Red Earth and Pouring Rain
I had read the novel " Love and Longing in Bombay" by vikram chandra a few years back and i liked it. I followed the duel between meenakshi mukherjee and vikram chandra on (IWE)Indian writing in English in the Hindu. Although i do not remember the arguements fully i can recall the bitter criticism of IWE as catering to western markets by depicting an unreal exotic india.What made me notice the book "Red Earth Pouring Rain" was the title.I was pleasantly surprised to know that the title is taken from a translation of the famous sangam poem by A.K. Ramanujan, the US based poet and translator.This novel is an interesting attempt at story telling. The canvas is vast and there is a conscious effort to
copy the style of puranas/epics. The main character is a monkey which is shot at and critically injured by Abhay an Indian student at an US university who has come back to his parental home.The monkey due to the shock starts remembering his previous lives.Lord Yama comes to finish of the monkey but hanuman appears as result of monkey's prayers and brings about an agreement.According to this agreement the monkey will have to tell a story and also keep the audience engaged.The monkey who was a poet,sanjay in the turbulent times of 19 th century northern india tells his story. The story has lot of History mingled with myths and magic. The lives and times of European military free lancers form an important thread in the narrative.Sanjay has an anglo-indian friend whose father is the most famous of European miltary adventurers in 19 th century india, Skinner.Their lives form the core of this story.
There are stories within stories.Thus Abhay also tells about his life in USA.Although there are many brilliant pages the excellence is marred by numerous stereotypical descriptions. Thus abhay has a girl friend whose mother had been the centerspread in Playboy , he meets a porn actress whose story is also narrated.The style and the width of issues dealt are most interesting.But as if to prove the critics of IWE right many characters lack depth and unlike many a work where only western stereotypes are portrayed vikram chandra has utilised his skills to give life to Indian stereotypes of westerners.
The novel is quiet big running around 520 pages.I found that the novel takes many meaningless deviations trying vainly to ape our epics.A few years back i met Indira Parthasarathy the famous Tamil literary personality in Delhi.He suggested one simple test to judge the quality of IWE. Try and imagine how would a work of IWE look if translated in any of the Indian languages. By that test Red Earth and Pouring Rain is average.
I had read the novel " Love and Longing in Bombay" by vikram chandra a few years back and i liked it. I followed the duel between meenakshi mukherjee and vikram chandra on (IWE)Indian writing in English in the Hindu. Although i do not remember the arguements fully i can recall the bitter criticism of IWE as catering to western markets by depicting an unreal exotic india.What made me notice the book "Red Earth Pouring Rain" was the title.I was pleasantly surprised to know that the title is taken from a translation of the famous sangam poem by A.K. Ramanujan, the US based poet and translator.This novel is an interesting attempt at story telling. The canvas is vast and there is a conscious effort to
copy the style of puranas/epics. The main character is a monkey which is shot at and critically injured by Abhay an Indian student at an US university who has come back to his parental home.The monkey due to the shock starts remembering his previous lives.Lord Yama comes to finish of the monkey but hanuman appears as result of monkey's prayers and brings about an agreement.According to this agreement the monkey will have to tell a story and also keep the audience engaged.The monkey who was a poet,sanjay in the turbulent times of 19 th century northern india tells his story. The story has lot of History mingled with myths and magic. The lives and times of European military free lancers form an important thread in the narrative.Sanjay has an anglo-indian friend whose father is the most famous of European miltary adventurers in 19 th century india, Skinner.Their lives form the core of this story.
There are stories within stories.Thus Abhay also tells about his life in USA.Although there are many brilliant pages the excellence is marred by numerous stereotypical descriptions. Thus abhay has a girl friend whose mother had been the centerspread in Playboy , he meets a porn actress whose story is also narrated.The style and the width of issues dealt are most interesting.But as if to prove the critics of IWE right many characters lack depth and unlike many a work where only western stereotypes are portrayed vikram chandra has utilised his skills to give life to Indian stereotypes of westerners.
The novel is quiet big running around 520 pages.I found that the novel takes many meaningless deviations trying vainly to ape our epics.A few years back i met Indira Parthasarathy the famous Tamil literary personality in Delhi.He suggested one simple test to judge the quality of IWE. Try and imagine how would a work of IWE look if translated in any of the Indian languages. By that test Red Earth and Pouring Rain is average.
