Reading this novel was an incredible experience .Here Sankar
has put everything in thirty two chapters with each chapter dealing with
different problematic situations that Somnath faced till he get a job.
“The Middleman” is a heart touching story describing the
1970’s situation of Calcutta by Sankar which is a common man’s journey to earn
job and money. Pinches you deep on lifestyle of the urbanites of Calcutta and
focuses more on the vanishing values in the society. Actually Sankar’s novel
created a sensation in reader’s heart. So here we can say that characters of
novel are in accordance to the title. All the characters in novel, are at best sympathetic and
unsympathetic characters and are middle class men and middle class women. Every incident of this novel ring true to
life to me. All the characters are real people, their interaction and dialogues
are natural. He fairly addresses the existence of middle class prostitution and
of corrupt business professions.
Here being personal
readers may have many thoughts about the plot of novel, like the first question
arises here is that whether this is a true story? Some readers may think that
writer has done nothing but dressed up the truth in the garb of imagination
before presenting it at the salon of modern literature. Other may think that
real life is never like this. In their quest for popularity writers are ruining
the fabric of the nation by portraying fiction as truth. Actually i faced
similar experiences while reading “The Middleman” storms of controversy were
raised in favor of as well as against the novel in different circles around the
country. Actually this novel beautifully evokes a world of competitive
examination, newspaper classified job interviews, family pressures and
nepotism. At the same time we see the desperation of the people of Calcutta(similarly like the people who does not get a job
even after a lot of struggle with their
mediocre degrees) who left behind in this competitive environment in the race
of financial security, and does not get respect in society and family without a
job. Here I saw totally a new pattern in the beginning of the novel while I was
reading the line Let us leave him waiting there while we travel into his past
and acquaint ourselves with his family”. Actually many authors relates the
happening of present with the past but here Sankar’s style of writing totally
impressed me because in this novel we can see a sudden transition from present
to past which makes this novel really a different one and attracting.”The Middleman”
in Sankar’s word is a “disagreeable tale of contemporary reality”. Here we can
say that Sankar has projected Calcutta’s seamer side in this novel.
It is a story how Somnath Banarjee-the main protagonist,
learns the ropes in this cesspool and loses his innocence in this world of
cruelty and dishonesty. It is a story of city which can be thought like having
a war with itself: where all young men
who represent themselves as idealistic offer up prostitutes for their business favors.
These people lose their rationality in a agitation of their ambitious job
,searching and family pressure for their future,the secrets going on wives and
mother bathe genteel neighborhoods in a gray malaise,Lovers begs for their
chance and this disbelieving world, where no one has the right to be mediocre
without having tinkling noise of money in their pocket. It is Calcutta- a place
and a time that now seems to exist only in literature and memories. The curtain
goes up on Somnath, the son of a civil servant and brothers of two bright men
who are the picture of perfectionism, well educated, highly placed and
married-can be said as “settled”. Whereas Somnath is a struggler, an individual
seeking a place in this world which has its own ways of judgement methods for
such people, who failed to get a good job market with his mediocre degrees. The
tone darkens and horror piles up as Sukumar (Somnath’s friend in the
competitive world) goes insane when he didn't find a job urgently to support
his large family.
Sankar expertly describe the friendship of these two
hopefuls, Somnath and Sukumar. Sankar didn't fail to remind us of their
difference as Somnath didn't forget his duties to society and stood firmly till
he get a job whereas his friend went into the darkness of madness preparing for
competitive exams. Somnath steps into the human jungle with a firm
determination to become a successful businessman. He became an order-supplier
businessman, a middleman who will sell everything for a commission. He worked
as a middleman to sell everything like from selling elephant, wastepaper,
baskets –whatever is in the market, Somnath will seek his margin. Here the word
“Human Jungle” has a lot of meaning in itself like Somnath himself looked this
word in different meanings. He used this word in his poetry in a jolly sense
and in a bad sense when he was unable to find a job after a hard struggle. The
word “Human jungle” rightly defines the dilemmas and issues faced by many
people like Somnath in this modern world, with a lot of people trying to get
same thing, competing to get a same job, awards etc. It is all a matter of
taking shortcuts, public relations and contacts. After many attempts Somnath
realized that time is running out”If he couldn’t become a self reliant now,he
would no longer remain human.” Actually
if we think and look at today’s world then we can easily realize that not that
much has changed today but then it was a matter of life and death. Somnath
began to think that “ what is my fault? The only thing I haven’t been able to
do is to get a job”. Reading this statement seems like Somnath’s frustration is
at its peak.
So when he meets Biswanath Bose, who proposes him to try his
luck in business world. He names his company Somnath enterprise beginning very
modestly as “Middleman”. After a few knocks he discovers that in this world
everybody from police officers govt. tax inspectors and to executives in
private company are involved in corruption and realizes that this is endemic.
Every demand is fulfilled by cash, liquor and women.Simple and innocent Somnath
struggle helplessely in cut-throat competition. He meets Natabar mitra- a
flamboyant “Public Relation” man who doesn’t find it humiliating to arrange innocent girls for Calcutta’s
businessman for his comfort and business. According to him in this world desire
of money could make a mother give up a daughter to the trade(like Mrs Biswas
and her two daughters Rumu and Jhumu), a husband lead his wife in(like Mrs
Ganguly who was brought in this trade by his own husband to make money for his
liquor). Besides the stories of Mrs Chakraborty, Mrs Biswas’s daughters Rumu
and Jhumu, Mrs Ganguly or the students of Charandas’s telephone operating
school, Somnath got to know of the unbearable and humiliating experiences that
other women like Mrs Sinha experienced in Calcutta’s anglicized neighborhoods.
Through all
these situations Sankar unfolds all the frauds of high profile men and throws
light on shabby side of the city. Somnath Banerjee awakes to a new life of
corruption on his 25th birthday leaving behind his poetry. Whenever
he thinks about his job his ears go red. He was always having a strong willing
to take his enterprise to a new height. He hook a prostitute (who was actually
his friend’s sister) for a client to get his business deal. But after that he
looks up at the sky and prays for torrential rain to drown out his past, who he
was. As Somnath grows from an idealistic young man to a corrupt businessman,
the book becomes a gruesome portrait of the price the city extracts from its
youth. But in the end, he makes his bones and secure his future and a young
girl pay the price.
In a short
charming afterword’s to the novel, Sankar actually tells us how he himself
worked as a middleman in his pauperized youth, buying all kind of goods cheap
and selling them for higher. Although this novel is written in a very smooth
and undecorated and unimaginative style. One would have to draw a diagram of
the novel’s plot to realize the feelings and see dexterously Somnath’s
encounters with the different people in his life. Here we can easily see the
shuttling between home and the world are laid out. I think that Sankar knows
that a story is a kind of thought that a man can have in his mind imagining a
natural scene. This book really has tense moments, some pungent ones. A few
scenes that movingly highlighted Somnath’s innocence and some brilliant
passages especially in last 90 or so pages that engraved the dark, rotten and
somewhat uncompromising get extremely bendable and lustful side of the city.
And Sankar’s
epilogue in the end which reveals that many of the incidents were based on the
experiences that he was a witness to or undergone himself; makes the book more
fascinating.
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