Nestled amidst the clean lines of Tyrewala’s debut novel, lie a million voices. Voices that belong to many protagonists. Faceless people you see all the time, but rarely look at - a housewife, a butcher, a beggar, an Urdu teacher.
They could come from anywhere and yet they also belong exactly where Tyrewala situates them – among the congested streets of Mumbai’s oldest neighborhoods. They tell their stories simply – a chapter for each character. But their voices when you hear them are like the unborn-baby voices in the head of the illegal abortionist protagonist, “discordant and raw and numbing “.
It’s an unusual novel - spare and simple but strangely dispersed. Yet Mumbai based Tyrewala navigates the six degrees of separation between his pavement protagonists with cinematic ease. Beginning with ‘Mrs. Khwaja’ who tells us,”I used to be a poetess and would dwell on minute metaphors for days. Now all day long I cook for Ubaid and Minaz, spend the thousands their fathers earns every month, and contemplate television absentmindedly.” And ‘Mr. Khwaja’ on the next page,” Twenty six years ago I married a mediocre poetess. She gave me two kids”. One of these kids will now visit Akhbar, the abortionist. Kaka , the father of the abortionist, is a shoe salesman. Everyday, for the last thirty years, he climbs to his place of work , where he stays crouched “between the shop’s false ceiling and real ceiling, the mezzanine, where boxes and boxes of footwear are stocked.” Only , Amin-bhai, the shoe shop owner and a disillusioned man, will soon sell the shop and emigrate on an aircraft whose “projection screen will show a blue India, with our plane’s route-so- far outlined in white like an anemic tapeworm in the belly of a diseased nation”.
Strong metaphors these, but expressive of the sense of isolated hopelessness most of Tyrewala’s Muslim protagonists feel . Like Rohington Mistry’s impoverished Parsis who are remorselessly squeezed into smaller spaces , the characters in this book no longer seem to belong . Sohail Tambawala’s wife must borrow her maid’s mangalsutra before she registers a missing person complaint in the local police station, Suleiman obsesses about his Muslim identity , his great-grandpa’s conversion that “turned us into outsiders to be driven out of villages..”, Tambawala recoils from the disgust of the Honda City passengers face ,”staring out at what must seem just another filthy Muslim ghetto”.
Simple yet soulful , this is less that is definitely more.
This review appeared in the Deccan Herald December 25th 2005
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
The Geisha Strikes Back
Arthur Golden’s best selling saga of a geisha girl is back in the news. First published in 1997, this kimono clad ‘Pretty Woman’ meets ‘A Woman of Substance’ wowed readers with its exotic subject and setting. Indeed Golden ( who based his tale on the confessions of Mineko Iwasaki, a retired Kyoto geisha) was much praised for his atmospheric authenticity. But three years and four million copies later, Iwasaki sued Golden claiming that he "tarnished her reputation, breached an unwritten contract not to reveal her identity and unjustly enriched himself through the novel".
Now Memoirs finds itself in the centre of another news making controversy – this one caused by the release, earlier this month of it’s cinematic version. Produced by Steven Spielberg, this visually sumptuous epic of the East seemed an inevitable development of a Hollywood hungry for Oriental inspiration. But the film invoked the ire of purists and politics , for it’s controversial casting of Chinese actresses in the three Japanese female leads.
All of which makes Memoirs the season’s trendiest read – a worthy successor to sushi bars, pokemon and manga comics. The book itself is undeniably engaging. Set in early 1900’s Japan, it opens in the little fishing village of Yoroido. Sayuri (still called Chiyo-san) and her elder sister Satsu are sold by their fisherman father and sent many miles away to Kyoto. There, they are separated – the plainer Satsu into an ordinary brothel and Chiyo with her striking grey green eyes into a geisha obiya. This house of the rising sun is run by two mean and ugly crones, ‘Mother’ and ‘Auntie’ . Nine year old Chiyo must fight their petty cruelties and the evil wiles of the beautiful but cruel geisha, Hatsumomo. One day , teary eyed on the banks on the Shirakawa river, Chiyo meets the man who will change her life, known simply as ‘Chairman ‘. He gives her counsel and a coin to buy ice candy ( also a monogrammed handkerchief to wipe her tears). Chiyo’s luck turns, she acquires a fairy godmother, the famous Mameha, who is also rival to Hatsumoto. She applies herself feverishly to her lessons, playing the shamisen, learning dance and deportment (including training to pour tea with just the right glimpse of bare skin visible through a kimono sleeve and walking daintily in wooden shoes ). Events proceed briskly in the tatami matted territory of the Gion tea houses . Mameha’s manipulations for the bid price for Sayuri’s mizuage ( virginity) by playing two interested bidders off each other, pays off. Sayuri is now an independent geisha . But in the conspiring cat-eat-cat world of the Gion geishas, will she achieve her dream of acquiring the ‘Chairman’ as her danna or special patron ?
