Of commonplace situations and recognisable characters
Nausheen Rahman wades into captivating tales
The Lives of Strangers
Chitra Divakaruni
Abacus
Chitra Divakaruni's first volume of short stories, Arranged Marriage, was so good that when my eyes alighted upon another such collection, The Lives of Strangers, in a bookshop, I had to buy it just then.
Divakaruni takes commonplace situations and recognizable characters and weaves haunting tales around them. This collection has nine stories which are set in both the East and West, and which deal with various relationships, dilemmas and emotions. All the protagonists are women.
Mrs. Dutta Writes A Letter, the first story in the book, is about a widow who goes to live with her son and wife in the U.S. She soon realizes this is not an arrangement that suits her. It is a simple story, told convincingly, of what happens to numerous women who have to live with their sons, especially in a different culture. The ending really uplifts the spirit, as it shows a woman's fortitude and good sense.
The Lives of Strangers is a thought-provoking story about Leela, who was born and brought up in America and goes to visit her home country, India, for the first time. Her parents (who never talk about India) giver her advice before she sets off (not to get involved in the lives of strangers, among other things). Her aunt Seema thinks going on a pilgrimage to Kashmir is the best way to see India in the heat, "a journey which is going to earn them comfort on earth and goodwill in heaven". This story presents an interesting depiction of the two sides of Leela's personality as we see some kind of a conflict between her American and Indian selves. Her American upbringing gets in the way of her humane Indianness. Contrary to her parents' warnings, she befriends a Mrs. Das in a way she never would've thought possible, surprising even herself. Mrs. Das' character confirms the significance of destiny in people's lives. She is believed to be accursed and Leela's chance encounter with her brings about a self-revelation: "How amazing that it should be a stranger who has opened her like a dictionary and brought to light this word ('intimacy') whose definition had escaped her until now". She is convinced, that "there's always a connection, a reason because of which people enter your orbit, bristling with dark energy like a meteor tent on collision", and that destiny is a seductive concept".
Divakaruni's short stories are narrated with a sensitivity and an ease that leave the reader with a feeling of gratification. The Forgotten Children, gives a young girl's perspective. She, her brother, her insecure mother and a violent drunkard father make up her unhappy family. There are parts that will make readers choke with emotion: "and in that way I came to know something of love, how complex it is, how filled with the need to believe". A child's protective attachments to her little brother ("We. That was how I thought of my brother in those days, as though he were as much a part of me as my arm of leg"), her innocent longing for a normal life, her escape from harsh reality in her daydreams, and her brother's fleeing away from it all, are the elements of this story.
The Intelligence of Wild Things is a subtle narration of the complexity of blood relationships. A widowed mother anxious about her son, Tarun's safety due to Naxalite movement in Calcutta, sends him away to America against his will. Her daughter lives in America with her husband and two children. Tarun has been a very quiet boy, very attached to his mother and sister. His stay in America makes him more withdrawn and a distance comes between him and his mother, and between the two siblings. They find it difficult to communicate. "Is there ever a way back across the immigrant years, across the foreign warp of the heart?" The mother wants to see her son before she dies, but the sister doesn't know how to tell her brother this. This is a moving story about people growing away from one another, although their love remains intact.
The Love of a Good Man talks about a daughter's complicated feelings for her mother and hatred for her father who abandoned them for a life in America; not long after, the mother dies of cancer. Monisha, the daughter, gets married to a "good" man and has a son. Ten years after the father's desertion, he wants to come and see his grandson. Monisha can't find it in herself to forgive and forget. Her refusal, then reluctant agreeing, to let him come and stay with them for one night, and the outcome of this visit are so beautifully described, most of us are likely to read the story again. Divakaruni's words, chosen with precision and imagination, make her stories even more delightful: "We buried our hurts inside our bodies, like shrapnel"; "perhaps happiness, which I'd given up on, was an uncharted possibility, a brave geography worth the long effort of exploration". Her empathy with her characters is also awe-inspiring.
What The Body Knows is a compelling read. Although it gives graphic details of Aparna's illness, pain, surgery and slow recovery, surprisingly, one doesn't recoil from it; on the contrary, one goes on reading with undivided attention. Aparna has a caesarean baby, but shortly after has to go back for another surgery, and spends a difficult month in hospital. She loses the will to live due to the pain and helplessness. Then she finds interest in living again through a chance happening. She falls in love with the surgeon who had saved her life but doesn't tell him anything. She regains her health and returns to normal life. One day, while shopping, she runs into her doctor who looks at her with a new interest (he who had never been anything but professional before). When he wants to take her for coffee, she feels saddened because she realizes that he is no different from other men. The protagonist's delicate emotions expressed in very effective language make this s remarkable piece of writing. The writer's use of imagery is also very impressive.
The Blooming Season for Cacti is about rather different circumstances. Mira has lost her mother in the Bombay riots and goes to America to her brother and his wife. Her horrifying experience has a deep impact on her psyche and she can't bear to think of getting married. This causes trouble between her and her sister-in-law and she decides to go away to California. In Sacramento, she finds a job and meets Radhika. They become friends and gradually Radhika develops feelings for Mira. "If a woman finds joy in the spare, pared flesh of the dessert, if she finds joy in another woman's sand-brown body, who is to say?" Mira's not reciprocating drives Mira to try and kill herself. This story sheds on other aspects of women's lives and relationships, as we read about the different problems in Radhika's and Mira's lives.
The Unknown Errors of our Lives: Ruchira is about to get married to Biren. As she packs boxes/cartons to take to her new home, she finds an old notebook of hers. As a teenager, she used to write in this 'book of errors'. Suddenly, one of Biren's old girlfriends (who is pregnant with his baby) drops in. Arlene, the former girlfriend, tells Ruchira, that Biren thinks she has had the baby aborted as he had wished; then goes away to live her own life. Ruchira wants to call off her wedding, but a message on Biren's answering machine and remembering that Biren had told her all about his past, stops her from committing another error.
The Names of Stars in Bengali: Two little boys come with their mother to India from America for their first visit. They have a fun-filled time, enjoying the newness of everything (even their mother's different appearance and nickname, Khuku) and loving the stories their "Didima" tells them. We learn about Khuku's childhood, of her mother's one and only visit to America. Khuku goes for a scooter ride round the village, and it occurs to her that she is nostalgic and that she wants to read out the names of stars in Bengali and other things from a book to her husband and children. She wants to reach home quickly; the story ends on that happy note.
Today, with so much of immigrating to the West, especially America, these stories hold much relevance and are enjoyed so much because of the writer's skill of imbuing them with so much depth and meaning.
Nausheen Rahman teaches, writes and reviews book.
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