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The Shape of the
Beast: Conversations
Mary Roy raised her daughter alone. She started a school in Kottayam out of the Rotary Club premises. In the morning, the kids would study on the tables where the men would meet to smoke and drink whisky in the evenings. Next morning, the rubbish was cleaned up and it was school again. Arundhati was the first student of this "sliding-folding" school. Mary Roy also challenged the Syrian Christian Inheritance law and won equal inheritance from the Supreme Court. And Arundhati, who was "thin, black and clever," left home at 16, put herself through college, lived in squatters colony in Ferozshah Kotla, also went on to write The God of Small Things, which went on to win the Booker and sold six million copies in 40 languages. There is both pathos and irony when Arundhati writes, "… the problem is that we are both women who are unconventional, the least we could have done was to be unhappy. But we aren’t. That’s what brothers people: the fact you can make these choices and be happy—like a pair of witches." The Booker gave Arundhati her money, and a platform. The money has set her free to support the causes she wants to and write the stories "people may not want to hear". The platform she has used to speak up on a variety of subjects. In her words, "Once you’ve seen certain things, you can’t un-see them, and saying nothing is as political an act as speaking out … ." Her Booker money has gone to the NBA and her Sydney Prize money to aborigine groups. Money still bothers her, yet comforts her. She refuses to become a celebrity who does interviews and chat-shows or cut ribbons. She is an easy target for tirades from academics, journalists and assorted chatterati. Ramachandra Guha has dubbed her work indulgent and unoriginal. She has been charged with "corrupting public morality" in Kerala and contempt by the Supreme Court. She has turned down the Sahitya Akademi Award and is the "troublesome writer" who refuses to be "tamed". She writes, "… each person has got this trajectory behind him or her—there’s history at work, politics at work, and yet there’s tenderness and it’s totally personal." The Shape of the Beast has her talking with N. Ram, David Barsamian, Anthony Arnove, Amit Sengutpa, P. G. Rasool, Shoma Chaudhary and articulating her perceptions on subjects ranging from dams to damnation spread out from Kashmir to Gujarat, the power politics of Sardar Sarovar, Maheshwar, Enron, globalisation and the WTO, IMF and World Bank development perspectives. It is not great scholarship that enables a successful outcome for causes championed; it is passion and articulate voices that are heard. Arundhati is the complete package, an author true to her convictions and craft, who is also read. She has not only espoused causes beyond the realm considered fashionable but also chosen to put her money on them. So skim through Scimitars in the Sun, Globalisation of Dissent, The War that Never Ends, The Question of Violence, Choosing our Weapons, and others. Passionate, yes; simplified for the average reader, yes; self-indulgent or unoriginal—well, read her and judge for yourself. Six million readers in 40 languages have done that!
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THER’s
something "fey" about Arundhati Roy. However, her demure
fragility belies the tough choices that she has made and continues to
make. Her eyes bear the stamp of her progenitor, a fearless women named
Mary Roy.