Book Review - Boats on Land by Janice Pariat

There are some books you read, just like that and books that you cherish and never go back to reading. However, Janice Pariat’s Boats on Land is a book that belongs to a different league. Once you are done reading the stories will continue to play in your head, unraveling just like a film.

A beautiful collection of 15 unique short stories, Pariat gives us tales from a land whose stories are much like ours yet forgotten or lost in transition – Northeast India. Through these short stories, she takes us into a world which is at once living in its past, present and dreaming of a better ‘future’.

The very first story, A Waterfall of Horses, sets the mood for an enchanting read. Taking one back to the 1850s, this is a story of the tussle between the ‘bilati people’ aka the British and the villagers in Pomreng. Pomreng as the narrator describes is a smudge on the map of the world and hardly visible to the outside world – a tiny spec of a Microcosm in the Macrocosm. Peppered with myths and old world ideologies, the lives of locals are suddenly disrupted by the ways of the outside world. Narrated through a small boy, the story tells how the villagers use magic to rid the village of the foreigners and in return have to flee as well because magic so strong, used for good or bad, does leave a trace.

Dream of the Golden Mahaseer is a story of two aging brothers and how the World Wars changed their lives forever. Fighting inner demons, one takes to drinking while the other dreams of the Golden Mahaseers. Here, Pariat introduces us to a variety of superstitions and beliefs followed by the locals – planting a broom outside one’s room so that water fairies or ‘puris’ as they are called, do not seduce one away.

Sky Graves is packed with land legends where shape-shifting is common or people taking the form of animals to safeguard their own is called for. The Keeper of Souls is another beautiful story that tells us many believe how spirits of our loved ones live in the forests to watch over their living kin and if the trees are felled these souls will have nowhere to go. The Discovery of flight is a melancholy tale of losing a loved one to the mysterious beings of the land.

To the outsider, the Northeast is made up of one sect. We are unaware of their struggles, their lives and their beliefs. To us, they are all north east Indians, period. But like us Indians, each of them too has a different sense of identity. Invisible political borders and ideologies have turned friends into foes and for Northeast India, it is no different.

19/87 brings out the differences between the ‘Khasis’ and the ‘dkhars’ – one is the so-called insider and the other, the outsider. Kite flying is used as a metaphor here to depict a sense of freedom and dominance. Earning his daily bread as a tailor, Suleiman who has lived for three decades here, is now being called as a dkhar. He is pronounced as an outsider while he has lived here longer than the ‘new’ insiders. His home is here and the very thought of leaving frightens him as he has never known what lies outside and has nowhere to go.

My favourite story of the lot is Pilgrimage. It talks about how life has drastically changed for people who have left their North Eastern home towns for a better future and when they do come back, it is either for a short holiday or treated as a retirement. While the protagonist in the story wants to trace back her good old days, she is firmly told that one should not be a pilgrim to the past. Aren’t we all ‘pilgrims’ to our past?

‘Has Shillong moved on with the world or has the world got onto Shillong?’ This is a feeling many of Pariat’s protagonists voice in the novel.

The Secret Corridor and Boats on Land talk of self-realization and acceptance. The first one takes us into the adolescent world of Natalie who is trying hard to fit in with the ‘cooler’ ones, forgoing notions of right and wrong. It gives us an insight into the mind of a young girl who is struggling to come to terms with her choice of sexual orientation, not chastising herself for it but is in search of expressions. 

The latter, Boats on Land, is beautifully narrated in first person. It is almost poetry as the lyrical quality of the depiction of the North East India country side is just brilliant. It makes you want to be there. Here again, the story takes us through two lives. One who has a normal childhood, blossoming into a lovely teenager with set ambitions, guided by her parents, the other is dwelling in sadness. This is story is at once full of facts as well philosophical in nature with initiations of superstitions, myths and old world land legends.

In short, Boats on Land is a refreshing read, offering us a wider horizon to explore. I would highly recommend it to everyone. 

