applauded with gusto expressing their agreement.

The Aussie media and some of the so called “evolved” English press in India have responded to this by saying that India has a long history of the caste system and hence are as racist as any one else, so where does the question of National pride being hurt arise? According to me the caste system in India has more or less died in the urban professional India at least. No one has ever asked me what caste I am from and I have never seen or been in any discussion around caste. There may be a metro bias in this, but at least here I can see a change. The intelligentsia of India does not like the caste system, and hence it will die eventually as the free economy comes in fully. But most, including the intelligentsia, do not understand the true nature of racism in India.

I have myself suffered racism several times. I have a point of view on many things and am vocal and persuasive in my arguments, especially when I am in the company of people I consider friends. In such situations, I have often found “friends” referring to my Bihari lineage to make the point that some how my perspective is less valuable. How, I have seethed at famous the joke, “we will give you Kashmir if you take Bihar”. I have heard many stories of “Harry” students being openly ridiculed in Delhi University. Okay -this is my story– so you may not be able to relate to the emotions fully. Let me give you some more instances. Many South Indians in Delhi face racism of the worst type; the “Madrasi” is not man enough, they say, to handle the tough jobs. The ability to handle the tough calls are considered beyond the average Madrasi. North Indians are openly looked down upon in Madras – it is extremely difficult for an unmarried North Indian boy to find a house in Madras, as there is always a question over his moral character. UP Bhaiyyas in Mumbai...I can go on and on. I recently was in the company of some of India’s best-known bloggers and one of them made a comment that “dilliwaala” is an abuse in Bombay – and some how it seemed to amuse this very eminent group. I can assure you this group would have abhorred casteism but yet, found this comment quite funny. Begali's, Tam Brams, Malaylees, Sikhs, Punjabis, Sindhis and people from the North East States are some of the other communities that suffer riducle often in India simply becasue of where they come from. (Of course all in good humour!!). I know that who ever you are and from whichever part of the country you come from, you would have been in at least one situation in your life when you would have been judged (not positively) because of your native state. Do leave a comment on this post if this has not happened to you. It will make me very happy to know that I was wrong.

The point really is that while casteism exists only in a certain demographic group today, regional racism is still very much a part of even the urban modern professional Indian consciousness. The worst part is that this is not even recognized as racism. The argument being that it is done in a very harmless manner and people are only joking when they make comments about where you come from. I say, “Bullshit” - this is complete denial.

In my book you are being racist, if you judge some one negatively because of his race or where he comes from. Not just due to the colour of their skin. All racism, when it starts, starts as a joke. But then slowly it seeps into the thinking of kids as they grow up and then one day it divides society and becomes a menace. Till that point the society is always in denial. There are many examples of this in the modern world history. The worst ramification of racism was the ethnic cleansing of Jews in Hitler’s Germany. Even this started as a joke, then went on to cartoons in newspapers with Jews being depicted as having long noses and funny jokes being made about them. There were many Jews even who also laughed at these jokes being made by their friends – “because if friends are doing it its ok” right? Draw your own parallels.

I am not saying that the situation here is anything close to what it ever was for the Jews and will never be. We are a great nation and we manage our diversity quite well compared to the rest of the world. However, the least we can do is to concede that National pride should not be hurt if an Indian is accused of being Racist. Lets not be in such a large collective denial.

Munshi Prem Chand - Finally !

In my view, Munshi Prem Chand is easily one of the best known and greatest literary figures of modern Hindi Literature.

My grand father Sh. Dev Narayan Sinha was a man of significant literary achievements. He had a great collection of books on subjects ranging from Poetry, Hindi & English Literature, Literary Fiction, Philosophy and various others. He also had a voracious appetite to read. I guess, my passion to read and collect books comes from him. He is Credited with some fantastic translations to his name as well.

Anyways, he had a fantastic Library and I used to attack it with vigour every year in summer holidays when I was a kid. This happened for more than 10 years and in the process, I managed to read a lot of Hindi Literature and Hindi Literary fiction, which was alien to my world in Bangalore otherwise - all my other friends read was Hardy Boys ! And so did I. But these summer Holidays introduced me to Munshi Prem Chand and I read almost everything that he wrote over the years. I loved it. Munshi PremChand had a very simple and conversational style of writing - he would write about ordinary people and every day situations. What set him apart for me was that he touches a level of emotion which many "so called" great authors do not even come close to. The kind of understanding I have gotten from his writings about Indian Culture, Indian Values, our ethos and Indianness in general I don't think I have received from any other single influence.

The last book of his that I read was in 1989 (18 years ago) - that was the last time I visited Patna to see my grand parents. After 89, they moved to Bangalore to my father's house. The years after that were years of Engineering, MBA, Ciggarettes, Old Monk rum, hangovers, stomach ulcers, deadlines, bosses, power point presentation, Love, Marriage, Jobs, Career, Promotions, Foriegn Holidays, Baby, "managing paradigm shifts", Travel, etc etc..life just moved on and on, and has become a thing that my pastr does not recognise. The kind of people that live this life are not known to that boy in 89, neither do these people know that boy !
In this life, there is no role for Musnhi Prem Chand. There can be no lunch table discussions around him, neither can he be discussed meangfully in late night alcohol sessions, while a Vikram Seth easily can be. He had no chance - and hence, Munshi Prem Chand was washed down by the way side and remained only a distant memory from a distant past, till all those memories finally completely and totally disappeared.

Today, I went to a book shop to buy Rama Bijapurkars latest book "we are like this only" and I saw a book by Munshi PremChand on the shelf by chance in the Hindi section (which was one shelf in the 2,000 sq feet shop) . I casually asked the salesman if he has more of these and he said that he has the whole collection. I bought all of them - the entire collection of short stories and Novels written by him. Many memories have come back today. I can clearly see my grandfathers room, with his 3 almirahs - two made of Sheesham wood and their glass covers with a quiant muslim style carving and one much newer one made out of steel with sliding glass doors, the door on the 3'rd shelf always got stuck if you tugged hard at it. I can recall my grandfather resting on his grand chair and us massaging his swollen feet (he had philaria in one leg), i can recall even some of the emotions and feelings and realisations on reading those fantastic books that I felt then.

I will now start the love story again, hopefully, I will discover some of the innocence and get back some memories from those hot summer afternoons. Hopefully, I will be able to get that boy from the summer to get too know this man better. I have given a lot to my education and my career and to life in general in the last 17 years. Hopefully, I will start to get some of that back. Hopefully, I will retain who I am and where I come from a bit better so that I can pass some of that to my Children so that they to have a sense of the past and their heritage. I hope with Munshi Prem Chand I have started that journey. I hope I can fill that strange void that I feel some times, I hope this will help me deal with some things better, at least I can hope...Finally !