Adarsh Ajit
Name of book : A Fistful of Earth and Other
Stories
Author : Siddhartha Gigoo
Publisher : Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi
Year of publication: 2015
Pages : 232
Price : Rs. 195
‘Did these people perish because the majority wanted them to go?’
The short stories in A Fistful of Earth and Other Stories show the sharpened sensibility and unbridled imagination of Siddhartha Gigoo. The title story A Fistful of Earth is beautifully woven with a splendid plot and unprecedented treasure of latent emotions. Even ages fail to erase the connectivity. A girl, who is a doctor, comes to know about her ties with an old woman when she is cremated. The girl is a Muslim. The story reveals about the unflinching love that has attained the dust in the dark rooms of religious barriers. But finally even conversion does not finish the human bond. It expresses also continuity of historical run up with reference to Kashmir. Symbolically rich the story The Umbrella Man is about an inmate (No: 75) of a lunatic asylum who is in possession of an umbrella that he loves. He spends the time in the company of an imaginary child. He is the only inmate of the mad house who is allowed to walk up to the gate. No: 75 is waiting for the rain because he believes in the rain. When he is discharged from the asylum the guards accompany him up to the gate. He boards a bus in which there is no other passenger. Ironically the main theme of the story has been left to the readers to decide. But the essence is evident that No:75 has past which is pivotally connected with the rain and the umbrella. The first short story The Search is a fantasy for the action takes place in the future. Nowhere Kingdom is a place that doesn’t exist. Here, a researcher, after years of study in a museum library, comes across baffling details about a disappearing clan of which only eleven families exist. The relationship of the two persons belonging to the disappearing clan is intriguing. The Surada (Sharda) script is dead. The disappearing clan of the eleven families is that of the Kashmiri Pandits who in history remained only eleven families after all others were converted to Islam. The atmosphere created in the story is fearful. But the question put by the author requires a deep and impartial historical enquiry by the researchers vis-à-vis the past and the latest exodus which occurred in 1990:
‘Did these people perish because the majority wanted them to go?’
In The Incurable Madness of the Municipal Commissioner a municipal commissioner, who is a widower and has no children, goes mad suddenly. A junior officer, who was very close to him, visits his dilapidated house and finds a diary with intriguing entries. The snowmen sculpted are the ancestors of the sculptor. “The box of memories” is for the children and grandchildren. The end of the short story, a telephonic conversation, is a surprise. There are allusions to the dilapidated houses of Kashmiri Pandits. The Last Haircut is about a Pandit woman who waits for her husband to come from the barber’s shop. Two boys, who are the students of the husband of the woman, visit the woman’s house and talk of an ‘assignment’. Suspense and tension constitute the story. The assignments actually indicate the conspiracy of the commander of the militants to assassinate the teacher. Poison, Nectar depicts the life of a family of Kashmiri Pandit refugees living in a tent. A man, with an ailing demented father, makes his mother spend the last moments with her husband alone in the tent because they have spent years in the cramped tent bereft of privacy. In End of Time two chess-loving prisoners, the Grandmaster and the Postmaster, suddenly find themselves free from captivity. When one of them thinks of going to his land, a strange pilgrim comes from beyond a mountain pass. Startling revelations are made about their identities. The Postmaster searches for his estranged wife. No Road to Freedom, set against the background of upheaval and turmoil in Kashmir, paints the complex relationship between an old blind man (who rears pigeons), his servant and a young warrior. The warrior seeks refuge in the blind man’s mansion after fleeing from the ravages of war. In The Best Deal a doctor narrates his experience with a sick boy on their way home from a training camp. There is a deal between a commander of the militants and the security personnel. The story is about betrayal. The last sentence sums up the tragedy of the human situation. The Debt is about two friends who want to keep the promises they had made to each other in their boyhood. One friend searches for his friend frantically. In this story, Siddhartha explores the concepts of Time and Memory. In The Pilgrimage two sons and their wives conspire to usurp the house and belongings of the head of the family. When they return from a beach holiday they come to know that the father had executed a different plan. The three-sentence letter at the end presents the irony of the situation. The human drama in Hopscotch happens against the background of militancy in Kashmir. The diary of a dead author reveals his disturbing and burdensome past. It shows how a wandering mendicant engaged the author to exorcise him of his artistic creation—an imaginary double—which refuses to let go of him. In Sleep Robbers soldiers in strife-torn Kashmir are on the lookout for a boy who is dead. They torment and tease his parents so much so that they are found dead in the morning. A young boy is a silent spectator to their plight. Danseuse of the River is about a hundred-year-old migrant woman living in a camp. Her son feels older than his mother. The river has taught the woman dance. Coronation is about rebellion against injustice and exploitation. Scavengers/sweepers living in a filthy ghetto in depravity and ignominy rise against the King to reclaim their honour. In A Secret Life a monk’s chance meeting with a mysterious stranger at a railway station makes him probe himself and peep into his inner self. He questions his own understanding of human nature.
The plots of most of the stories are complex in which the author goes beyond realism and creates a surreal world where strange situations happen. Flesh and blood expatriate characters and exiles face unusual conditions. They are puppets in a strange world seeking to find salvation but are trapped in a nightmarish tangle. The past invades and merges with the present. The author creates a bizarre atmosphere, delineates enigmatic characters and depicts aspects of life which are significant in the lives of refugees. The unexpected turns of events and unfinished, uncompleted and unexpected endings leave the reader guessing. Though obsessed with Nagbal (which is a village in North Kashmir) the author actually presents Kashmir history in its garb. As per the language is concerned, some stories run parallel to the established language of Siddhartha while some other stories reveal a new writer evolving. In such stories the language and technique create difficulties for the common readers.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
