Body, blood and betrayal by Benyamin

Eesha Duggal

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Midhun’s accident injuries did not appear grievous enough to be fatal. But he still dies and his organs are donated in preparedness that appears dispassionate and almost criminal.

Benyamin’s ‘Body and Blood’, translated from Malayalam by Swarup BR, ventures into the controversial territory of organised religion to narrate a story of three friends and their pursuit to uncover the truth behind a hit-and-run case. Sandhya, Rithu, Ragesh and Midhun are members of a religious fellowship run by a pastor in Delhi. After Midhun is killed in a purported road accident, the three others decide to visit their hometowns to recover from the tragedy, only to be reprimanded into returning to Delhi by a didactic Pastor Philip. Even though they come back to carry out the missionary work, they are riddled with suspicion that there is something more to Midhun’s death than meets the eye and not all is well with the ministry.

As anonymous tips blow the lid off the scandalous and unethical enterprise being run in the name of faith and charity, they learn that their friend’s untimely demise was part of a larger conspiracy. They realise that their credulity, like that of several others, has been exploited.

Benyamin, whose ‘Jasmine Days’ won him the JCB Prize for Literature, triumphs in offering some profound conversations circling around love, life, death and memories. Through his characters, Benyamin invokes Vincent van Gogh, Edouard Manet, JD Salinger, Ursula K Le Guin, Dr Weir Mitchell, Nikos Kazantzakis and Albert Schweitzer to catch the imagination of the reader.

One does get the feeling that Kiran and Uncle Carlos, characters with a strong bohemian appeal, have not been realised to the best of their potential. They had a lot more to offer.