Bookworm rating: 3.9/5 bookworms

Discussing the family tree with Sheila Kumar

While she writes anything and everything that interests her, Sheila Kumar’s, Kith and Kin – Chronicles of a Clan, pretty much wrote itself! The author, a non-resident ‘Mallu’, writing as an insider yet never giving herself up just like her novel’s protagonist Ammini Amma, weaving emotions of love, hatred, resentment and treachery in one big web of a family, successfully sketches each of 19 characters! 

Sheila Kumar ex-adwoman, journalist, travel writer, book editor, lives in Bangalore and writes about anything and everything that interests her. She has had her short stories published in three anthologies.

Here’s a getting to know how author Sheila Kumar  went about bringing her book to life.

(Interviewed by Nikita Banerjee Bhagat, iSahitya)

Q. When you first decided to pen your book, why did you choose to write the story of a clan?
Sheila Kumar  : From the beginning I wanted, to borrow from JRR Tolkien, one ring to bind all my stories together. That one ring became a clan which I named the Melekat clan. So while the stories are all standalone, after a bit, the reader starts to recognise the characters that come and go.

Q. Sketching so many fictional characters and bringing them to life, what was your biggest challenge when it came to forming them?

Sheila Kumar: Keeping all the different skeins attached to one hook, one clan. There had to be physical and emotional common threads, threads the reader can easily ascertain, running through the generations.

Q. You narrate this story as an outsider, watching each character closely, yet there is no judgement passed by you. How did you manage to do away with the biases, if you felt any?

Sheila Kumar: These are people rather past their glory days and fighting that fact, at least the older lot. Here, character traits determine each character’s trajectory. I merely relate, I do not pass judgment.

Q. Every author has a favourite character. Of the many in your book, you'd say your favourite is? Why?

Sheila Kumar: I’d say Ammu from the story `Passing Through. ` She’s a funny girl, with the incipient eccentricities of the Melekats already showing. She spends a harrowing night at Rome’s Fiumicino airport but emerges unscathed, in a manner her clanswoman Ammini amma would have approved of.

Q. Kith and Kin take the reader across different states and countries. Yet each character is rooted and somewhere relates to Ammini Amma & Mon Repos. Was it difficult to draw such connections?

Sheila Kumar: Kith And Kin tell slice-of-life stories about a set of people who just happen to be linked to each other. And in most families, there is always one overarching figure in whose shadow the others nestle happily or with resentment.  In this book, it is the matriarch Ammini amma. As for the family house, most of the older Melekats have strong memories of Mon Repos; the younger lot have heard about it.

Q.Well, each one of 19 characters has had something to say except for Ammini Amma. Why is there no story from her perspective?

Sheila Kumar: That is deliberate. Ammini amma’s presence runs through every story like a ticker tape. But I wanted the lady revealed through the perspective of her family. The reader gets to know enough about this formidable woman through her siblings, her offspring, and their offspring. I just didn't feel the need to give her a direct voice.

Q.Colours and the Bench. I loved both these stories and found them to be very different from the rest. While with ‘the bench' one can understand the nostalgia but Colours was a complete surprise. How did it come to be?

Sheila Kumar: My generation of `good Mallu girls` were inevitably put through the `boy/girl-seeing` drama. If they were lucky, it was lucky- first- time. `Colours ` are a humorous collation of many such `seeing` sessions. Do note that Beena is not in the least traumatized by the fact that she is shown to many `boys!`

Q. Ants is another story I loved reading. Why is it called so?

Sheila Kumar: If you recall, the young girl Omana wakes up to see a line of ants on the bedroom wall, industriously plying whatever their trade is. Omana is visiting her elderly aunts who are as industrious and disciplined as the ants in their house. As set in their ways, too. She has news for them but isn’t too sure that  people who wake up and do the same thing every day, will be receptive to the slightest ripple in the smooth fabric they have made of their lives.

Q. What was your biggest challenge when it came to writing this book?

Sheila Kumar: Staying true to the authentic Malayali flavour; I am a non-resident Keralite so it didn’t come too easy.

