|
Magazine
Time to share the story
ANUJ KUMAR
|
In conversation with author Dominique Lapierre about his latest book on the Soviet Union and the Bhopal gas tragedy.
|
Photo: V.V. Krishnan
Glimpses into other worlds: Lapierre is not one who reports and moves on.
Once a quintessential reality, today the Iron Curtain is part of history. And Dominique Lapierre says he was holding on for this moment to write an account of his journey across the Curtain way back in 1956 with his colleague Jean-Pierre Pedrazzini f
or the French magazine Paris Match.
Called Once Upon a Time in the Soviet Union, the book was published in 2006, and its English edition published by Full Circle has recently been released in India. “Fifty years hence a world has disappeared. In 2006 while going through my notebooks, I realised this is the time to share the story.”
Inside the Soviet Union
Talking about the 13,000 kilometre-long journey on the forbidden Soviet roads, Lapierre says an aggressive journalist had just two options in those days. “Either, go to the moon or the Soviet Union.” He makes it clear that the trip was not an attempt to write a definitive account on Communism. “We wanted to have a glimpse of a world we knew nothing about.”
The permission from Nikita Khrushchev was vital. “Those were times when Khrushchev was going for de-Stalinisation. However, not many even in the Soviet Union knew about it. At first he laughed off the idea saying our wives would divorce us after a bumpy ride on Soviet roads.” How he later permitted them remains a mystery.
Lapierre reasons that Khrushchev wanted to open a window to the outside world. “We made timely use of it. Soon after the Hungarian Uprising happened and the Curtain was down again.”
Battle of viewpoints
As one goes through the book, it is clear that Lapierre, the journalist, was involved in a battle of viewpoints with Slava, the Russian journalist who accompanied them. Like who was the aggressor in the Korean war…North or South?
“See, as a journalist, I wanted to know what is going on in his mind; what he had been told? Though we had asked for a Russian journalist to accompany us, we knew he was spy planted on us. But our Western journalistic skills helped us to keep the crucial information intact.”
It appears from the account that Lapierre found the people generally happy, but he maintains they had no choices. “Happiness is a relative term. There was no television, no knowledge of the outside world. There was only Communist Party’s propaganda. The attention that our automobile got proved that people wanted to know about the outside world. Can you imagine there was one petrol pump in the entire Soviet Union delivering high octane? And I had to use my grandfather’s hat to filter it! We could not meet the gulags who could have given us a different point of view. Today perhaps only North Korea could get away with such policies.”
Isn’t he being judgemental? “I agree in Cuba you might not get a visa to see the world but a poor man can get a surgery done with State help which a slum dweller in Miami might not. But it is a matter of individual freedom and initiative, which we found lacking.”
All that is not given is lost. This is how Dominique Lapierre ends his book.
Helping hand
Appropriately so, for he is not one of those authors who witness a tragedy, report it and move on. The celebrated author of City of Joy and It Was Five Past Midnight in Bhopal, says, “I want to amend those difficult situations. I am a writer and an actor at the same time. I don’t see poverty as fatality. We give micro credit to the villagers. It restores the dignity. It is similar to what Mohammed Younus does; the difference is we are doing it at a small scale, as we don’t have a bank.”
He has figures at hand. “Through the royalties of my books, we have been able to cure 10,00,000 tuberculosis patients and 15,000 leprosy-affected children have been cured and rehabilitated in Bengal. There are four hospital boats operating in the Sunderban islands, which were recently hit by a cyclone. Then there are 10 gynaecology hospitals in Bhopal. I know this is only a small drop, but it’s a drop that is working.”
The Bhopal tragedy
Talking of the Bhopal gas tragedy, Lapierre reveals that when he was writing the book, a section of the media told him that the issue was no longer news. “Today the book has been able to stall five such plants in different parts of the world.” He terms the Bhopal tragedy as one of the biggest scandals in the country. “The government has not been able to force Dow Chemicals, which now owns Union Carbide, to clear the toxic remains at the factory, which is still affecting the locals. It won’t cost the company more than $5-6 million.”
Time to face the camera and the actor in him inches forward! “Don’t make my double chin too apparent. This is why I lose out on Bollywood contracts!”
No talk with Lapierre is complete without City of Joy. “Seriously, had I known a phrase like ‘city of joy’, which I used for a basti, would become the second name of the city, I would have gone for a patent. It would have earned me much more to serve the city.”
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Magazine
|
