First Impressions
By Suchitra Behal
Sadak Chhaap, Meher Pestonji, Penguin, Rs. 250.
IN a recent interview, author and activist Meher Pestonji, when criticised about her depiction of the life of street children in her new book Sadak Chhaap, responded that the book was never written to glorify their lives. It was, instead, a sometimes cruel, but true-to-life situation of street children in the urban metros. For Pestonji, there are moments of hilarity, despair and sometimes some soul searching in the lives of these children as they eke out a living. But, as the book says, the streets are mean and cruel, swallowing up the best of intentions.
When little Rahul runs away from home, he finds himself on a train to Mumbai. Once on the streets, it is soon a question of survival and he learns fast, developing one skill after another. But the day he finds a "parcel", all wrapped up, lying on what is his bench near the railway tracks, life changes. It is an abandoned baby and Rahul falls in love with his find. However, it is not a fairytale where Rahul and his little find grow up into cute healthy good adults. Sadak Chhaap is unrelenting in its details and paints no illusions about the lives street children lead. For many, it is finally the only way they know happiness.
The Girls From Overseas, Nergis Dalal, Penguin, Rs. 200.
IT is 1807 and Europe is at war. The central figure of this chaotic division is Napoleon Bonaparte. Even as the British army repulses the French at almost every turn, the British navy's task seems harder since it is short of men. In order to recruit more men, the infamous "press gangs" roam the depleted countryside, literally snatching men and boys who are either destitute or runaways. One such luckless father and son find themselves made off by the gang while they are running away after witnessing a murder. The father has been cheated of his home and land by a duo in his village while his son, 10-year-old John, finds himself on the verge of being abandoned. What turn life takes when the two are finally drafted into the navy and John's growing up adventures form the basis of this rather fascinating account. Even as John makes good friends with his shipmate Kit, he is shocked into discovering that Kit is actually a French noble girl on the run. With a tightly woven plot, Secrets of the Fearless is an adventure book to the last. A must for all young readers and quite a page-turner for adults too.
Secrets of the Fearless, Elizabeth Laird, Macmillan, price not stated.
SMALL town Dehra Dun should, by all accounts, have been a peaceful place. Even by the standards of the five foreigners married to Indian men under differing circumstances. But somewhere, each marriage is seething with discontentment which the five women get over temporarily by organising their "coffee mornings" where full vent is given to their grievances. Things seem to brighten up a bit for all with the arrival of Jason, also a foreigner who claims he works with the U.N. The five women try an establish an independent relationship with Jason often asking him to bring back things that remind them of "home". Some even share a physical relationship with him. But all this comes to an abrupt end when Jason marries Maya, an exotic looking Indian who is a classical dancer. Dehra Dun's quiet explodes with unwarranted passions. Nergis Dalal's story may have been written in the 1970s but its relevance to the institution of marriage and the compromises many make in life is still in sync. Dalal writes with a rare insight into a seemingly multicultural society.
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