Fiction
Lives in search of lost worlds
SUCHITRA BEHAL
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The Inheritance of Loss is written with joy, compassion and a rare candour.
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The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai, Penguin, p.336, Rs. 495.
WHEN 14-year-old Sai, orphaned, reaches her maternal grandfather's house in the hills of Kalimpong, her battered trunk dumped unceremoniously by her escort, little does she realise what life has in store for her. But she is glad, despite the recent bereavement, to escape from the stern nuns at the convent where life was an endless round of punishments. If she is disturbed by her grandfather's strange speech, a retired judge who sets the parameters for her life at the dusty, crumbling, damp house, Sai does not show it. It is in the old cook that she finds a ready friend and confidant who, in his erratic way, brings up Sai as best as he can. Their neighbours are an odd assortment from Uncle Potty who loves his tipple and Aunt Noni and Lola who between them take care of Sai's sketchy education.
Parallel stories
Runing parallel to Sai's story at the house is that of the old cook's, who dreams of hearing from his only son Biju, currently in the United States. Biju is a part of that tribe of Indians that keeps shifting from one lowly paid job to another in the hope of getting the all-elusive green card — the final symbol of having made it. Even as the cook extols the virtues of America as a land of opportunities, little does he know the harsh truth of his son's banal fugitive-like existence where each day brings in more despair than hope and life seems to be an endless hiding in smelly kitchens, rolled in newspapers for warmth. Biju's whole life now sets the pace for his final act of despair and defiance when, fed up and left alone in a system that he knows nothing about, he turns homewards. But, by the time Biju lands on his native shores, there is a huge change that has taken place in the gentle hills.
There is a sense of hidden excitement in Sai's life when Gyan, the young Nepalese tutor hired to help her out with maths comes into the picture. As Sai struggles with algebra formulas and geometry theorems between addition and subtraction and factorisation, she is besotted with a strange desire for the handsome tutor. Gyan is equally aware of his charge whose very looks seem to take him into a distant land of longing. As their romance progresses Sai finds herself thinking strange thoughts which she insists on posing to the cook about the personal lives of her grandfather, aunt Noni and Lola. The irritated cook, lost in the sands of time, paints a picture that only he seems to recall.
Discordant notes
But, even as the romance between Gyan and Sai flowers, there is a note of unease in their relationship which surfaces as the change in the hills becomes more and more apparent. Matters reach a head when Gyan finds himself loathing his inferior status and the very actions of Sai that once charmed him now repulse. Confused and disgusted, he joins the insurgents and marches across the streets demanding liberation of his homeland and wanting to oust all "foreigners". Even as a dismayed Sai tries in vain to bridge the gap, she only succeeds in humiliating herself.
Desai launches into a full-blown account of these distraught lives, buffeted by the winds of change. Lives that hope to regain some of their lost assurances. But when everything descends into chaos, each one, the judge included, must delve into their past to see what role they have played and how their actions have led to this final hour. Despite the unwritten hierarchy their histories are intimately interwoven. In a supremely controlled, harsh and austere manner, much like a surgeon with a scalpel, Desai proceeds to dissect her characters to expose their core selves. Her depiction of their lives, their longings and their insecurities makes each one come alive just as they are — human, confused, loving hating and longing — all at once. Each mole, each wart is put under a relentless microscope and then brought out almost like a jewel for the world to see.
Across three worlds
In an incredible performance, Desai manages to straddles three worlds with ease and makes a telling commentary on modern issues that beset all nations. Globalisation, multiculturalism, modernisation, terrorism and insurgency — Desai's pen moves fast and rips apart so many comfort zones, ultimately questioning the very existence of immigrants and their strange isolated lives.
From the serene landscape of the beautiful Himalayas to the feverish and chaotic movement of insurgents in that beautiful valley, Desai's prose shocks the reader into a state of consternation at the rape of serenity and order even as the characters despair between sadness and a tragic-comic approach to their own lives.
Sympathetic portrayal
But Desai's greatest virtue lies in her being able to infuse a sense of sympathy for each of these characters. These are lives filled with human failings, these are lives that have not been able to exorcise their ghosts, leaving them stranded in time, living in a warp, perhaps the only way they can know happiness. These crumbling edifices are a telling comment on the state of today's world.
That Desai has been listed for the Booker should come as no surprise. It is not often that one finds books written with joy, compassion and a rare candour.
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