Difficult Pleasures, Anjum Hasan, Penguin Viking, 2012.
‘Difficult
Pleasures’ is a masterful collection of thirteen short stories from the
accomplished Indian writer Anjum Hasan. These are stories about the secret pleasures
that the heart yearns for- the longing to escape and belong and the desire to
be free. In the end, what the odd protagonists who potter about these
landscapes encounter is pain and loss, as they struggle with the difficulty of
keeping their pleasures intact. Once out
in the open, all secret desires are moulded by the rough hands of life; it is a
freewheeling ride that is at once ambitious, full of surprises and often disastrous. Hasan weaves her stories
tenderly with her fragile ‘heroes’, who may not withstand the assault of
reality on their vulnerable dreams. What binds these characters together is
that they are lonely and tethered to their ordinary lives till an extraordinary
adventure takes over and they are stranded in an alien land, they comprehend
only after confrontation. What follow is terrific excitement and an
unpredictable dénouement, that makes this book ‘unputdownable’.
Three
stories in the collection are about the life and dreams of young children.
Hasan skilfully sketches the fears and prayers in a child’s heart. In ‘Wild
Things’ Prasad Yelagodu is caught in a nightmare called K.P. Kattimani High
School, where he is perpetually unsure of what is right and what is wrong. He
is a misfit from the beginning, wont to break rules and get caught. His lessons
are meaningless to him; his mind is full of other exciting ideas. On an impulse
he runs away from his village, stealing his mother’s savings to the glamour of
the city. His wild dream lasts a night and as he returns home he is full of his
adventure, happily oblivious to the tantrums of his future. The second story
‘Hanging on like death’ is about Neel, of how he made it to the school play and
what he yearns for more than anything on that perfect day on which he performs.
‘Birds’ is the story of little Samir as he is transplanted to a new home and
life, which he is powerless to escape from. All the three stories are full of
pathos, of children caught in a strong adult world that they decide to overcome
with the power and pure force of a child’s instincts.
There
are five stories with women as protagonists. A young woman negotiates her
status and her future in an alien city in ‘For Love or Water’. A daughter
returns home heartbroken and realises that her life may turn out exactly like
her mother’s in ‘Good Housekeeping’. A young wife leaves her husband on an
impulse and embarks on a thrilling journey only to be ensnared in other kinds
of dangers in ‘Eye in the Sky’. A schizophrenic double life and the terror it
holds is disarmingly portrayed in ‘The History of Touch’. Easily the best story
of the collection, ‘The Big picture’ is about a lonely middle aged woman on the
throes of a new threshold in life.
The
stories in this collection reveal a universe that confronts the inevitable pain
that holds out for the unusually liberated. Hasan is a writer who is not afraid
to follow her ‘unlikely heroes’ who are faltering at every step in their lives.
The languid pace of narration that lucidly brings out the conflicts and
confused rebellions of her imperfect characters reveals the author at her best.
That she portrays her characters empathetically and their daring in a haunting,
almost lyrical way deserves praise and attention. Hasan’s competent portrayal
of pathos and despair with a dash of wry humour, firmly establishes her as ‘one
of the most suggestive and subtle Indian writers of her generation’ as the
writer Amit Chaudhuri described her. These stories will indeed speak to a
generation in new and exciting ways.
