Books: Shared Flavour

COLOURS OF LONELINESS
ED BY MUZAFFAR IQBAL
OXFORD
PAGES: 405
PRICE: Pak Rs 495

Literature transcends boundaries and in the words of Muzaffar Iqbal, editor of this anthology, they may be "geographical, linguistic and cultural". It is easy to identify with the characters that come alive and the lives that unfold from the pages of Colours of Loneliness. In "Overcoat", the nameless young vagabond whose life is a charade. The repentant Akbar, "The Sinner" who blames his mother for his wretched life. Javed, the "Coward" who could never quite muster what it takes to visit a prostitute. Even little Shaker, through the innocent eyes of whom "Mitthal Shah's Yard" seems the most intriguing place in the world. All of them could be from either side of the border.

Thirty-eight tales in Pashto, Balochi, Urdu, Sindhi and Punjabi, five of Pakistan's regional languages, ranging from the dream-like quality -- "A Few Hours in an Alien City", "The Garden of Delights" -- and the more abstract "The Cave" to the harsh reality of the poverty-ridden lives portrayed in "Descent" and the soul-stirring "Is This a Way to Live?". From the contemporary "Wrong Number" and "The Bell" to the timeless appeal of folk tales such as "Dry Earth", "The Chief" and "Weeping Darkness", the stories in this collection are romantic, allegorical and even metaphysical. "Shock" and "The Sinner" have hidden social messages but the ones that stand out for their thematic uniqueness are "Overcoat", "The Bell", "Obsession" and the curiously titled "When History Died in My Arms".

One can't help but feel that this befittingly introduced, aptly titled and impressively covered painstaking compilation deserved better than the careless editing and proofing that have left many glaring oversights. Reading the stories one is reminded of an old Mukesh song, which entertains with its bitter-sweet quality yet leaves a sadness in the heart.

AUTHORSPEAK
J.C. DANIEL

Elephant Man
A natural historian and his labour of love

JC Daniel When the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) advertised its need for a curator in 1950, J.C. Daniel thought he was perfect for the job. After all, the 20 something was freshly equipped with an MSc degree and had, as a child, collected the odd chrysalis to watch a butterfly emerge. "My opinion on suitability was not shared by the society," says Daniel. He was offered the job of a research assistant with a princely salary of Rs 210, accommodation not included."These days time is running short," laughs the sprightly 72-year-old who is working all at once on several projects. The man who ultimately did hold the job of BNHS curator for three decades and is still the executive editor of the Journal of the BNHS has just released The Asian Elephant: A Natural History (Natraj). He is also working on an illustrated book of mammals, updating one on Indian reptiles and planning another on the pioneering natural history efforts of the Indian Army. Daniel's next venture though is a similar book on the tiger: "Everyone's interested in the tiger. It's the glamour puss of conservation. But the elephant is a part of our ethos."

The book is a comprehensive compilation -- "A mixed bag from various sources, largely based on other people's knowledge" -- of facts and anecdotes culled mainly from more than a 100 authors published in the Journal, some from as far back as 1895. For Daniel, one of the most poignant instances of elephant behaviour is the one that illustrates the animal's assistance-seeking behaviour. Planter Frank Nicholls recalls the time a mother elephant, holding up a bleeding front foot, came rushing up to them and placed her trunk on his elephant's trunk before turning and leading them to her crisis. Ten yards away was her calf, standing with its head completely scalped by a tiger. The baby held up its front foot which was all but severed and with its trunk, that was about 1 ft long, kept feeling its terrible head wound.

Daniel says at the present rate of loss and degradation of the animal's habitat, it is doubtful that Asian elephant populations -- currently estimated at between 34,000 and 54,000 -- can survive. Unlike tigers, elephants often destroy their surroundings if they are not permitted to move from one area to another: "With all the corridors increasingly being blocked by man, management has become the key." Management that Daniel says must begin with more funding and research on this endangered species.

-Priya Ramani