A third person account follows of a retired schoolmaster’s struggle to survive in post-independent India.
Kamal, the pretty twelve-year-old daughter of a poor farmer catches the eye of a wealthy landowner who takes her as his wife. She finds herself a jewel-bedecked slave to her husband’s wishes and enters a world of cold marble, class-wars, stolen friendships and domestic intrigue.
For Milan every day is a struggle against poverty, apathy and injustice. Yet he continues to remain idealistic in his dusty, threadbare world.
The two stories are separated by time but both address issues of alienation and identity. The title of the book reflects the natures of its two main protagonists. Like Silverfish both are attracted to the printed word and centre their lives around books.
Kamal is hungry for knowledge. As a woman subject to a strict code of conduct in a highly traditional (and malicious) household, she is denied letters and has to resort to stealing her young son’s textbook to try and teach herself the alphabet. Milan is a has-been writer, whose thirst for justice in a injust world is surpassed only by his thirst for literature.
The two tales have been typecast in different fonts to underline their individuality. The prose feels different too.
Whereas the story about Kamal is a sparkling, vibrant one full of vivid imagery, the tale of the retired schoolmaster is a stark and plodding one.
You may be tempted to skip Milan’s story and read Kamal at one go, an action facilitated by the difference in fonts; but it is better on the whole to stick to the narrative sequence of the book. The illuminations that are built into the plot are more effective this way.
There is a rather irritating overstatement of imagery in some places. A preoccupation with style cuts out on content. The author spends so much time rendering the two stories sombre or vivacious that he forgets to focus on deeper meaning.
Other than this a commendable first attempt by Saikat Majumdar. The beautiful red and silver cover also lends character to the book.
Silverfish
Saikat Majumdar
HarperCollins
2007, pp 293, Rs 295.