Golden tells the story deftly, with lots of intricate little descriptions ( Hatsumomo’s kimono, for instance is ‘ water blue, with swirling lines in ivory to mimic the current in a stream. Glistening trout tumbled in the current, and the surface of the water was ringed with gold wherever the soft green leaves of a tree touched it’.) There’s lots of interesting trivia as well , from the designer details of kimonos with their broad belt obi’s and under layer koshimaki’s to the intricacies of geisha make up . And in the distance , tiny glimpses of a frightening real world – of poverty, of common whore houses , being made to work in a factory and of War time in Japan.
Definitely worth a read . For even if it’s a cliché it’s a fascinatingly accoutered one.
This appeared in The Times of India Sunday BookMark dated 1st January 2006
Now Memoirs finds itself in the centre of another news making controversy – this one caused by the release, earlier this month of it’s cinematic version. Produced by Steven Spielberg, this visually sumptuous epic of the East seemed an inevitable development of a Hollywood hungry for Oriental inspiration. But the film invoked the ire of purists and politics , for it’s controversial casting of Chinese actresses in the three Japanese female leads.
All of which makes Memoirs the season’s trendiest read – a worthy successor to sushi bars, pokemon and manga comics. The book itself is undeniably engaging. Set in early 1900’s Japan, it opens in the little fishing village of Yoroido. Sayuri (still called Chiyo-san) and her elder sister Satsu are sold by their fisherman father and sent many miles away to Kyoto. There, they are separated – the plainer Satsu into an ordinary brothel and Chiyo with her striking grey green eyes into a geisha obiya. This house of the rising sun is run by two mean and ugly crones, ‘Mother’ and ‘Auntie’ . Nine year old Chiyo must fight their petty cruelties and the evil wiles of the beautiful but cruel geisha, Hatsumomo. One day , teary eyed on the banks on the Shirakawa river, Chiyo meets the man who will change her life, known simply as ‘Chairman ‘. He gives her counsel and a coin to buy ice candy ( also a monogrammed handkerchief to wipe her tears). Chiyo’s luck turns, she acquires a fairy godmother, the famous Mameha, who is also rival to Hatsumoto. She applies herself feverishly to her lessons, playing the shamisen, learning dance and deportment (including training to pour tea with just the right glimpse of bare skin visible through a kimono sleeve and walking daintily in wooden shoes ). Events proceed briskly in the tatami matted territory of the Gion tea houses . Mameha’s manipulations for the bid price for Sayuri’s mizuage ( virginity) by playing two interested bidders off each other, pays off. Sayuri is now an independent geisha . But in the conspiring cat-eat-cat world of the Gion geishas, will she achieve her dream of acquiring the ‘Chairman’ as her danna or special patron ?
Golden tells the story deftly, with lots of intricate little descriptions ( Hatsumomo’s kimono, for instance is ‘ water blue, with swirling lines in ivory to mimic the current in a stream. Glistening trout tumbled in the current, and the surface of the water was ringed with gold wherever the soft green leaves of a tree touched it’.) There’s lots of interesting trivia as well , from the designer details of kimonos with their broad belt obi’s and under layer koshimaki’s to the intricacies of geisha make up . And in the distance , tiny glimpses of a frightening real world – of poverty, of common whore houses , being made to work in a factory and of War time in Japan.
Definitely worth a read . For even if it’s a cliché it’s a fascinatingly accoutered one.
This appeared in The Times of India Sunday BookMark dated 1st January 2006
Chrissie Robin Pooh Pooh !
