Thursday 26 December 2013

Difficult Pleasures









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.