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by Kiran Desai Published by Faber and Faber
Ltd., 1998 |
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Kiran Desai's maiden novel, "Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard" became famous even before it was published, as excerpts from it appeared in the book, "Mirrorwork: The Vintage book of Indian Writing, 1947 - 1997" edited by Salman Rushdie and Elizabeth West and published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the independence of India. It was serialised in the "New Yorker India Fiction Issue" in 1997. Coming some time after the publication of "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy, media was also cranked up to market the first publication of Kiran Desai, daughter of the well known writer Anita Desai. The novel was awarded the Betty Trask Prize by the Society of Authors. While reading it I asked myself many, many times, what is this book all about, what is its central theme? Is this a book about Sampath, the simpleton? Chawla, the father who should have really been a member of our parliament? Is it about Ammaji, a rare specimen of a mother-in-law? About Pinky and her awakening? About monkeys, as suggested by the cover picture? About Kulfi, the out-of- this- world mother? Is it about gullible people like the Shahkotians? The spy, who symbolises irrationality though he is a member of AH (The Atheist Society) and of BUFHM (The Branch to Uncover Fraudulent Holy Men). It is a book of many layers. One of the obvious themes here is the greediness of people who turn every situation into a money making machine. Sampath's father Chawla is such a character. The other is the naivity of the common people symbolised here by the citizens of Shahkot who make a sage out of the simpleton Sampath. Sampath who has been all his life a great disappointment to his father, ends up on a tree in the Guava orchard as he wants to escape from the stifling life of Shahkot. But even there he cannot escape from life and from his people.. No sooner than he climbs up the tree, people start visiting him as if he is the new age Buddha. His own family follows him to the orchard and set themselves up in the watchman's hut. Father Chawla realises very quickly that here is the golden opportunity for him to make money; this is when Sampath finally becomes an asset to the family. The fact that Sampath, the simpleton, is very much at home in the company of drunken monkeys which invade the orchard shows how alienated he is from the human society. Even this fact does not deter the people who visit him. They start calling him the Monkey-Baba. But wherever monkeys go, mischief follows soon. That is what happens in the Guava orchard too. Plots are hatched to get rid of the monkeys. Sampath's own wishes and priorities are totally ignored by all concerned. Finally a whiff of courage is born in him, Sampath escapes from the orchard, from humanity. Nobody knows where he has disappeared to. In this sense "Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard" is a sad story. But Kiran Desai's writing style makes the entire book come across like a big joke told by a clown. One can also read the book as an eulogy of food, of strange foods, of crisp aubergines. Kulfi (the word is used to mean Indian ice cream!), when she was pregnant with Sampath, dreams of food when she is awake, when she is sleeping. For example, "In her mind, aubergines grew large and purple and crisp, and then, in a pan, turned tender and melting." My mother had taught me that aubergines should be firm, beans should be crisp! But that was in another world, and not the one you find in Hullabaloo. |