10-16-2006, 09:23 PM
Book review from Pioneer, 15 Oct., 2006
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Stink in the aroma
Shalini Saksena
Leaves of Blood, Samares Mazumdar; Wordhouse, Rs 290
All of us have read history and are familiar with the humiliation the Indians had to face at the hands of the British, especially in their fight for Independence. Several books have been written on the condition of Indians during the British era and Samares Mazumdar's Leaves of Blood is one of them. <b>This book leaves me angry not because there is anything wrong in it, but because it unfolds before you the undiluted atrocities in 1885 on tea garden labourers, who toiled from dawn to dusk to fill the coffers of the White aristocracy.</b>
The detail with which the writer deals with the subject is worthy of applause. Engagingly enough, the story ties a knot with common man and keeps you on a boil between pages.
<b>The book is a translation of Mazumdar's Bengali novel written in 2003, Utsharitho Alo. The author has won the Sahitya Akademi award and is one of the finest Bengali writers today. He is also the recipient of the prestigious Ananda award.</b>
The pace is sluggish in the beginning. It keeps talking about how the villagers had been for months struggling to survive under harsh conditions, with no food and water. But it gradually picks up as the story unfolds - the wife of the village head, separated from her husband, lives like a queen in the gora saheb's house, though the reality is that she is just a play thing for him; or, the fact that the main protagonist who rebels against the gora saheb by marrying a woman from another plantation.
It talks about how the villagers, lured by promises of a land of food and water, leave the village of their forefathers, with dreams of making money. But soon reality sets in. The goras are not so kind; in fact, they are downright cruel. Some of their acts are so cruel that at one such point, it almost becomes impossible to go further without getting a feeling of helplessness and anger: How can a human be so cruel to another and yet not feel anything and go on about their work, as if nothing heinous or criminal has happened right in front of their eyes.
The USP of the book is its simple language and no-clutter build-up. No fancy words are used to describe the pathos of the characters that continue to live in much the same conditions even today, albeit under indigenous masters. The reader feels their pain and anguish through graphic instances the writer gives - for instance, when a child is swept away by a river, or when labourers become food for wild animals.
The book is inspired by the author's childhood days which he spent at the tea gardens of the Dooars. A real life incident finds a mention in the novel. The incident which took place during the British era when a White man had raped a woman, the other women came out in protest. So much was their hatred that they smashed the rapist's head with spades, killing him. The situation had gone so bad then that troops had to be called in from Kolkata.
Even though the storyline of Leaves of Blood becomes predictable as it unfolds, this one is quite a page turner.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Stink in the aroma
Shalini Saksena
Leaves of Blood, Samares Mazumdar; Wordhouse, Rs 290
All of us have read history and are familiar with the humiliation the Indians had to face at the hands of the British, especially in their fight for Independence. Several books have been written on the condition of Indians during the British era and Samares Mazumdar's Leaves of Blood is one of them. <b>This book leaves me angry not because there is anything wrong in it, but because it unfolds before you the undiluted atrocities in 1885 on tea garden labourers, who toiled from dawn to dusk to fill the coffers of the White aristocracy.</b>
The detail with which the writer deals with the subject is worthy of applause. Engagingly enough, the story ties a knot with common man and keeps you on a boil between pages.
<b>The book is a translation of Mazumdar's Bengali novel written in 2003, Utsharitho Alo. The author has won the Sahitya Akademi award and is one of the finest Bengali writers today. He is also the recipient of the prestigious Ananda award.</b>
The pace is sluggish in the beginning. It keeps talking about how the villagers had been for months struggling to survive under harsh conditions, with no food and water. But it gradually picks up as the story unfolds - the wife of the village head, separated from her husband, lives like a queen in the gora saheb's house, though the reality is that she is just a play thing for him; or, the fact that the main protagonist who rebels against the gora saheb by marrying a woman from another plantation.
It talks about how the villagers, lured by promises of a land of food and water, leave the village of their forefathers, with dreams of making money. But soon reality sets in. The goras are not so kind; in fact, they are downright cruel. Some of their acts are so cruel that at one such point, it almost becomes impossible to go further without getting a feeling of helplessness and anger: How can a human be so cruel to another and yet not feel anything and go on about their work, as if nothing heinous or criminal has happened right in front of their eyes.
The USP of the book is its simple language and no-clutter build-up. No fancy words are used to describe the pathos of the characters that continue to live in much the same conditions even today, albeit under indigenous masters. The reader feels their pain and anguish through graphic instances the writer gives - for instance, when a child is swept away by a river, or when labourers become food for wild animals.
The book is inspired by the author's childhood days which he spent at the tea gardens of the Dooars. A real life incident finds a mention in the novel. The incident which took place during the British era when a White man had raped a woman, the other women came out in protest. So much was their hatred that they smashed the rapist's head with spades, killing him. The situation had gone so bad then that troops had to be called in from Kolkata.
Even though the storyline of Leaves of Blood becomes predictable as it unfolds, this one is quite a page turner.
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