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White Man Falling
The story is set in southern India, in the town of Mullaipuram in Tamil Nadu. Swaminathan is a good man unjustly struck down by fate after he administered a mild custodial beating to a ‘very guilty suspect’ as a result of which he suffered an intra-cerebral haemorrhage which left him with speech and mobility problems. He has however memorised the 1,330 sacred couplets of the Tirukkural, by Tiruvalluvar, like some kind of divinely blessed holy man. One of the ways by which Swaminathan communicates with his family is by referring to specific couplets by number which they then try to decode. Swaminathan lives with his wife and six daughters. "Six daughters! What was Lord Vadivela thinking of, giving me six daughters and no sons? How could anyone find dowries for six daughters let alone a cripple like me on a half-pay pension?" The eldest of his daughters is Jodhi who is in the third year of her BA in English Literature at the local college while Leela, the youngest is 11 years old. His wife is also anxious regarding their marriages but she has drawn up her own six-daughter matrimonial master plan. "Six daughters and no son to lighten the load"—that’s what people say of her. But Amma trusts in God. She trusts in lots of gods. She trusts in all of them, every last one, even the ones that nobody else can be bothered with anymore. Swaminathan despairs over his lot. He likes to get out and often goes on small trips into town, either limping around on foot for very short expeditions or letting himself get pushed in a wheelchair. It is on one of these excursions that a life-changing event occurs when "suddenly, in a flash, out of nowhere, a white man falls out of the sky". He bounces on the hard dirt road, directly in front of Swaminathan—somehow he lands in a gap between the swarming pedestrians, although not without knocking a small boy off balance. Swaminathan remains silent and only feels a strange peacefulness as he shares the dying man’s last moments. The circumstances surrounding his plunge find Swaminathan drawn into a Bollywood blockbuster drama, with Swaminathan himself playing the hero’s role on his limited terms—confusing everyone else. Among those interested in the matter are DDR (Doraisamy Devanamapettai Rajendran), the rich hotel owner from where the white man had jumped off, and the policeman in the town of Mullaipuram, including Murugesan, Swaminathan’s oldest colleague. Swaminathan is pulled into the investigation as eyewitness and an escalating series of misunderstandings lead everyone to think he is stirring up trouble. Swaminathan because of his own incapacities caused by the stroke cannot clear anything up. On the home front, Swaminathan’s wife has taken into her head to bag the most expensive boy in India for Jodhi and she finds an answer to her prayers in Mohan who is a distant acquaintance of the family. However, her husband’s unexpected involvement in the unsettling events caused by the white man’s death complicates Jodhi’s marriage prospects. Swaminathan’s earthly existence and cosmic fate lead him beyond the merely human towards a glimpse of the universal and he begins to emanate an aura of potent peacefulness. As further bizarre incidents occur, his hometown starts to believe he is walking with God and life becomes easier. His silence is not seen as a physical incapacity but as wisdom and he becomes revered Swamiji. Followers flock to him expecting more than he can offer. They believe in him, find the answers they are looking for and feel infused with a sense of spiritual rejuvenation. White Man Falling has so many complicated and exhausting things happening to so many different people almost at the same time but the author’s lucid prose makes these absurdities easy to accept. Stocks poetic background manifests itself in beautiful turns of phrases and the extensive use of Indian English throughout the text. It’s amazing how authentically an Englishman has set his story in a long forgotten town in Tamil Nadu. The writing is witty and engaging. A warm-hearted comedy, it is a satire of the search for smeaning in the meaningless—on the whole a very enjoyable read.
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THIS
humorous tale centers around the family of Sub-Inspector (retd) R. M.
Swaminathan who carries a morbid fame for having once attempted suicide
using only a puncture repair kit.