The Tale of a Caged Wife

Photo: Prabir Das

She had been like the bird in Lalon's song, the bird that escaped the cage of love. But, she wondered now, what had freedom brought her after all these years? Would she be able to fly again, or had she lost her wings forever?  
These are one of the many thoughts that troubled Uma Basu, a Harvard educated woman from Calcutta who finds herself caged in a city going through one after another turbulence and turmoil.  Uma arrives in Dhaka in 1973 trailing her husband Iqbal, who had decided to return home, the city of his youth, and join his old University leaving behind the lure of the United States.  Uma had married Iqbal defying her family in Calcutta, and in choosing to follow Iqbal to Dhaka she not only cut ties with her family but also gave up prospects of a career in the US. Uma did not have high expectations from the country that was just recovering from the ravages of war and was trying hard to put together the framework of running a government and a new economy. But she braced herself to live in a new city that she had heard so much about from her husband who had spent all his early years roaming the streets and bazaars of Dhaka and enjoyed his rather laissez faire life in the halls and corridors of his dear alma mater. Uma plunges headlong with her eager husband into a city totally unknown to her relying only on her husband and few friends from college days now in different professions in this new country.  

Mirror City by Chitrita Banerji Penguin Books India, 2014, 398 pages

But Uma and Iqbal's romantic expectations to see a new society freed from the prejudices of the earlier timesdie early when their union is not easily accepted by those who come to know them including Iqbal's relatives. To their dismay they find that the secular values scripted into the country's constitution did not translate into acceptance by the society of an interfaith union particularly when the two partners retain their own faiths. Everywhere Uma went eyebrows were raised when they realized she had not converted to her husband's faith. Her Indian nationality was also cumbersome in seeking jobs.  The only welcoming arms for Uma and Iqbal were those of Iqbal's friends with whom Uma spends her island like existence.  
Uma's disappointment and melancholia do not come from her new environment, but also from a sinking feeling of uselessness. While her husband is occupied full time with teaching Uma is frustrated by ennui of a laid back life. However, Uma's tedium is temporarily over when she Is unexpectedly hired by a foreign non-governmental organization. Sadly, while she rediscovers herself in the new job and gets her self- confidence back, at home she finds herself wedded to a brooding husband who is getting more and more frustrated by failures of his country and the environment. While her job with the NGO keeps her intellectually engaged she finds herself more and more emotionally detached from her husband. With her love and marriage on a tenuous hold, Uma is suddenly drawn to a complete stranger thrown by chance at her life, a middle aged industrialist. With no qualms or inhibition she flings herself at this person with passion and love that surprises even her. What would she do with the double life that she was living? Should she look for a new chapter in her life with the newfound love of her? Is this doable? The answer lies in the tantalizing end of this gripping book.
Mirror City is the tale of a difficult juncture in Uma Basu's life, adjusting to a new city, and a society that is not welcoming. It is also about a gnawing examination of her own self and future directions. It is the first novel of Chitrita Banerjee, well known author of several books on food, and culture of Bengal and India. Her recent books that received critical acclaim are Eating India: Exploring a Nation's Cuisine, and The Hour of the Goddess: Memories of Women, Food and Ritual in Bengal. Cast in the turbulent early period of Bangladesh, Mirror City reflects the political instability, economic and physical insecurity, and serious food crisis of the time.  The larger than life characters of the novel brilliantly portray people from different walks of life like a drama that could very well be based on real life. The story of Uma Basu, the protagonist of the novel, is narrated as a story of her husband Iqbal, a University Teacher, his friends, the staff of the place Uma works, and of course, Alim, the industrialist that Uma has an affair with. In the background is live drama of Dhaka of the seventies that witnessed rise and fall of the founder of the country, growth of political hooliganism and quick money, a military coup and death of democracy.
Much of this canvas is drawn from the author's firsthand experience of Dhaka where she lived in the seventies. This experience makes the novel realistic and sometimes almost historical. Those of us who had witnessed the early period of our liberation will relate well to the politics, events, and characters portrayed in the novel. But the country has changed vastly now, from a subsistent and foreign aid driven economy it has grown into a fast developing manufacturing country moving more and more away from foreign aid.
Mirror City is a perfect commentary on the times that Dhaka went through. The society, however, is not the same that the novel describes, making some of the episodes in the novel as belonging to history. Uma Basu would perhaps be not so unwelcome in Dhaka now as she was four decades back. Indians are not suspiciously looked upon as foreign nationals; neither an interfaith marriage raises any eyebrow. But it is a brilliantly written book, in a language that is both descriptive and powerful. It has the hand mark of a novelist who knows the mind of a reader and who can take the reader into the minds of the characters.