Have you heard the Bihari pop song Aara Hile, Chapra Hile, Devariya Hile (everything wiggles and jiggles)? The ‘Tomb of Sand’ is every bit as homespun and rustic as this song. Author Geetanjali Shree immerses you in India, with her Booker Prize-winning effort. She’s in no rush and if you've decided to pick up this book, then you mustn't rush either. Because you may just miss the various literary joys hidden in the book.
There is a reference to how women “flee one type of surveillance, to fall under the eye of another,” a sharp reference to transiting from daughters to wives. A special mention must be made of pages 129 to 131 where the dialogues are not always attributed to anyone and yet it is easily understood who is saying what. Another sentence that begins on page 147 finds its full stop on page 150. The intentionally commonplace rambling sentence, combined with the massive liberty with punctuation is an absolute delight!
The book is a laugh riot. One would imagine that a highly decorated book like this must be terribly serious or some such. But Geetanjali Shree is out there to tickle you; plain and simple. The character of Serious Son (who later becomes Overseas Son) for instance is appalled that ‘when he says Ustad Amir Khan, everyone thinks about Aamir Khan from QSQT!’ And how his colleagues miss the Guest of Honour speech but show up in time for cocktails or when the secretary brings ‘Gujarati pizza with sugar sprinkles’. Aren't we all guilty of this?
The focus of the plot is of course on the matriarch protagonist Maa, who won’t look out even though everyone opens the window for her! She also takes on the curious role of a ‘wishing tree’ and then suddenly disappears one day. That’s as much as I will reveal about the plot. Interlaced between all the humour is deep wisdom. And like petals showered on a deity, they are there for those who see them. Here are five wonderful tracks from the book.
The author talks about several languages of the world that are fast disappearing and a reluctant admission that ‘what is gone is gone.’ However, she warns ‘if you spend too much time on Google you may be gone too’!
In several large families, the chores done by young daughters-in-law by and large go unacknowledged and unappreciated. A meandering sequence of thoughts, laced with ample humour, establishes this subtly. And then comes the clincher; ‘just as no one knows what's going on in Delhi, no one knows what is going on in a family.”
A question for all menstruating beings, ‘these joys of the body, they throw you off balance. Is a heavy flow more fun, or a light one?’ Let's talk about this.
There is a cheeky reference to the failure of Muhammad Bin Tughlaq whose ideas were ahead of his time and the success of Mahatma Gandhi, whose ideas were right on time. Ok!
The chapters devoted to the farewell party of the outgoing civil servant Bade who ‘will go to great lengths to ensure that this will be a party the likes of which no previous officer could ever have dreamed’ and the natural intertwining of conversations at such parties, where nobody knows who is answering which question are eerily real. There is a special mention of guests who ‘feel like family’ only when they come visiting but otherwise they are modern and alone.
The book mirrors life itself in saying that ‘every single topic is endless and no topic is ever complete.’ Phrases like ‘colonial amnesia’ and the playful question ‘is our Imran Khan better or your Kapil Dev,’ remind you of the longevity of Maa’s journey, her loneliness and her search to reconcile with her own past. And just like a child who says whatever comes to their mind without fear of judgment, ‘Tomb of Sand’ is utterly simple and joyous.
Translator Daisy Rockwell delights with moments of relish; such as the tiny word ‘so’, which she says, is not as insignificant as one might think. ‘Important linguists since the time of Sanskrit to the modern day Annie Montauk have been quizzing the meaning of ‘so’ wondering what makes it so puzzling,’ she wonders. The languid progression of the book, the journey of Maa, all the diffused chatter in her head and her meandering voice compel us to re-examine where we stand. That’s a tall order.
The author Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist, biographer and bibliophile. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ Views expressed are personal.
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