Skip to main content

Land Where I Flee by Prajwal Parajuly: book review



Land Where I Flee (2014) is set in Gangtok, in the state of Sikkim in the Indian Himalayas in contemporary times.

Chitralekha Nepauney, owner of Nepauney Apparel, and habitual smoker, is nearly 84 years old. Chitra has had a hard life. Her husband, son, and daughter-in-law had died before her. She now wants the remaining years of her life to be ‘devoid of sadness.’

The advent of her birthday is one of significance in her Nepalese culture because ‘few people live to see their 84th birthday.’ There will be a Chaurasi – a reunion. Coming to the reunion are her two grand-daughters and two grand-sons.

Thirty-seven-year-old Bhagwati has just lost her job as a dishwasher at a local diner in Boulder, Colorado, in America, but she is happy. She will be seeing her grandmother for the first time since she left Gangtok 18 years earlier to elope with her boyfriend.

Agastaya is 34 years old and an oncologist in New York City, where he lives with Nicky Wells. He knows his grandmother is going to ask why he is not married.

Manasa, at 32, has a hedge-fund career in London. Married to Himal, she is a high-achiever, but miserable and a ‘cantankerous horror.’

The youngest grandson, Ruthwa, is a 31-year-old writer and a ‘boy trapped in a man’s body’ has been accused of plagiarism. Ruthwa does not like his grandmother: ‘She deserves to be in jail’ he says. He is only going to the reunion because he wants to write about Prasanti, his grandmother’s servant, who is a female eunuch.

They all converge in their birth town, but tensions arise, as they all want their grandmother’s blessing. Prasanti does too, but she makes ‘an unfortunate mistake, or was it deliberate?

‘The reunion was strange’ says Ruthwa, and indeed it was. The reminiscences, silences, vindictiveness, revenge, vindication, ‘a half-truth so heinous,’ a theft, and a tragedy are ‘tragedy’s way of unifying a family.’ The events of the reunion not only affect the grandchildren’s relationships with their grandmother, and their relationships with each other, but they also impact upon their relationships with their loved ones back in their respective countries.

This is a complicated family drama with all the nuances of strife and struggle, and the ways in which each person seeks acceptance, affirmation, and love.







MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing...
1 comment
Read more