It’s always a pleasure
to read someone for the first time; the freshness of their writing, the promise
of a new reader-writer relationship and endless new anecdotes to be shared are
some of the perks. That pleasure is doubly enhanced when the writer turns out
to be really good. Rohinton Mistry’s works were suggested to me by people on
bookstagram some fifteen odd months ago. I found Such A Long Journey in a local
bookstore at the onset of November and bought it right away.
Very few authors can
see the beauty in everyday life, and there are fewer who can capture the same
flawlessly. I find it to be a very rare phenomenon when an author can keep me
engrossed in events that have no element of fantasy. Ruskin Bond’s stories have
that element of making the ordinary seem extraordinary. And I am happy to
report that Rohinton Mistry has succeeded in capturing the essence of the
ordinary in his storytelling.
The story is about a
Parsi man, Gustad Noble. He lives with his wife Dilnawaz, and their three
children in a very Parsi neighbourhood. His roles of husband, father, friend
and colleague are depicted in detail, giving the reader a complete picture of
his personality. He is no ubermensch who performs extraordinary feats. His travails
are those of the common man in the India of the 70s. He is occupied with the
health and wellbeing of his children, with the balancing of household accounts
and all that we often overlook when thinking of the average Indian. The characters
are developed with detail by giving them family histories, secret lives and
peculiar habits.
The events in the book
follow the journey of Gustad, his friends and his family through struggles of
myriad kinds. Gustad’s own journey covers the corruption of the then
government. He gets sucked into the inevitable and the endless while trying to
be a good friend and setting examples for his children. Readers will relate to
the situation Gustad finds himself in, now more than ever, because of the
current demonetisation situation in India, and its effect on the average middle
class person. The story shows the helplessness of the commoner. It is sure to
strike a chord in the hearts of many.
Contemporary Indian
writers should take note of the works of Rohinton Mistry before parading their
stories riddled with heartbreaks and pseudo-feminism.
