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Delayed Monsoon
Reviewed by Randeep Wadehra
This is a story of Abhilasha, who has, after experiencing a couple of heartbreaks and propositions, just begun her career as advocate when she marries an IAF pilot — thus taking off from the streets of Kolkata to different parts of the country; the glimpses of the air force camp life will certainly strike a chord or two in the hearts of those familiar with the IAF lifestyle. It also tells us of Abhilasha’s mother Jyotirmoyee who, at the age of 14, was married off to a 30-year-old man and suffered in the process. Then there is the tale of Shanti. The narrative also shows how women struggle to live with a modicum of dignity in a male dominated world peopled by cads, sexual predators et al. However, the storyline gets lost in the maze of too many subplots. The focus of the story somehow gets blurred as the author tries to deal with too many characters, situations and issues. A professional writing course (various universities, including IGNOU, provide this) would have enabled Paul to turn this novel into an absorbing read.
This is a collection of stories that provides a variegated view of the region’s contemporary lifestyle. Although the very first story Assassination of God is ostensibly based in Punjab the inspiration clearly comes from various media reports on the Sacha Sauda related happenings. Then, there are other stories like The Teacher I despised which provide glimpses of the rural life; the ones like Demi Goddess (sic) focus on cheating of the gullible through perpetuation of superstition. The book also deals with other current socially relevant issues like girl-child’s plight etc. Obviously, the author’s heart is in the right place but writing short stories requires a certain structured approach coupled with imagination and professional acumen in order to attract reader interest and retain it. Syntactical bloomers, e.g., "wall nuts (walnuts)", "grand mother (grandmother)", "care taker (caretaker)" "in to (into)" etc have been repeated too many times to be ascribed to oversight or the work of printer’s devil.
India suffers from
overload of didacticism thanks to the tons of sermons spewed by assorted
god-men, and creeds prescribing codes of conduct for various flocks of
followers. Then there are armchair do-gooders who take it upon
themselves to preach to the society at large, and Anand appears to be
one of them. In various chapters, he explains the meaning, purpose and
functioning of the term ‘society’. He also identifies the various
ills bedeviling the society. He bemoans the disintegration of family
life thanks to the woman’s "refusal to merge her identity"
into her husband’s; the prevailing materialistic culture has triggered
off ambitions to such an extent that spouses concentrate more on
building their careers than on raising families and nurturing children.
Thence, Anand goes on to introduce a new model of society, among other
themes.
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WRITING
a novel is like building an edifice. Its foundations should be strong,
the exteriors magnificent and interiors of immense utility to its users.
Like different buildings have different architectural styles various
novels, too, have unique structural characteristics; some are linear
wherein the storyline follows a straight path without detours and
digressions; other narratives swing from present to past and frequently
to the future, too; and then there is the traditional Indian narrative
style which has tales within a tale – so evident in our Sanskrit
literature including the two epics. Paul has opted for the complex
flashback-cum-tale-within-a-tale structure.
Assassination
of God and Other Stories
I
Belong to You