Novel set in Gangtok (and top picks for novels set in India)
- Book: Land Where I Flee
- Location: Gangtok
- Author: Prajwal Parajuly
This is a debut novel from Prajwal Parajuly which brings several strands to the reader’s attention. It is set in Gangtok, a Nepali-speaking area in the Himalaya of India – people originally ousted from Bhutan. The author’s passion for this area of the country and its history is truly palpable.
Grandmother Chitralekha – Amaa to her grandchildren – is about to celebrate her landmark 84th birthday, the Chaurasi, and she awaits the arrival of 3 grandchildren. The fourth grandchild is not invited. This is very much a story about belonging, about resettlement and dislocation, and what it is like to live far away from indigenous and familiar country and culture. For granddaughter Bhagwati, caste issues have literally cast her out – she married her husband Ram in haste, who is a Damaai, an untouchable. In Boulder, Colorado where they have settled after several years in a refugee camp, they hardly give it a second thought, but it will be a huge factor when she re-enters her Grandmother’s house; Agastaya is a doctor in New York and he is with Nicky, male, an unacceptable liaison in his Grandmother’s small town; Manasa, foul-tempered and cutting, has despatched her husband and paraplegic father-in-law to a different location, whilst she endures the reunion. The interactions and dialogue amongst the characters are vivid, and one can almost hear them speaking to each other in vociferous and raucous chatter.
Prasanti, (originally Prasant) the eunuch who tends Grandmother, is always present and always good for an invidious jibe or some histrionics. To all intents and purposes, she is treated as the true granddaughter.
This is a book full of Indian experience, colour and observation, it is full of vernacular, Manas sharply correcting Nicky that it is not Diwali for the Nepali speaking people, but Tihaar. There are lots of colloquial words punctuating the prose with the intention, I believe, to make the story feel more authentic. But it has the opposite effect, it starts to alienate because there is no glossary to assist. This, no doubt, serves to mirror the experience of dislocation that perhaps Bhagwati and Ram experience in Boulder as refugees.
Parajuly has is an original voice but in this novel he has struggled to keep the story cohesive. Is this a story about a family reunion, or is the story of Prasanti the overriding focus? Are the politics of the region – and the region itself – what truly motivate the author? The focus is loose, the squabbling amongst the family becomes enervating and depressing at times, and the opportunity is lost to really aid understanding of the history of this small part of India; and yet.. it is a very interesting novel that insightfully transports the reader to a little known area of India.
And what an eye-catching cover! Really drew our eye to it, colour, exoticism and travel captured in one photo!
This review first appeared on our blog, together with top picks for India by Aditia Saha, who is a regular contributor to TripFiction and is based in Kolkata https://www.tripfiction.com/novel-set-in-gangtok/
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