Dangerous liaisons make for lonely lives
Manju Joshi

A Bowstring Winter
Dhruba Hazarika.
Penguin. Pages 343. Rs 295.

Dhruba Hazarika’s realistic novel is set against the lush-green hills and the mist-laden mountains of Shillong. The pristine silence of the valley suspended in time and space stands in direct contract with violence and bloodshed in the work. The story deals with one winter, the book itself being divided under the headings November, December and January.

John Dkhan, a teacher of political science at St Edmund’s College, enters into a dangerous friendship with James Kharlukhi and his gang. These gangsters had connections with the bookies and made money out of manipulating the number of arrows. These occasions never went unscathed without incidents of violence and killing.

Loneliness is inherent in each of the characters. Without family and friends, John Dkhan craves nostalgically for a world that now existed only in his mind. James Kharlukhi, an orphan and a philanderer, makes dirty money and spends his entire life playing with dangers. Dor Kharkonger, who finds poetry in the bow, fails to relate to a similar situation in his marriage.

Friendship is what knitted James and his companions together: "It was the code of friendship, like a bowstring: tight, like an arrow: straight." The blind faith and loyalty to James lands all of them into trouble. John Dkhan walked tightrope between friendship and love, guilt and justification. He now finds himself a stealthy lover, a hypocrite friend and a coward with no guts to face the truth. Was it James’ personality that swamped his or was it Jemmifer, the woman he fell for?

The mysterious hands of destiny work their way unexpected on human beings. One can try to be what one can be and if one is pulled away from it by other things, then that is the way it was meant to be. John Dkhan had the least premonition when he first met James that instead of holding pen and paper, he would pick up a knife.

There is an unending yearning for love. John was looking for love, but instead enters a circle of violence over which he had no control. Life at the Kaizang was a feast all the way until love came in, but finally when it comes, it feasted on all of them. Almost all the characters are swayed by a ruling passion. James Kharlukhi has a passion for danger, Charles has it for hatred, Dor Kharkonger for friendship and John’s for his woman. Passion leads all of them into serious consequences. The book is on the whole an amalgam of human instincts and emotions. The context of the work makes the use of swear words necessary. The narrative is racy and the use of vernacular makes it even more charming to read.

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