Book review | The City and the Sea, Raj Kamal Jha

The author Raj Kamal Jha has attempted a very different form of writing to bring home the tragedy of the life of Nirbhaya, as the Prologue starts with, “My name I cannot tell. There is a law in my land to protect me, to ensure that I am not shamed...” This 2012 Delhi gang rape horrified the nation and brought in an almost unhealthy preoccupation with the rapists, primarily the juvenile one, who was the most violent of them all and showed “no remorse.”

There was a huge outcry for him to be treated as an adult and even a demand for a repealing of the Juvenile Justice Act, whilst civil rights activists warned of repercussions for the future, if that were to come to pass. In this novel, the author’s attempt at offering redemption to this misguided juvenile is as intriguing as is the manner in which he explores the story starting with a quote from Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, which says, “A certain percentage, they tell us, must every year go the devil so that the rest may remain chaste, and not be interfered with.”

Whilst many authors might employ literary non-fiction, to tell a true story, Jha has attempted the unusual style of magic realism, which needs some getting used to. It may also take the reader a while to figure out that this is an alternate reality where neither the city, nor the sea that are referred to in the title, are what they seem.

The protagonist, who is a child, writes in the first person and so remains unnamed, as do others who just appear in the roles that they play: father, mother, son, except for young December, who slides up the wall and takes the child on a trip to find his lost mother.

The mother in the novel is referred to as Ma, and as the story progresses she takes on many other identities, which reflect the different realities of every human being.Whilst most of the story focuses around this rape, the term does not appear even once in the narrative. There is a haunting quality that pervades the novel, and whilst it delves into tragic real-life events, the author uses language magically and with positive nuances...

“She told me once that she took these things, kindness and courage, strength and beauty, mixed them up, put the mixture out under the night sky to catch some moonlight, some stardust, and a few drops of rain, freshly fallen, which she then whisked with the December wind before she poured it into the blood that filled me up.” A large part of the story is to do with the life of the minor rapist, as Jha attempts to flesh out a life of deprivation and hardship that could have resulted in this child turning out in the way that he does.

There seem to be shades of Arvind Adiga’s The White Tiger in reflecting on the class struggle of Indian society, with Jha deploring the inequalities that deny so many their basic rights, most of all children. There is an activist questioning that runs throughout the novel and one wonders whether the author, who is also the editor of a noted Indian newspaper, is trying to seek redemption for himself.

The Ma in the story is a newspaper copy editor who goes about clinically reporting on the horrors of other people’s lives, until one day her life turns topsy-turvy.

Perhaps, it is the author’s attempt to give life to other people’s tragedies in a manner that the factual reporting of a story cannot do. Or maybe, it is an assuaging of the sense of helplessness that comes from a daily contact with life’s sordid realities... or even an attempt at resisting the sense of jadedness that may be consequential to such an exposure.

In the case of Nirbhaya, sometimes one gets the sense that the author is pressing the point, though his constant reference to the victim’s clothes — black leggings, black jacket, cream-coloured shirt, red scarf — is clearly indicative of the manner in which a woman’s clothing often comes into play, as justification for a rape.

But Jha’s attempts at interlinking other victims, like refugees on a boat or the child victims of the shootout in Sandy Hook make for an interesting variation in theme, with a thread of hope running through. When spotting Nirbhaya, a man on a boat points out to her and says, “Like us, she has fought a war of her own, like us she has suffered and tears run in her blood... but look at her, she still goes on, she still fights, as strong and fearless as she ever was, she will not forget but she forgives...” This is a deeply-thought-out story with suspense thrown in and worth a thorough read.