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BOOKS
Surviving
Singh
More
women from the Khushwant industry
By
Makarand Paranjape
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KHUSHWANT
SINGH'S BOOK OF UNFOR-
GETTABLE WOMEN
Ed Mala Dayal
Penguin
Pages: 298
Rs 250
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Two
things struck me immediately about this book. The first-and I don't know
if this is to my credit or Khushwant Singh's-is how well I know his work!
Almost everything in this book was instantly recognisable. Both the pen
portraits of real woman in the first part of the book and the excerpts
from his short stories and novels in the second part. I seemed to have
read them all. Secondly, it struck me that Singh is a bit like a popular
tv serial: you get more and more of the same, but the audience is not
tired. In fact, the reruns, outtakes and adaptations sell too.
Take this
book, for instance. There's nothing new in it; it's a compilation of material
already available in print. And the beneficiaries of the Khushwant Singh
industry are not only his readers, but his relatives; in this case Singh's
daughter, Mala, who has edited this and other compilations from his writings
in the past.
The cover
and the design of the volume make it look like a joke book-light reading,
not to be taken seriously. In this sense, they do injustice to the contents.
A certain lack of care is reflected in the editing of the book too. Neither
are the sources of the excerpts identified, nor is there an attempt to
distinguish between the fiction and non-fictional persons. An uninitiated
reader is likely to think that the characters from Singh's novels and
short stories-Martha, Lady Mohan Lal, Jean, Bhagmati, Champak, Nooran
and so on-are also "real" women, like Indira Gandhi, Mother
Teresa or Phoolan Devi, featured in the first part of the book. The narrative
voice is so deceptively similar that such an impression is encouraged.
On top of that, the back cover categorises the book as "non-fiction,"
exacerbating the error. Speaking of the lack of editorial work, I was
surprised that the book doesn't even have a table of contents. There is
no clue as to what principle of selection or organisation has been used.
Neither the fiction nor the non-fiction is arranged chronologically. One
would have expected greater care and responsibility towards a writer of
Singh's stature.
Having said
this, I must confess that the book is still a good read, especially the
non-fiction parts of it. Singh's portrait of his own grandmother, for
instance, with which the book opens, is sharply etched and moving. The
subtle distancing of the
author's stance allows him to look at his subject clear-eyed, even if
the vision occasionally turns misty with affection. Again, in his essay
on his own wife, Kaval Malik, there is a gentle irony that permits both
fondness and criticism. Perhaps, the best of these essays is the one on
Mother Teresa. The one on Phoolan Devi is full of drama, but needs updating.
It is when
we move from the real to the imagined women that we are disappointed.
The latter, unfortunately, tend to be rather unidimensional, often reduced
to their sexual function. Their importance is relative to the men or,
more often, to the one man who is the narrator. I'm not sure if this can
be considered as Singh's failure of imagination or his inability to transcend
the gender traps of our culture. What this book shows is that unlike Singh's
own projection of himself as not a nice man to know with malice towards
one and all, he's quite the opposite-a rather gentle person, if not fully
a gentleman.
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