Whose Story Is It Anyway?

Country of Goodbyes, the English translation of Mridula Garg8217;s Hindi novel Kathgulab, is the story of four women and a man, whose lives...

Country of Goodbyes, the English translation of Mridula Garg8217;s Hindi novel Kathgulab, is the story of four women and a man, whose lives intersect in different ways, and who tell us their stories in their own voices. We first hear from Smita who has returned, after twenty years, to the house where she grew up. She had left this house suddenly, in the dark of the night, urged on not only by her sister, but also by her Jijaji8217;s assault on her body. In the United States, besieged by demons from her past, Smita goes to a psychiatrist. Jim Jarvis is intrigued by this beautiful Indian woman who has come to him in Christmas season. They get married, and, in one of the several cloying moments in the story, Smita introduces Jim to her girlfriend, the sugar maple with whom she has long conversations 8220;Yes, Sugar, your Smita had really curly hair once8221;.

But once Jim starts obsessing, in his typically American way, about gourmet coffee, charge slips, and confronting one8217;s ghosts, Smita decides she has had enough. She has been working for some time at a shelter for abused women, which is where she goes now. And this is where we meet the next narrator, Marianne. The daughter of a beautiful woman who died before she could enjoy her husband8217;s wealth, Marianne herself is comfortably provided for by her stepfather. But then she meets a would-be novelist who picks her brains for his research. When she virtually writes his novel for him, their relationship falls apart.

Four women and a man whose lives intersect tell us their stories in their own voices. The narrative is bold, but wordy.

Next we meet Narmada, the woman who has worked in Smita8217;s sister Namita8217;s house, looking after Namita8217;s paralysed husband and Smita8217;s Jijaji before he died. Smita has now come to research Narmada8217;s life. As a young girl, Narmada was married off, against her will, to her own Jijaji; but now, even after finding a place of her own, and a livelihood, she continues to yearn for a husband and children in her own life.

Aseema, Smita8217;s firebrand feminist friend and Narmada8217;s saviour, is the fourth narrator. Her mother8217;s unhappy marriage and her father8217;s decision to marry again have turned Aseema against men altogether, so much so that she considers the entire tribe of men 8216;8216;haramis8217;8217;.

And then she meets an unusual man 8212; our fifth narrator, Vipin Mazumdar. Vipin is a New Man of sorts, who agrees with Aseema that the girl child needs education 8212; but who also wants a younger woman for himself so that he can father a child.

This is the motley group of narrators who tell us the story of Country of Goodbyes. And it is an uneven story. At its best, it is bold in its depiction of sexuality, and has moments of sheer poetry; but all too often, alas, it is high-pitched, wordy, and rather clumsy.

How much of this clumsiness does one attribute to the translation? One is not sure, but the blame is certainly to be shared. 8216;8216;My father was fortunate to have left his mortal frame before my mother sought a divorce,8217;8217; says Marianne, a native speaker of English.

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At other moments, the narrative acquires an effete shrillness. 8216;8216;Could child labour be abolished in India? Would free and compulsory primary education provide an effective solution to it?8217;8217; ponders Aseema.

Finally, Oxfam features in the story as a kind of benevolent alternate vocation, even a deus ex machina, and that leaves me wondering.