INDIAN LITERATURE (Sahitya Akademi’s bi-monthly journal)
(Vol LII. No 3.; May-June 2008)
Amber Dusk by Rajat Chaudhuri, Indialog Publications,
The book under review—Rajat Chaudhuri’s Amber Dusk is a text that retrieves memories and spatio-temporal configurations of Indian writing in English. This aspect makes this reviewer think about a point that has often been debated and widely contested - the politics of Indian writing in English, Several times while browsing through the pages of many Indian English authors, I had raised the issue of differences that are at play within the sensibilities of Indian writing. To be specific, these differences have to be understood in the graphic notations provided to the reader regarding the cosmopolitan and urban divide, the setup of imaginary landscapes that are suited for the writing of the writers, the academic framework of the writers including the idea of production and consumption of these texts, and the mechanisms of the market-oriented networks. Here in the postcolonial context, this reviewer would like to tilt the so-called absorption of many literary texts into the Western-oriented ways of consumption by mooting the idea that all that talk about the cosmopolitan experiences may not be well-marketed and the audience including the West, perhaps, will not be so ready to accept the existence of these texts. In the past one decade, several tests that talk about the cosmopolitan experiences failed to catch the attention of the market and the readership of the West. This is another serious issue popping up when we look at the reception of these texts not only abroad but even within our country, One should keep in mind here that these divisions, fundamentally situated on the premise of the readership, have created more cleavages within the Indian writers in English.
Though the tune is not ripe enough to debate the above-mentioned features, Rajat Chaudhuri’s novel at the very outset dismantles the notion of a peculiar sense of readership that many Indian English writers would wish to have. First and foremost, this is a text about the cosmopolitan Kolkata experience in conjunction with the rural spaces which are actively restructured and figuratively examined by several characters in the novel, At the same time, the hub and hue of the city life, the,valueless systems attached to the postmodern glimmerings of market and other sophisticated network connections are clearly outlined in the context of the more modern French lives—in other words, by the French Connections. Here the cosmopolitan sensibilities are mutually wedded together to project the notion that several spaces and times are lived by all of us many times, Secondly, Amber Dusk shows that how a character like Rishi can have non-linear imaginations; ah1 of them without any staticity or coherence. Time is only a temporal disjuncture for this character because his cosmopolitan sensibility has already destroyed him within the narrow catacombs of imagination. There is a tendency very much suggested here to go back to the roots of alienation by bidding farewell to the extravagance of enjoyment from the postmodern sensibilities that always destroy truth, essence and character. The text, therefore, is a snow-clad Iamb waiting for its redemption by looking at its own existence. When freedom is not negated, it is natural that one would have a tendency to cross all borders. But Chaudhuri’s characters like Pedro, Anamika,
The wide galaxy of characters in Chaudhuri’s text is coming from different walks of life and the
Rishi’s relationship with Anamika and Valence—though given a full account of its differences in tropes but never gets into the innards of the rural scenario— often punctures the text, Anamika k projected as a character typical from a Bengal middle-class background carrying with her the hopes and aspirations of the future, yet suspicious of day-to-day existence. On the other hand,
Later when Chaudhuri write, “Castrate leaders! Sew the labia majora of empresses! Vasectomise some VIPs,” the satire against the popular films in which one encounters the silly death of certain politicians engaged with looting, arson and rape, is brought out. Pedro’s fight is against a system of daily routines and miss-jnatching media that sell celebrities and flesh. This corporate world of late capitalism has its trajectory set out in the world of advertisements and stardoms.
What interests the reader most in Amber Dusk is the excellent narration rendered both in the first person account (Rishi’s) and the third person. Before the undeniable fact of moral irresponsibility, Rishi twice loses his mind the blood-lust of narcissism sucks all scruples and arguments dry. There are impersonal descriptions and the nonsensical reflections concerned with environment, mental topography and the geographical locations of
After reading Amber Dusk which book will you take? Or what thought would brood your mind? Though these questions may not give any direct answers, some reflections regarding this type of narration need to be pointed out. It is not true to say that Chaudhuri’s cosmopolitan knowledge system has entirely created a new mode of writing. There are many adhesions and cohesions of oriental and occidental objects of interest in the novel including the Buddhist preachings and prayers offered.
The characters lose their identity many times as there are too many conflations with the West and the Indian rural scenario. But objectively looking, the text offers beautiful deftness and felicity of the village people, the boatman and his life and many interesting vignettes on
Krishnan Unni P.
(The reviewer teaches English at