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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