Fortunes & misfortunes
Reviewed by Balwinder Kaur

Beggar's Feast
By Randy Boyagoda
Fourth Estate. Pages 311. Rs 599

The astrologer's prediction sealed his fate, labelled unlucky little Ranjith became the scapegoat sacrificed in the hope of better times by a family battling drought and deprivation in the backwaters of Ceylon. The unsuspecting, unwanted child was abandoned at the temple in Kandy town. His life in saffron robes with shaven head ended abruptly with disillusionment and betrayal by another father figure. He did not run home but ran towards the big, wide world of which he knew nothing; armed with the certainty that he would make it. He vowed if he ever returned to his village the grandeur would eclipse all others.

Renaming himself Sam Kandy, the 13-year-old began in Colombo his adventurous journey from rags to riches and respectability which was as arduous as it was morally ambiguous. In the mean streets of Colombo, Sydney and Singapore there was little charity, much trickery and many charlatans. He survived off hope and guts; one careful step at a time. Snatching opportunities and barely averting disaster. His tutelage in the wicked ways of the world began under the unscrupulous conman Bedula. As spice merchant Ismail’s helper, he slept in the corner vacated by the dog. After which he became an elephant’s attendant.

Later, he wore the shoes and clothes of James Astrobe's dead son, serving as his bodyguard. Sam would be the jack of many trades before he became a prosperous shipping magnate; profiting from facilitating the British Empire's consolidation of power. But for all his wanderings and wealth Sam was a lonely single man at 30. Even his triumphant return to Sudugama village and his carefully orchestrated marriage to the high-caste Alice was a ploy to rule the land his forefathers served. Ceylon would become Sri Lanka before he found acceptance and happiness.

Beggar's Feast brings alive the fluctuating fortunes of a man and a nation struggling to find their own identity and seeking their place in the new world order. Randy Boyagoda's hero represents man's lifelong battle to defy the disadvantages dictated by birth and to determine his own destiny. The author conveys the frenzy, the frustration and the desperation to acquire all the trappings of success and the toll it takes on those involved. The story gains from its well-chosen words elaborate, accentuate and enhance unfolding events. The author captures a nation in transition by portraying the startling contrast of Colombo where so much changed and Sudugama where so little changed over the tumultuous twentieth century.

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