Wednesday 31 October 2012

BOOK REVIEW -- "THE MIDDLEMAN" by MANI SANKAR MUKHERJEE .


The story begins in a time when work and marriage were the defining points in the lives of men and women respectively, a matter of life and death. 1970s, Calcutta.
The protagonist, Somnath Banerjee, enters searching for a whore on the sixteenth of June, his birthday. As he is standing on the roadside waiting for his guide in that world to show up, we are taken to journey down memory lane to see what events led up to this point where "the youngest son of a superannuated gazetted government officer was about to begin his search for a whore".
Somnath's household is a typical middle class Bengali one, with two elder brothers doing exceeding well in their respective lives, both married, a deceased mother and a father who feels responsible for Somnath's relatively unsuccessful life. He has a charming relationship with his "boudi" i.e. his eldest brother's wife, Kamala. She is the only one in the family who empathizes with his troubles and encourages him to follow his dreams, occasionally lending him money in secret to do so. She believes that he will succeed as an employee, businessman and even as a poet. Some of the most beautiful scenes in the book transpire between Somnath and Kamala.
His father is particularly worried about him as Somnath's responsibility was given to him by his late wife and he is apprehensive about disappointing her. He tries his best, in his own distant and uncommunicative way to help Somnath.
The major struggle, rather the only struggle in Somnath's life is his inability to find a job which renders him a passive member of the house as he feels he has no claim to even a cup of tea there. He becomes flaccid even in his effort to look for a job as he feels that none are available and starts believing in his own poem that society is but a "human jungle". Since he has the basic commodities of life, he does not need a job and has no obligation  to find one, he is therefore, failing in his efforts to find any, or so he is told. His feeling of failure is heightened when he receives a letter from Tapati, the girl he wanted to marry since college, who incidentally is doing well in her field. She wants to help him, provide for him even but his ego does not allow him to take assistance from a woman, especially the woman he wanted to provide for himself.
In desperation, he starts a business on one table of a crowded room of getting consignments for people with certain commodities and earning a commission in the process and then we get a peek into the seedy underbelly of the city. As he begins his journey as "the middleman", the book becomes a macabre portrait of the price the city extracts from its youth.
He begins to learn that there are sects within each business and the Punjabis, the Sindhis, the Gujaratis all protect their own and there is no place for a Bengali businessman between them. To thrive, or rather to survive he has to cut corners, give bribes and smooth talk his way around authorities, he discovers, and that is when he truly gets entangled in the web of corruption.
The climax of the novel is crafted around Somnath's twenty fourth birthday. His father gives him an ultimatum: he is to marry a girl "with a slight defect in her left hand", and would be given a cement shop in return or he is to fend for himself thereafter with no assistance from the family . Tapati needs an answer from him as she is being pressured upon by her family to get married but he doesn't want her to end up with a lout like him who cannot even afford himself. Also, the product he has to sell is sitting in warehouses as his last chance of getting a consignment is to satisfy the carnal lusts of a Mr. Goenka.
In a desperate attempt to save face among his family, acquaintances and Tapati, he prostitutes an innocent girl to secure a contract for Somnath Enterprises. The girl turns out to be the sister of his friend Sukumar, the only son in a family of eight. His portrayal is also very powerful as the man who does not fit into society and is kicked out, destroyed, vanquished without a second thought and the city moves on not caring that one of its own has fallen.
"A veil had descended on the city. It wasn't very late, but Somnath felt as though the sun had suddenly set on impenetrable forest, giving way to a dangerous darkness."
The Somnath after this incident is an empty shell of a man without any propensity of emotion, or so we are led to believe.
"Beside herself with joy, Kamala unwrapped the first-ever gift from her youngest brother-in-law...
...No sooner had she left than Somnath called her in a stricken voice, 'Boudi!'
'You mustn't put that sari on,' Somanth was anguished. 'It's very dirty,' he stammered. 'It was clean when I bought it this morning, but it got dirty in the evening. It's got all kinds of filth on it, you mustn't put it on.' "
The last few chapters are brilliantly written. They explore the sleaze of the city and deftly describe the inner battle, frustration and helplessness which lead Somnath to a path he does not wish to tread, one where the values with which he had been brought up are compromised.  It’s a wonderful character study, portraying stark reality, the peek into the equations within the family and his rise and fall as a human being.
This book really had some tense moments, some poignant ones, a few scenes that movingly highlighted Somnath’s naiveté and the dark, rotten, uncompromising yet extremely pliable side of the city. And Sankar's epilogue in the end, which reveals that many of the incidents were based on experiences that he was a witness to or undergone himself, makes the book more fascinating.
"Let him cry", is the finale of the book and also of Somnath Banerjee, ideal student, jobless.


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