Bombay Lost and Found

In his perceptive introduction to Bombay Tiger, Charles R. Larson professor of literature, American University, Washington DC gives a brief background to this intriguing author who was unconventional both in her choice of subject and style of writing. I still remember reading Two Virgins as a child, hiding in my room, convinced that the title alone would get me into trouble! Nectar in a Sieve, for instance, which is taught in universities abroad, spoke about the poor in India 8212; their hopes and dreams 8212; through the story of Rukmani. It was often compared to Pearl S. Buck8217;s The Good Earth. Bombay Tiger shows the deep connection Markandaya had with her home country, though she relocated to London in the late 1940s.

Why did Bombay Tiger face such a grim fate? Markandaya8217;s reclusive nature may have been partly to blame 8212; in a world of media hard sell, she chose to share very little about herself with the world. It was also because like others, who were writing in English before the triumvirate of Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth and Arundhati Roy broke upon an unsuspecting world, sustained recognition was hard to come by.

But more than anything else, it may have been due to the fact that Markandaya writes in a very formal fashion 8212; in a style that now appears archaic, even though her subject matter remains contemporary and vibrant. Here she creates a vivid picture of the tumultuous world of Bombay industry and politics 8212; especially of the Bombay Tiger, the aggressive bullying industrialist Ganguli, who is often pitted against his weak and envious contemporary, Rao. Thrown into their mutual battle for supremacy are their family, employees and friends. Among them is the hapless, idealistic Dr Raj Pandey, who becomes a victim of the ongoing rivalry, but manages to plot the Bombay Tiger8217;s final salvation. He is the antithesis to Ganguli8217;s grasping greedy personality. In a curious subplot Markandaya also introduces a western filmmaker, Sebastian Price, who is shooting the life of a revered priest, Father Benjamin 8212; which also leads to tragic consequences.

Love, lust, romance, illegitimate progeny and cinema 8212; all of it permeates the book, but somehow the dense style of writing often seems too stilted to express passion or even ambition in a way that the reader would get involved. Oblique and obscure references erase all traces of 8220;real8221; conversation. For instance, when commenting on Ganguli8217;s daughter, the naiuml;ve, doomed, Bollywood-struck Lekha, her friend Manjula says, 8220;Did she know, I wonder? About them being the essential collateral, the way we live now: the wining and the dining and the helpful eye contacts 8212; one couldn8217;t do without these dangerous flirtations8230;. Why, even en route to disaster areas to feed the starving they halt the gravy train, don8217;t they, stop off at Victoria Falls or Venice or our own Kovalam and Kashmir.8221; Of course, the last is a clever sentence, perhaps even an intellectually profound sentence, but it seems completely out of context when a young friend is describing another.

At other moments the descriptions are weighed down: 8220;In his daily joust with the difficult character, in his truthful theatre of passionate improvised travail, Sebastian Price had uncovered a naked Father Benjamin who, arriving at a crossroads of the spirit, had, it seemed to him, taken time off to squat down on some interminable concourse and contemplate his navel8230;. In other words, Sebastian had caught the priest at a crucial junction: halted at the schismatic crossroad to which prayer and contemplation had brought him8230;.8221;

The laboured writing often halts the flow of what no doubt should have been another powerful book from Markandaya. In addition, there is a distinct difference between the more polished first half of the book, and the latter half which often appears to take short cuts to push the plot forward: in the last few chapters three sudden deaths and one attempted suicide make it seem as though the author had also lost patience with the characters.
Nonetheless, the publication of Bombay Tiger is to be celebrated as a major literary event because of the indelible impact Markandaya has left on Indian writing in English. If only she had lived to finally see it in print.