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Ajmal Kasab comes from the gun-fodder class of jihadists; uneducated and unskilled, they have very few avenues of employment open to them. Poverty precludes any possibility for dignified sustenance. When they see the wealth being flaunted by their more fortunate compatriots they, naturally, become susceptible to get rich quick offers. In the process, they get ensnared by those having vested interest in perpetuating jihadist culture in Pakistan and beyond. Rodrigues investigates the dynamics of a fundamentalist society – which routinely produces brainwashed killers – in all its stark details. Not only does he identify various persons, institutions and places in Pakistan which are involved in churning out jihadist desperados but has also delineated the actual process of doing so. This seminal work might well prove to be a template for similar studies in future. The Dreamer
Balasubramanyam has a talent for inventing metaphors and similes that should add to the readability of this work of magic realism written in smart prose. However, after you finish reading it, you feel dissatisfied. The tormented Shashi’s angst leaves you cold. There are simply too many loose ends here. For example, what was the purpose of introducing the comic book character ‘Stoneman’ if it had to remain in unfinished form? Personally, I would have preferred a tighter plot. All and Nothing
Bharadia uses fluid
narrative style to successfully deal with a multilayered theme.
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A
Shashi
is an actor who, apart from being a regular on the London theatre
circuit, has performed a negative character in a big-budgeted Hollywood
movie; but becomes famous for playing a character named Tony Shah on
television. Inexplicably, he loses interest in his work, turns alcoholic
and violent. As a result, his marriage and career go to seed. Gradually,
he seeks relief for his tormented soul by hallucinating. You learn of
his love for Lisha when he was a kid in Stonewall – a village in
Lancashire. Lisha dies in a racist attack that burns her house down.
Shashi is disturbed by other memories, too. As a child, he had witnessed
adulterous relationships between his mother and Lisha’s father, as
also his brother and Lisha’s mother; later, as adult he sleeps with
his best friend’s wife. The narrative swings between past and present
– nightmares and lucidity.
Man-woman
relationship has always been a complex and contradictory phenomenon. It
constricts, liberalises, demeans and exalts the individuals even as they
stagnate or progress materially, intellectually and spiritually. Tina, a
talented artist, falls for the charms of Aditya, whose first wife Antara,
the-gold-digger, has walked out on him. After the initial euphoria
abates, mind-games begin; with Aditya ruthlessly reducing Tina to an
emotional wreck. Manas is hopelessly in love with Gayatri and loses her
when he becomes desperately over-possessive. Upasna’s husband employs
violence as a means of subjugating her. Poorvi, disappointed with her
intellectual boyfriend, goes in for conventional marriage and a life of
decadence and discontent. Kriya, a mediocre but rich fashion designer,
learns the art of manipulation from her father. Her ruthlessness drives
a talented colleague to suicide. Antara re-enters Aditya’s life,
triggering a catharsis in Tina’s psyche, forcing her into
self-reevaluation that impacts the mindsets and lives of others too.