FICTION
Modern-day Mariner
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`Vassanji narrates in Vic's story, how the life of every modest man and woman is part of the transformation of history.'
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THE early memories of Vikram Lall are of his visits to the railway station, of prowling up and down the station platform, examining the rolling stock and the mysterious numbers inscribed and the EAR insignia on the locomotives. His father would explain what the numbers on 5812 of the East African Railways, 4-8-4 +4-8-4 meant. They were the designated configuration of the wheels.
The dilemma of Indians
Lall's father ought to know because he was among the Indian families that had arrived in Kenya to build the railways, the great network that was to link the country and connect it to the world outside. While Lall's parents had fond memories of their childhood in Peshawar and never tired of recalling the happy days there before the Partition, for him India does not touch any emotional chord. For his generation that was born in Kenya with its mixture of Kikuyus and whites, Indians and Masais, the memories are of the magical years of school and friendships and the lurking fear of violence that was never far away. The Mau Mau was always in the background and the serenity of their lives was frequently jolted by the swing of the machete.
Vassanji, in his fourth novel, describes the journey of Vikram through his childhood in Kenya and his coming of age when Indians are caught in the liberation struggle and the emergence of African nationalism. Neither colonial, nor dispossessed, nor indigenous, Indians are disowned or looked on with suspicion by both. Vassanji weaves the story of their dilemma through a few families and their memories, of the wonderful moments — the splash of colour, the sweet taste of icy kulfi, the feel of the steam on the face and arm from a gasping locomotive — and their fears and uncertainties.
There is unrequited love, of Vic for Nasrin, the half Masai classmate of his school days, and of Deepa, his sister, for Njoroge, the Kikuyu, who was later to become a powerful politician. There is the father figure of Mzee Kenyatta before whom he pays obeisance, and the Brownes, Bill and Annie, who too had to bear the brunt of violence. Vic also goes through the elaborate ritual of taking the Mau Mau oath with Njoroge and has ever since been carrying a strange secret that had implicated him in things he didn't fully understand. This was also a secret that was like a curtain drawn between him and his family.
Vic is the modern day Ancient Mariner who narrates the tragedy of his life without a glitter in the eye, of how he is caught in the power brokering, of the corruption that came to pervade the newly emergent nation and the fear and repression that dominated the scene. He describes his transition from a middle class Indian childhood to become "one of the most corrupt men" in all of Africa. He later migrates to Ontario where he sees the railways, not the hiss of steam, but the electric "Sir John Macdonald" in the blue and gold colours of the sky, bound for Toronto, smoothly gliding on shiny rails and disappearing in the gnarled woods on a cold and clear winter day. The coloniser who built the railways and the colonised who helped in the construction, both caught up in the march of history and the tortuous course it had taken, makes for a perfect metaphor.
"I had taken my wanderings well," Vic confesses. "I know that I was lonely at times, especially when travelling alone, but I carried with me a constant sense of wonder and discovery. There was the cold thrill when I stepped off the train." It is through the enthusiasm for the railways that Vassanji weaves the story of the journey of Vic, his acknowledgment of his identity and that of his family and their history of uprootedness and trying to find their moorings.
Asian point of view
"The great problem of modern tragedy is language," said Camus. "Characters in business suits cannot talk like Oedipus. Their language must at the same time be simple enough to be our own and lofty enough to reach the tragic." Vassanji has quite managed in finding the right language and the right tenor to narrate this tragedy with all its poignancy without being sentimental.
Elsewhere, Vassanji says, whenever he is asked where he is from and who he is, "there is a whole resume of who you are. I know very few people who do not have a past to explain." And he narrates this in Vic's story, of how the minor changes, unexpected love and accusation, the life of every modest man and woman are part of the transformation of history. It is also the story of the nature of a community in a volatile society as well as the images of fear and terror of the Mau Mau episode as perceived from the Asian point of view.
S. SIVADAS
The In-Between World of Vikram Lall, M.G.Vassanji, Viking, Rs.425.
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