LANGUAGE IN INDIA

The Ties of Kinship in Rohinton Mistry's Novels

C. Bharathi, M.A., M.Phil.

An Insider

Rohinton Mistry was born in Bombay in 1952, immigrated to Canada in 1975 and was employed in a Toronto bank. He began writing stories in 1983. His Tales from Firozsha Baag describes the daily lives of the Bombay apartment complex. Hope prevails in these stories, as Mistry's careful and compassionately drawn characters survive and work through difficult circumstances toward a brighter future. His first short story fetched him a Hart House Prize for fiction.

Rohinton Mistry is an insider to Tales from Firozsha Baag, Bombay and his vignettes are naturally authentic. Ironically perhaps he is able to achieve this authenticity as he has distanced himself by emigrating to Canada so that he can produce the effect of an insider /outsider to a scene, every detail of which is fetched and engraved in his mind. Remembering, re- enacting, re-creating that place-time-people with accuracy, understanding, and insight is the vision of Rohinton Mistry. In a manner of speaking, this is a "comedy" of manners and Firozsha Baag is Mistry's "Malgudi".

An Unending Journey

Mistry's first novel, Such a Long Journey, creates a vivid picture of Indian family life and culture. The novel is set in Bombay, During Indira Gandhi's period, when India went war over with Pakistan what was later to become Bangladesh. This is the political context for the unfortunate events that disrupt the personal lives of the kind hearted Parsi man, Gustad Noble, and his family and friends. Mistry skillfully parallels public events involving Indira Gandhi with the misfortune of the novel's principal characters.

Gustad, his wife Dilnavaz, their two sons Sohrab and Darius and daughter Roshan live in the Parsi residential colony of Khodadad Building in Bombay. Gustad is the grandson of a prosperous furniture dealer, a lover of books and tasteful living. Gustad nurtures a daydream of building a book case, in collaboration with his son Sohrab, to house his decimated collection of books. His father's goodness and compassion inform all of Gustad's actions and relationships which constitute the novel.

A Measured Balance?

Mistry's second novel is A Fine Balance, set in India in the mid-1990's at a time when the government has declared a state of internal emergency. The story focuses on the lives of four unlikely people who find themselves living in the same humble flat in the city: a widow (Dina) whose refusal to marry has left her struggling to earn a living as a seamstress; two tailors (Ishvar and Omprakash), who come to the city searching for employment and a student (Maneck) from a small hamlet in the Himalayan foothills, whose father has sent him to attend college. Mistry's descriptive, layered account of the personal lives of these characters, as they are influenced by the country's political turmoil, makes for an engrossing novel of epic stature.

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