The 100 Acre Wood is under attack. Home to Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh since 1926. Here’s where Pooh pursues his honey and goes visiting, Eeyore has a birthday and Piglet meets a Heffalump. Areas marked on the map drawn by Christopher Robin invoke their make belief world - Where the Woozle Wasn’t, Eeyore’s Gloomy Place Rather Boggy and Sad, Nice for Piknicks and the top right corner marked To North Pole. But all that is set to change soon. The original creator of these characters A.A Milne is long since dead. And now the Monstrous Mouse franchisee, that makes the mega moolah off merchandising these characters, finds that little six year old Christopher Robin doesn’t sell. Certainly not well enough as his animal friends who bring in upto US $ 1 billion . What better reason then, for the Disney Corporation to write him off their stories and videos, replacing him with a trendier (and presumably more saleable) female counterpart? Never mind that the original stories were actually written around the character of Christopher Robin, named after Milne’s own son. And that the original Winnie-the-Pooh was named after Christopher Robin’s toy bear.
The as-yet-nameless new girl (referred to as ‘tomboyish’) will be launched in 2007 as part of a package of celebrations around Pooh’s 80th anniversary. But for generations of readers who have grown up on these stories, Disney’s crass commercialism is adding insult to injury. Remixed Disney versions of the Pooh books, with their uniformly bright colors and dumbed down stories, have slowly pushed the amusingly written, thoughts from a child’s world originals into oblivion.
Look for the originals and (if you find them) it’s like a journey into Lewis Carroll –like heaven. From the delightful make belief of ‘Nursery Chairs’ to the child like reality of ‘Solitude’ to the serious business of ‘Lines and Squares’, Christopher Robin tells us -“ Whenever I walk in a London Street,/I’m ever so careful to watch my feet;/ And I keep in the squares, /And the masses of bears/Who wait at the corners all ready to eat, /The sillies who tread on the lines of the street, /Go back to their lairs”
And then there’s the ‘100 Aker Wood’, with all it’s idiosyncratic adventures – Here’s where an ’Expotition’ began to ‘discover’ the North Pole ( ”What is the North Pole” he (Pooh) asked. “It’s just a thing you discover,” said Christopher Robin carelessly, not being quite sure himself.’ ) Here’s also where Eeyore loses a tail, Pooh and Christopher Robin rescue Piglet from the Flood in an upturned umbrella and Christopher Robin hosts a party for Pooh and gives him a present –‘It was a Special Pencil Case. There were pencils in it marked “B” for Bear, and pencils marked “HB” for Helping Bear, and pencils marked “BB” for Brave Bear.’
Yet even then (in Disney–less days) it was not all fun and happiness – the real Christopher Robin was growing up and beginning to be affected by the huge popularity of his print persona. So Milne concluded his popular series in ‘The House at Pooh Corner’ where ‘Christopher Robin and Pooh Come to an Enchanted Place, and We Leave Them There’ with Christopher Robin saying
‘”Pooh, promise you won’t forget about me, ever. Not even when I’m a hundred.”
Pooh thought for a little. “How old shall I be then?”
“Ninety nine “
Pooh nodded.
“I promise”, he said. ‘
So conclude the Pooh books declaring that ‘in that enchanted place on top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing’. Little did Milne dream that eighty years later his magical world would be modified so, all by a mercenary Mouse.
This appeared in the Times of India sunday BookMark dated 25th December 2005
The as-yet-nameless new girl (referred to as ‘tomboyish’) will be launched in 2007 as part of a package of celebrations around Pooh’s 80th anniversary. But for generations of readers who have grown up on these stories, Disney’s crass commercialism is adding insult to injury. Remixed Disney versions of the Pooh books, with their uniformly bright colors and dumbed down stories, have slowly pushed the amusingly written, thoughts from a child’s world originals into oblivion.
Look for the originals and (if you find them) it’s like a journey into Lewis Carroll –like heaven. From the delightful make belief of ‘Nursery Chairs’ to the child like reality of ‘Solitude’ to the serious business of ‘Lines and Squares’, Christopher Robin tells us -“ Whenever I walk in a London Street,/I’m ever so careful to watch my feet;/ And I keep in the squares, /And the masses of bears/Who wait at the corners all ready to eat, /The sillies who tread on the lines of the street, /Go back to their lairs”
And then there’s the ‘100 Aker Wood’, with all it’s idiosyncratic adventures – Here’s where an ’Expotition’ began to ‘discover’ the North Pole ( ”What is the North Pole” he (Pooh) asked. “It’s just a thing you discover,” said Christopher Robin carelessly, not being quite sure himself.’ ) Here’s also where Eeyore loses a tail, Pooh and Christopher Robin rescue Piglet from the Flood in an upturned umbrella and Christopher Robin hosts a party for Pooh and gives him a present –‘It was a Special Pencil Case. There were pencils in it marked “B” for Bear, and pencils marked “HB” for Helping Bear, and pencils marked “BB” for Brave Bear.’
