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Past Continuous
It begins on a gloomy note of death of the protagonist’s mother, "Mother died today or perhaps it was yesterday, but she will be around for a while." Though dead, her character is brought alive to us gradually by Ritwik, the protagonist. His mother thrashed him mercilessly on little pretexts like misspelling a word or not reading out aloud. "It was not just any rain of fire it was a deluge which didn’t know when to stop...." Virtually, the tension created by her good-for-nothing brothers was poured on the poor boy. Consequently, Ritwik developed hatred for his family as well as dislike for the Bengali-Hindu middle class family system. Mother being dead, he is a lost soul "...as hollow as the sounding brass, the tinkling cymbal...." This image clings to him even in an alien land. Following his studies, maintaining gay relationships and being a part of manual workforce, he is a lost soul in search of something to hold on. His past follows him, even though he is in a different land. Feeling of vacuum is beautifully manifested when he undergoes hallucination of his mother’s presence in his darkroom at Oxford. Mukherjee dwells upon this scene very deftly. Here supernaturalism is treated as artistically and convincingly as is found in Shakespeares’ plays. Finally, Ritwik runs into Zafar, a rich arms dealer, who treats him as his lover. However, mystery surrounds the latter’s activities. It is a tale of ‘lost souls’ who are consistently in search of something to hold on. Anne Cameron is quite happy with her life in India, so is Gilby. While the former runs a school for children, Gilby acts as a teacher to Bimla, wife of a rich landlord. Though an outsider in the family, she doesn’t feel out of place over there. But after her son’s death, Cameron is just a lost soul in her own land. All this seems to be the brainchild of Ritwik to escape his loneliness and ennui. Illegal immigrants in the UK from different countries too are depicted as lost souls with deft touches. The writer has the knack of carrying various threads of the story very subtly. It is Anne Cameron who happens to become the saviour of Ritwik by providing him roof. If he is to stay in England after the expiry of his student visa, he has to look after this extremely old woman. The beauty of this episode lies in Ritwik finding succour in her because the latter’s pain and loss are no less than his. She and she alone can rescue him out of his traumatic past. Looking after Anne and cooking for her, he comes to understand the concept of love that his mother had denied him in his childhood. The sheer hell that illegal immigrants undergo for bare survival once they are alienated and dislocated from their roots is brought out very psychologically. Past Continuous refers to the 1970s and 1980s in India, 90s England and the first decade of the 20th-century Bengal on the eve of its division along with Ritwik’s story. With its background of Partition of Bengal, the novel imparts is a fair idea of how the British divided the Muslims and the Hindus. Moreover, Gilby and Cameron are good friends and together give us a glimpse of India of the times referred to. The character of Roy Chowdhary stands out conspicuous. We are told about his death through Gilby’s brother James. It is the writer’s ability to capture subtle nuances that makes the book in hand a superb read. The novel abounds in pleasing graphic descriptions that invariably speak for themselves, e.g., the manner in which Gibly and Iris Shepherd are received by the women folk of Maharaja of Mysore’s palace. The reader enjoys the latter’s giggling and jingling of their trinkets as well. So real, yet pleasant and vibrant language is used to describe the scene that it stands vivid before our eyes long after we have laid down the book. So is the scene of illegal immigrants in search of work waiting for someone to pick them up. The novel is enriched with exquisite and delightful imagery that adds to its appeal and charm, e.g., strawberries are described "like little red lanterns in the green night". One can’t help but admire the natural flow of words like water gushing in a river. The book happens to be a tale of alienations and dislocations, outsiders and losers, the tenuous and unconscious, intersections of lives and histories. It successfully brings out the agony and pain of illegal migrants. The novel engages the reader’s attention till the end. It does deserve a special niche in the echelons of this genre despite being a debut attempt by Neel Mukherjee. It is a must read for anyone who is fond of good fiction. Rightly does Ali Smith remark, "Incisive and poetic, sensual and intelligent, a novel with great breath, heart and courage."
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NOT very often do we come
across a novel so intense, thoughtful and one that runs on many levels
simultaneously. Although a debut attempt by the author, Past
Continuous is undoubtedly an engaging and powerful work of art. An
extract from Rabindranath Tagore’s The Home and the World makes
it obvious that the theme of the novel can be traced to it.