FICTION
Dark comedy
RANJITA BISWAS
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The shenanigans of the marriage mart.
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The Dance of the Bhuleshwar Brush; Daksha Hathi, Unisan Publications, Rs. 250
WRITER Daksha Hathi calls her book a "post-box of memories". She also admits to the "paralysing boredom" of a reporter on the city beat of a Bangalore newspaper acting as a "powerful incentive" to encourage her meddling in fiction. Whatever be the reason, her first attempt at fiction The Dance of the Bhuleshwar Brush has come out remarkably well. More refreshing is the treatment — dark comedy, which can fall flat if mishandled. Hathi's tongue-in-cheek style and deep insight into behavioural pattern of people while projecting her clan — the book obviously has many autobiographical elements — are bound to make one chuckle.
The story is of the Samani family from Gujarat, with uncles and aunts scattered across the country and even abroad (an aunt from London comes on annual visits to buy extra-large size lingerie). They are forever on a mission to find grooms for the two sisters — Methi, the dark one and the protagonist — and the elder sister Toral as familial duty.
The author uses many inanimate objects to heighten the effect of the absurd. The hard Bhuleshwar brush, for example, made specially to scrub away the minutest speck of dirt, an obsession with Methi's mother. The Sly Cat Orange that slithers awake inside Methi whenever she is in an awkward position. Food in various avatars: Methi's mother makes gourmet dishes and silently challenges other women in the neighbourhood, but refuses to teach her daughter to make the perfect rotli. Methi's own bizarre recipes — marrying jalebi with strawberry cake, or combining good old mohanthal with mocha even as she waits to be "inspected" by a groom. Meanwhile, Methi's acerbic brush paints the varied characters with acute observation even as she is packed off from place to place, from Porbandar to Bangalore to Delhi to meet a prospective groom.
Hilarious episodes
These groom-episodes are particularly hilarious. One of them, an NRI Green cardholder, even holds a cookery competition to check out who could be a suitable bride for him. Then there's the construction engineer who likes to "interview" Methi on the thirteenth floor in an unfinished building because he is `so busy'. "It looked like just the sort of place from where Amitabh Bachchan (sic) or Dharmendra would shove off Pran." But below the layer of stinging humour, it is a sad and depressing story of how talented girls, even with money and education, are displayed in the marriage market.
Even Toral, a doctor, has to go through the humiliation until she has confidence enough to brush away the well-intentioned efforts of the sundry relatives to find her a groom. It is such a familar story that the characters and circumstances do not seem make-believe. Towards the end though, the portrait gallery with the long list of groom-episodes pall a little because one can foresee what is going to be the result. The ending is kept tantalisingly open: Does Methi find her Prince Charming on her own?
The pace is racy; the language down to earth. The aroma of the food almost wafts from the pages. Overall, quite an enjoyable book.
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