Activism on the Shore

Susan Visvanathan catches a little fishing community on the cusp of change

Phosphorous and Stone
susan visvanathan
Zubaan-Penguin India, Rs 195

Susan visvanathan8217;s new novel is the story of Magda and Yesu, two young people growing up in a fishing village in Kerala. Their lives are very different, but they are drawn together first by childhood companionship and then by love. Magda, whose full name is Mary Magdalena, is the daughter of an itinerant philosopher with an interest in ecology whose travels leave him with little time for his daughter. Her mother, who was a mathematician, has died after a long illness acquired by dipping her hands, literally, in Minerva8217;s sacred lake. They were a once wealthy family now living a shabby-genteel life in the village.

It is Magda8217;s aunt Amai who now looks after her, managing with the little money that Magda8217;s father sends home every now and then, going to the extent of even selling the exotic cheeses and chocolates that he brings them as gifts. Magda spends her time on the beach and in mystical reveries about the Gospels.

Her childhood friend Yesu is the son of a rich moneylender. While Yesu8217;s father is repulsed by the sight of poverty and squalor, Yesu himself has become a young leader of the fisherpeople and has ambitions of studying law in order to better help them fight for their rights.

Phosphorus and Stone is the story of Yesu and Magda, but it is also the story of the ways in which issues of class, religion and family heritage play out in this little fishing community as it struggles to survive against the pressures of bigger commercial interests. Magda remembers the story of Ouseph, a young fisherman who dares to ask for pensions for the fisherpeople. Beaten on the head with a stick for the impertinence of this demand, he stands in the sun and rain, refusing to eat, goes to jail, and dies a day later out at sea. 8220;A wax and limp figure, spirit floating on the waters forever free.8221;

Yesu8217;s approach to the fisherpeople8217;s issues is a practical kind of activism: even his drinking with the fishermen appears to be a way of somehow getting membership into their community.

Meanwhile, growing up as a child of the sea, Magda8217;s imagination takes her on journeys into theological questions. At the heart of the novel is a letter to the girl from her dying mother in which the older woman shares with her daughter the experience of being close to death. As she lies dying, Mareek reflects on the story of Christ, his resurrection, and Magdalena8217;s fearless love.

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It is this love that sustains the young couple as they move away from the seaside fishing hamlet to begin their marriage in faraway Bangalore. 8220;Marriage suited me very well, like resting in a quiet boat under an open sky,8221; says Magda.

The novel follows the two of them as they set up home in an apartment, have a baby, acquire new friends and learn a new way of life. This slim, thoughtful novel asks us to consider questions of power, privilege, learning, and the fragile destinies of those who need to go out daily into the unpredictable waters.

The questions Phosphorus and Stone asks are sobering. Susan Visvanathan8217;s prose is vivid and lyrical, bringing to life the cadences of life in a small community amidst the tides of history, myth and nature.