Yet even then (in Disney–less days) it was not all fun and happiness – the real Christopher Robin was growing up and beginning to be affected by the huge popularity of his print persona. So Milne concluded his popular series in ‘The House at Pooh Corner’ where ‘Christopher Robin and Pooh Come to an Enchanted Place, and We Leave Them There’ with Christopher Robin saying
‘”Pooh, promise you won’t forget about me, ever. Not even when I’m a hundred.”
Pooh thought for a little. “How old shall I be then?”
“Ninety nine “
Pooh nodded.
“I promise”, he said. ‘
So conclude the Pooh books declaring that ‘in that enchanted place on top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing’. Little did Milne dream that eighty years later his magical world would be modified so, all by a mercenary Mouse.
This appeared in the Times of India sunday BookMark dated 25th December 2005
Celebrate Bandra
At Carter Road, on Bandra’s beach front promenade, the crowds are celebrating. Spiffy old ladies with cropped hair and cotton print dresses, tank top teenagers and their families jive to a local band’s rock n roll. A few kilometers south, at Bandstand, another sea front, more residents congregate to the sounds of Sheena and Nicole and their electric guitars. Bandra-ites , descendants of Mumbai’s old Koli and Christian families and many later immigrants, are celebrating, quite literally, the ground beneath their feet.
The fortnight long ‘Celebrate Bandra Festival’ brings people and place together in a unique way. As Darryl D’Monte , Convenor of the ‘Celebrate Bandra’ festival points out “ this is different. It is unlike any other festival which is run by private institutions or the government. This is citizen driven”. Certainly the sense of community bonhomie at the venues bears D’Monte out. At the Lands End Amphitheatre children perform their acts to the very vocal encouragement of friends, family and the neighborhood aunties and uncles. D’Monte also emphasizes the importance of place, ”The festival has been made possible because of the citizen’s creation of free space – an area one can call one’s own’. Five years ago, both Carter Road and the Bandstand were junky, bedraggled stretches of dumping ground. Citizen Groups consisting of Residents Associations and the ALM’s ( Advanced Locality Management) banded together to fight for a beach front. Architect PK Das who designed the present promenade with its neat concrete walkway and benches describes the festival as having been “born out of this movement. The struggle for space consolidated the area’s sense of community and led to a tremendous pride among the people.” Das is currently working on a beach development plan for Juhu, along with the Juhu Citizen’s Welfare Group (JCWG) a local residents group committed to safe guarding public space . “Everyday is a struggle”, confesses PK Das,” With land sharks and with the apathetic bureaucracy – its many layers can bury you in its own graveyard.” The Bandra project took over 4 years to complete. But looking at it today, it all seems worth it.
Simple outdoor stages designed by Bandra based event management group Fountainhead , with basic sound and light effects utilize these spaces for a various performances. The audience sit en familie and entranced. Early birds fill the rows of white plastic chairs placed on the promenade, others stay standing. At Bandra Bandstand some of the crowd even spills out onto large rocks on a low tide beach . There’s a nip in the November air and the crowd , seated or standing is animated and enthusiastic. Gushes middle aged Shirley D’Souza, out with her friend Samantha for the evenings festivities,” They have been having some great events – Bandra people but they’re just like performers”. Indeed in a star studded neighborhood ( the three Khan’s , Aishwarya Rai and the Tendulkar’s all live in Bandra), there’s been something of an absence of stars. D’Monte does confess to having tried to “tap into star power”. But in an era where stars charge big bucks for brief appearances , a low budget local festival is hard put to compete with high profile brand ad spends. “We did have Perizaad Zorabian though”, says D’Monte ,”she came very gracefully and described herself as a ‘goondi’ of Bandra” . Celebrities like Gulzar , who was the subject of a tribute also participated enthusiastically. Other notable highlights included a delightfully whacky musical ‘The Ballad of Bandora’ performed outdoor to loud applause , an animated panel discussion on the role of the media and Cyrus Mistry’s play ‘Legacy of Rage’ played out against the spectacular backdrop of a quaint old time Bandra bungalow. Outdoor screenings of popular films like ‘Taal’ and ‘Lagaan’, Paromita Vohra’s delightful documentary ‘Sandra from Bandra’ and the food festival held on the steps of the historic Mount Mary’s Church kept the excitement going.
