The Nalanda Chronicles is different, because it takes you from the mundane to the bizarre and then brings you back, rather the worse for wear with a load of questions in your head. Written by Kalpish Ratna, a pseudonym for Kalpana Swaminathan and Ishrat Syed, who have a joint surgical practice in Mumbai. And that could well explain the surgical precision in the use of words and the style of writing.
November 27, 1998; a quarter to eight. It's a day like any other at the Nalanda Co-op Housing Society. Slowly people begin to gather in front of the Care and Cure Chemist. They are the people from Nalanda and every morning they share a minibus to Nariman Point were they work and travel back in the evening.
Starting point
The idea of organising a minibus to commute to work came from Mr. Thomas. But it's not easy to get a seat on this bus. It's not about the money; it's just that some people are chosen and the others rejected! The bus comes up and all of them get in: Nitin Pai, the artist in residence who has designed the logo for the bus; Dinaz Vakil and her husband Arshad. There is also Muralidharan who started a Carry Home Cash Scheme in which Arshad has invested. Also travelling in the minibus are Francis Figueredo, always referred to as the spy; Gauri Kamath who is expecting and the constantly worrying mother, Farheen, and her cousin Sheba. But perhaps the two who contribute the most to the minibus being ‘interesting' are Maya and Arun. Maya is madly in love with Arun.
And so the bus winds its way to Nariman Point. Only, today something else happens en route. The bus gets hijacked! Everything happens all at once. Thoughts and memories, secret lives and family stories all come tumbling out.
Brilliant writng
The Nalanda Chronicles is a charming novella with a tinge of comic and tragedy that only brilliant writing can make apparent. Every sentence, every thought is conveyed with precision and accuracy. The characters are but briefly sketched but you get a whole three-dimension view of them.
Through their narration Kalpish Ratna give you a glimpse of the harsh reality of life as we know it today - the bitter hatred that one harbours, the insinuations, the slights and misconceptions. And finally how easy it is to dispense with people just so that your safety and security is not breached.
The novella begins on a happy note with everything going according to plan. But a few pages later, you plunge into the dark depths of a dangerous world, before surfacing to daylight and reason. But do things remain the same? Can life continue as before? Can questions go unanswered? Are lives as unconnected as we think they are? These are a few of the questions that you are left with at the end of the reading. Short and crisp, superbly written, this novella is skilfully crafted.
The Nalanda Chronicles;Kalpish Ratna, Tranquebar, Rs. 150
