JOIN USThe Yard
Aliyyah Eniath
Speaking Tiger
2016, pp 272, RS 350
Set in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Aliyyah Eniath’s debut novel, The Yard, depicts the childhood friendship of two loners, Behrooz and Maya, also the adopted children of Father Khalid. The Yard, a large compound, houses six families — Father Khalid and his four siblings, and Sakina, their widowed and old mother.
Eniath presents the lives of the East Indians whose forefathers came from India to Trinidad through the British colonial indentureship in the 1900s. Even though the families have adapted to a new culture, some links to the Indian way of life are alive. Living in the same courtyard, the members of the extended family echo the essence of Indian joint-families, where anything that occurs within the yard is everyone’s business.
A hue and cry is raised when Father Khalid brings home an orphan boy (Behrooz) who has forgotten his past. The family immediately takes a disliking to him, and is suspicious of his past. But the kind-hearted father and his wife, Mother Dianne, decide to bring him up as their own.
Seeds of disharmony sprout more when the wilful and rebellious daughter, Maya, begins to like Behrooz, and the two become inseparable. Many in their family profess the possibility of Behrooz forging a clandestine relationship with Maya, who is not romantically forbidden to him under Islamic law. Even though the two never declare their feelings, they are acutely aware of their emotions for each other.
Nothing short of a Bollywood drama, the book takes an unexpected turn when, after a night of adolescent attraction, Maya leaves to London, shattering Behrooz’s dreams of ‘living together ever after’. As she devotes herself to hone her artistic talents and makes friends in the alien city, Behrooz marries his loyal girlfriend, Sara, and fathers two children. This very-possible ending takes another turn when they meet again in the yard, due to Father Khalid’s death. Maya is steeped in guilt for not visiting him earlier.
The tension in the relationship between Behrooz, Maya and Sara is paramount, and Sara struggles with her equilibrium on seeing her husband and Maya under the same roof. However, Behrooz remains dutiful toward his family and responsibilities, and sensing his wife’s psychological trauma, leaves the yard without informing anyone.
Maya’s oscillation between her love for Behrooz and her acceptance of his unreachable status refuses her peace. Having moved back to her family home to give her widowed mother company, she has to bear the brunt of the evils of joint-family life. Life does give her a second chance to forget Behrooz and start anew with Edward, but Maya has realised that she’s too bound to her childhood friend to give room to any other man in her heart.
With much family drama and twists and turns, Eniath’s book crosses several years of time zone before it reaches its climax. To the reader, the ending would seem too good to be true. The author, who can be given credit for creating memorable characters and a captivating plot, seems to not have done justice to the story’s ending.
It’s not the only shaky block in her plot. Some of her characters, like Father Khalid and Mother Dianne, seem too saintly to be true. Their acceptance of Behrooz, whose past remains unknown throughout the story, and their tolerance toward the feelings of the two youngsters under their roof, seem quite improbable, given their family environment.
But these are trifling issues. Eniath’s debut venture is commendable for her balanced portrayal of religious extremism. Her perspective on religious ideologies borders on her understanding that compassion creates a better world. Even though the forbidding environment of violence poses a threat to Maya and Behrooz, the benevolence of their parents makes life easy for them.
The author is keen to express the necessity to discard forced borders, and to overcome hindrance to understand oneself better.