Saga of Love, with a Difference
For some years I have been getting well-acquainted with the literature written by those authors who have migrated abroad in search of livelihood or for some other reasons but whose roots were deeply pitched into Indian life. Now the list of such diasporic writers, being brought up and nourished on foreign soil and intrinsically engaged in creative writing, is too long, and readers like me, living in India are much wonder-struck to realize that the literature of such foreign writers, jingles with deafening sounds due to the collision between two cultures, two societies, two opposite ethnic communities, and adverse values. In most of such cases, the migrated Indian writers, having turned to be foreign citizens, are still undergoing a kind of obsession with why they have been uprooted from their original land, that is, India. They, de facto, write in Hindi because this is their original mother tongue and it is due to some unfortunate factors that their communicative dialect cannot be Hindi. But their interference in English writing is a welcome step because it would create a new genre in English literature. It is a matter of ineffable joy especially for the Indians that the diasporic writers are choosing English as their creative writing.
In the list of Indian English writers living abroad, whom we are acquainted with, the name of Archana Painuly is eloquently being welcomed by avid readers not only because she has an Indian origin, but because she is writing in English palpably and dexterously. In one of her fiction books entitled Nancy’s Kairali Massage Parlour, she exhibits her extraordinary power of observation of social life and her deep insight into a wide range of human nature. The sense of belongingness pervades all over the story, and the search for stable love is not meant for any romantic urge, but it is a supportive yardstick to lead a life that provides satisfaction and perfection to a restless human being.
The central character of the novel, Nancy, a massage therapist, hails from a Keralite Christian family. Her Ayurvedic body massage salon in Copenhagen is a perennial source of strength for her, and it energizes her resilience to a great extent. The parlour is an important place for her where she feels much more relaxed, and much more satiated. The vagaries of experiences, she gains there day out and day in, leave an everlasting impression on the mind. The most captivating moments are those when an echo arises due to clashes, she knowingly invites, between the two different cultures of Denmark and India. It is then, we have a very moving story of an impassionedly zealous lady who, being a failure in marriage and relationship more than once, never seems to be tired of searching for true love. We appreciate her forbearance in this tireless pursuit of a soulmate for herself. Going through the entire story, we very often feel surprised to see Nancy in complicated situations. No doubt, she struggles hard to avoid adverse circumstances as well as the failures she suffers from, in the forms of marital breakdowns. Very often we realize that Nancy is a plain-minded, modest lady whose simplicity pushes her into adversities of which she may be conscious or unconscious. We are however complacent enough to find her in an mental state, straightforwardly challenging to overcome adverse circumstances and the rigid norms of society that hinder her path on which she wants to proceed incessantly. While defying the obstacles in her way, she recalls her past and those Malayalee Christian nurses who had ever been rich sources of inspiration for her.
The novel has an unfathomable undertone related to love which has less materialistic significance than spiritual one. Nancy pursues love, not for physical gratification but for psychic complacency. It has been expounded that love is a necessity for survival and existence that betters society and consolidates human relationships. Here we find love quite in a different type; actually, the type of love that we see in India where love transcends everything physical. Love as exhibited throughout the novel, is not Freudian-bearing Oedipal complex, nor is it Platonic, according to which love is exposed as a suppressed sexual desire. Archana Painuly’s love dealt with, in this novel, is not even G.B. Shaw’s type; it is also beyond Shakespeare’s and John Donn’s love which looks for physical union leading to spiritual union. However, Archana has shown love as an eternal emotion that knows no continental boundaries, no lingual boundaries. Nancy frequently frequents from Kerala to Kenya, from Kenya to Denmark, from Denmark to the United States, and lastly from the U.S.A. to Denmark. This is not ludicrous; it is a purgatorial cycle Nancy passes through to possess a purged love. Love dealt with, in this fiction, is a search for masculine love from one man to another, that is, from Abraham to Lars, Lars to Marco, and Marco to Paul. Paul is the ultimate one, in whom Nancy discovers the form of love she has pined for, for so long. It is also remarkable that Archana, in this interesting fiction, relates a story of love, that is followed and preceded by losses, gains, repentances, and ecstacies cyclically.
Nancy’s motherlike love for her sons Joshua and Neil is heart-touching. Her mammal emotions and feelings are overwhelming. Her impulsive attachment to her parents, her Malappuram’s home, and her extended family broadens her feminine personality exquisitely and surcharges her disposition in a way that invites the readers’ acclamation. Her amiable and amicable personality readily attracts faithful friends to pacify her restless emotions and solace her internal wounds received from this ruthless world. She is truly the central figure of the novel around which all the characters, incidents, and actions revolve.
The single-character-dominated novel is properly and interestingly divided into fourteen chapters which episodically weave, at least, four yarns that lend undisputable perfection to the main saga of the novel. As each chapter moves forward, carrying interlinked sub-stories to the other chapters, the readers’ curiosity densifies. The actual success of a novelist lies in the fact that the readers arouse irresistible excitement to reach the finality of the story. It is also notable that each chapter of the novel is readable as an independent story, albeit all the fourteen chapters are inseparably interlinked.
Archana, as an author of this novel, is well aware of her duty towards her readers, and that duty is not only to elaborate life in plentitude but also to give solemn messages to them at each turn of the story. Her characters are her mouthpieces who advocate simple and adherable philosophies of life. For example, we associate ourselves with the paradigm of life preached by her “…nothing remains static or stable in this world. Life’s circumstances evolve, shifting our lives in new directions.” The conversations of the characters are interestingly dramaturgic and captivate our attention by dint of their spontaneity. The diction provided is graphic and the style is descriptive analyzing the complexities of life with all lucidity and simplicity. The diction of the novel is so clear with which the reader familiarises himself. The diction succeeds in letting the author express all her simple and subtle thoughts.
To conclude, it can be propounded that Archana has presented a genuinely realistic story that speaks out the heart of a female character. She interlinks that character with the intrigues of life which are common to every human being. She creates two worlds, the first one inside Nancy and the second one outside her. Both are significant. The description is picturesque and vivacious. We feel that the characters are in conversation with us in a surrounding of ours. Archana’s ability to depict the characters as verisimilitudes and the background of the novel shows her manoeuvre as an adept painter. If one wants to understand the compelling situations of life in a society and come nearer life, one must read the novel and associate oneself with them.
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