Q. The book begins with Suvarna and Sumant and ends with them too. Not with an ending one was expecting! Was this deliberate? Or was there an alternate ending?

Sheila Kumar: You know, Kith and Kin pretty much wrote itself!  The characters all seemed to know just where they were headed. So no, there was no alternative ending. Suvarna and Sumant, these were two people who appear forever trapped in the `might-be. ` And then suddenly, there is no more might-be. Sad but that’s life...

Q, At Last , Some quick questions : -) 

Sheila Kumar :  Sure  :-) 

1. Your favourite authors – PG Wodehouse. Shakespeare.
2. Literary Influences – None really
3. Kerala –A sense of roots.
4. Writing –Always and forever a pleasure.

Thanks Sheila!

This interview originally appeared on iSahitya - Binding Slices of Life 

Read Kith and Kin - Chronicles of a Clan review

The book received 2.5 bookworm rating

Family Matters... "Kith and Kin – Chronicles of a Clan" – A book review

If a novel is about one’s family, it can be an interesting one to write about. Semi-autobiographical, yes, but painting pictures with words that are almost true to life can be tedious still what with each family member’s character traits, quirks and the likes.  But what if you were writing about a fictional family, across three generations, living far and wide, yet each one somehow remains true to their roots? Tedious, yes, but doesn’t feel so when they get onto reading Sheila Kumar’s Kith and Kin – Chronicles of a Clan!

The book begins with the author introducing the large Melekat family – describing every one of the 19 characters! It is like tracing back a large family tree, more of a navigating tool to help you through the book and avoid confusion.

The elegant white rose of the town, Ammini Amma – standing tall and stoic, never letting anyone know who she really is or what she really feels is the family matriarch of the Melekat clan and runs her huge house ‘Mon Repose’ proudly. However, her children are different. While Ammini Amma remains unreadable, the author continues to spin her web of tales from the lives of her offspring’s.

The descendants of Amma, aka current Nair family, are oscillating between what they feel, what they really want and how their life really is! They struggle to keep up with the charming and elegant life their mother led. Far from perfect, their stories are marred by failed marriages, unhappy relationships, commitment phobias, treachery, loneliness, jealousy and insecurity, even bordering on dementia. On the other hand, the younger generation, i.e. the children of her children, look up to her for solace and peace whenever they find themselves in a soup. Unlike their own parents who fail to get going with the fast-changing times, the younger ones feel that their grandmother would have understood.

Having left their home town of South Malabar, the Melekats have settled across Mumbai, Bangalore and the US. However, what bind them together apart from their similar aquiline features, bouts of tantrums and their arrogant nature is their mother and their home, Mon Repos. Amma and their childhood family home are recurring themes through the book.

What really intrigues one is that there is not one chapter from the matriarch’s perspective. Everyone seems to be talking about her, cursing her maybe, but she is not the one to talk! Very deliberate, I’d say as the author stays true to Amma’s character – never a word out of line and never the one to clarify.

Some stories have unexpected endings, taking you by surprise. While stories like Ants, Colours and Passing Through, the author adapts different forms of narratives, establishing at once establishing the very trait and essence of these characters.

With Ants, she writes through the perspective of a young niece who has come visiting her aging aunts who tend to the huge house, running it smoothly, devoting their entire lives to the structure. Long widowed, they continue to live is a microcosm which seems like a tiny spec, hardly relatable or of any importance. Through Colours, the author explains that we still live in a world where superstitions hold a majority. They can decide one’s life’s path!

In Passing Through, while stranded at an alien airport, the protagonist battles her inner demons of insecurities. I think this one came the closest to grand dame Ammini Amma! And the end will surprise everyone. While I do not want to divulge much and ruin the fun, I will only say it ends at Mon Repose – French for my place of rest.

In short, the book is thoroughly enjoyable. Every story adds to the reader's experience, leaving one with an ache to know more about the Melekats. 

Bookworm Ratings: 2.5/5 booksworms