book review

i have been reading a lot lately.

i love reading contemporary Indian writing in English.

the book i have chosen to review is from this genre...its called "the peacock throne" by sujit saraf.

its a long book of about 750 pages and runs like a thread through the most tumultuous period of Indian polity. 1984 to 1998.

it traces the rise of a new political culture complete with the vices of a previous political era minus its scant virtues.

and yet the book never intends to measure character with a moral compass. it presents reality the way it should be, as and when.

in gopal pandey the books recreates the worn out common man and pushes him through the narrow corridors of power.

the peacock throne departs from the usual Indian story in may ways. poverty isn't fascinating or romantic...its painful,

despite the size of the book their is a careful economy of words .... modern India is too complex to be contained in any other way without missing out on one or many of the significant.

stories of great men and great institutions have perfect beginnings and tailor made climaxes.but this is a very ordinary story about very ordinary people. such subjects keep fumbling and faltering until they "fall" into a rhythm, which again is susceptible to fall at the faintest inkling of instability.

saraf's chandni chowk is everyplace in modern India though you may not want it to be, just as his gopal pandey is the everyman you will love to lose in a crowd.

despite its declared finite geographical extent its a microcosm of the whole breadth India.

my best moments came when the book enters its final lap in 1998.the book metamorphoses into a new avatar. suddenly its characters come alive and move around with energy and purpose. the book becomes a living , breathing document.

the masterstroke takes six hundred pages in coming as the plot develops, like a cake baked slowly. and then it comes. perfect. just like good monsoons it drenches you into literary perfection.

in a hundred pages it paints the most authentic picture of the dance of democracy. it shakes up an entire world and its way of life before restoring it to its former equilibrium. sandpapering the new rough edges and fitting them back to where they belong.

their are lines which stick to you long after the ensemble has collapsed on the altar of oblivion.on page 726 i found that one line.

gopal "das", new member of parliament for chandni chowk, and the crucial swing vote in a possibly hung lok sabha is in the PM's residence where a young minister asks him about his preference for any particular ministry.

our man looks at the floor and remains silent for some time, and then slowly answers, "i will take all matters into consideration and make a decision that benefits the people of chandni chowk"

bravo!!...this would have been a perfect climax for a perfect book.

but this is a flawed book written for flawed people....its veers away from predictables.

there's another gem of a line on page 698...a former sex worker-turned NGO wali says "today every woman in chandni chowk will turn into a whore"...if you read the book you'll realize the whole compelling sense behind it.

PS : the book turns out to be a terrific education of chandni chowk , its buildings and in fact a whole way of life waiting to be discovered. more details can be had at www.sujitsaraf.com. i have added images from chandni chowk.