The festival also hopes to raise some funds . The very first 2003 festival had generated a small surplus, which was divided among the different geographical zones of Bandra for general upkeep. This time the ‘Celebrate Bandra Trust’ hopes to utilize this surplus for projects like Rainwater and Waste Management.
Absence of celebrities kept TV cameras away and a major newspaper boycotted coverage for commercial reasons. Still everybody seems happy. Says Fountainhead Director and Festival Partner Neale Murray “Everything we’ve given has been exceedingly well received. We have one hell of a lot of happy Bandra- ites who can’t stop thanking us “
his appeared in the Hindu Sunday magazine 1st January 2006
The fortnight long ‘Celebrate Bandra Festival’ brings people and place together in a unique way. As Darryl D’Monte , Convenor of the ‘Celebrate Bandra’ festival points out “ this is different. It is unlike any other festival which is run by private institutions or the government. This is citizen driven”. Certainly the sense of community bonhomie at the venues bears D’Monte out. At the Lands End Amphitheatre children perform their acts to the very vocal encouragement of friends, family and the neighborhood aunties and uncles. D’Monte also emphasizes the importance of place, ”The festival has been made possible because of the citizen’s creation of free space – an area one can call one’s own’. Five years ago, both Carter Road and the Bandstand were junky, bedraggled stretches of dumping ground. Citizen Groups consisting of Residents Associations and the ALM’s ( Advanced Locality Management) banded together to fight for a beach front. Architect PK Das who designed the present promenade with its neat concrete walkway and benches describes the festival as having been “born out of this movement. The struggle for space consolidated the area’s sense of community and led to a tremendous pride among the people.” Das is currently working on a beach development plan for Juhu, along with the Juhu Citizen’s Welfare Group (JCWG) a local residents group committed to safe guarding public space . “Everyday is a struggle”, confesses PK Das,” With land sharks and with the apathetic bureaucracy – its many layers can bury you in its own graveyard.” The Bandra project took over 4 years to complete. But looking at it today, it all seems worth it.
Simple outdoor stages designed by Bandra based event management group Fountainhead , with basic sound and light effects utilize these spaces for a various performances. The audience sit en familie and entranced. Early birds fill the rows of white plastic chairs placed on the promenade, others stay standing. At Bandra Bandstand some of the crowd even spills out onto large rocks on a low tide beach . There’s a nip in the November air and the crowd , seated or standing is animated and enthusiastic. Gushes middle aged Shirley D’Souza, out with her friend Samantha for the evenings festivities,” They have been having some great events – Bandra people but they’re just like performers”. Indeed in a star studded neighborhood ( the three Khan’s , Aishwarya Rai and the Tendulkar’s all live in Bandra), there’s been something of an absence of stars. D’Monte does confess to having tried to “tap into star power”. But in an era where stars charge big bucks for brief appearances , a low budget local festival is hard put to compete with high profile brand ad spends. “We did have Perizaad Zorabian though”, says D’Monte ,”she came very gracefully and described herself as a ‘goondi’ of Bandra” . Celebrities like Gulzar , who was the subject of a tribute also participated enthusiastically. Other notable highlights included a delightfully whacky musical ‘The Ballad of Bandora’ performed outdoor to loud applause , an animated panel discussion on the role of the media and Cyrus Mistry’s play ‘Legacy of Rage’ played out against the spectacular backdrop of a quaint old time Bandra bungalow. Outdoor screenings of popular films like ‘Taal’ and ‘Lagaan’, Paromita Vohra’s delightful documentary ‘Sandra from Bandra’ and the food festival held on the steps of the historic Mount Mary’s Church kept the excitement going.
The festival also hopes to raise some funds . The very first 2003 festival had generated a small surplus, which was divided among the different geographical zones of Bandra for general upkeep. This time the ‘Celebrate Bandra Trust’ hopes to utilize this surplus for projects like Rainwater and Waste Management.
Absence of celebrities kept TV cameras away and a major newspaper boycotted coverage for commercial reasons. Still everybody seems happy. Says Fountainhead Director and Festival Partner Neale Murray “Everything we’ve given has been exceedingly well received. We have one hell of a lot of happy Bandra- ites who can’t stop thanking us “
his appeared in the Hindu Sunday magazine 1st January 2006
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)