Young Fare
Dreams and destiny
Aditi Garg

Dance of the Fireflies
Rucha Humnabadkar.
Frog Books. Rs. 250. Pages 244.

Some years are for you to know your dreams and some years are for the realisation of those dreams. Rucha Humnabadkar aptly sums up the essence of the novel in these opening lines. Childhood is not merely all fun and play. For the less privileged, it is fraught with abuse, hardships and making or breaking of the spirit and fire within. It is this fire which fuels the dreams that these children dare to nurse in the face of sheer adversity and hope against all odds.

It is a commendable effort on the part of the author to select the topic of street children for her debut novel. Rucha is neither new to writing, nor is her understanding of street children part of armchair writing. Her experiences with street children during her school years and later on as a journalist helped her build up this intriguing novel. She has achieved a lot for her twenty-seven years.

Having earned a degree from Carnegie Mellon University in the US, she also assisted filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor on his early films, apart from having written and directed three English language plays. She penned her first play at the age of 18 and her grasp over the language and ability to play with words to strike just the right note is indeed praiseworthy.

Based on the life of a five-year-old she encountered during her association with street children, Chotu’s poignant tale of physical and emotional abuse stirs the soul. The title, Dance of the Fireflies, signifies the insuppressible spirit of fireflies, their ability to glow in pitch dark.

Chotu’s dream of owning a bicycle despite being hand to mouth shows the same indomitable fortitude. He dares to dream and is ready to take on the unforgiving world in his quest. The emotional, physical and sexual harassment that he faces at the hands of Aslam, the person he chooses to trust, completely dampens his ability to trust anyone. He finds comfort in his friendship with his employer’s granddaughter Tasneem. Both of them have seen life at its worst, had their trust violated again and again and yet, they dared to hope. Chotu is scared and courageous, small in appearance and big in his aspirations and wanting to belong and is individualistic, all at the same time. Although the book is full of references to religion, it chooses not to preach or weave a communal thread into the story.

It remains purely the story of two kids, their adolescence and youth, following their turbulences and turmoils. The presence of incidents like the tsunami, that left a death trail in very recent times, has a touching impact on the reader. It has the echoes of Lori McFadyen’s book Voices from the Street. Though it consisted of real life account of street children and their own comments on their lives, they are comparable to the adversity faced by Rucha’s characters. Humnabadkar’s book is indeed a tribute to all the Chotus out there on the streets.

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