#32. Reading Corner - A Fine Balance, Rohington Mistry
TW: death
In the winter of 2020, I made a list of books I wanted to read by Indian authors. After spending the summer reading non-fiction, self-help-styled motivation books, I wanted to spend long evenings of winter, reading classics or books that were ‘heavy’. After this list was compiled, the hunt for the books began. I had a habit of reading from my Kindle and found it easy to find books by Western-origin authors. But Indian classics had been slow to transition to Kindle. With limited luck, I was able to source some of them from Blossoms at Church St.
A Fine Balance was one of them.
A Fine Balance is not an easy read. It will make you uncomfortable, make you squirm more than once, and leave you with a heavy cloud hanging above your head, thus staying with you long after you have finished reading it.
It takes giant time lapses, hundreds of pages have been written to set up the exposition with a slow gentle pace, unraveling the lives of Indians in the 1970s, a few years post-independence. In the villages, where untouchability was very much in practice, it takes a close look at caste atrocities and how villagers belonging to the lower caste were denied what one would consider basic amenities. The stakes rise for two people- a grandfather-grandson duo when their entire family is torched to death because the father had demanded that they cast their votes in the elections, standing up against upper caste goons, and village men who were keen on holding onto their power by hook or crook.
The grandfather-grandson duo escape to live in a city, finally free from the caste hierarchies, and find jobs as tailors. But, their problems have taken a new turn- they live in unregulated shacks built illegally, and end up paying a heavy price for it eventually.
They have a woman employer - a Parsi woman who wants to be financially independent after her husband’s early death. Her fight is against her brother, a chauvinist, who is keen on controlling her life.
In between them, there is a young college-going kid who is sent to the city against his wishes. He longs to go back to the mountains, to clean and fresh air, and to look after their shop instead of living in grimy hostels. He is ragged and bullied, and moves out of the hostel and into the lives of the Parsi woman and the tailors.
Their lives become more complicated when a National Emergency is declared, and law and order take on a life of its own.
Where would you go when you are battling your grief, and are struck by despair?
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