Manoje Nath, an IPS officer from the 1973 Bihar batch, has penned a collection of 10 stories in Tales from Banana Republic that are linked by the common theme of fatuity and corruption of power and, casts an amused look at those who wield it.
The book, both witty and profound, delves into how the elite can easily compromise their ideals for selfish ends and how society constantly recalibrates its stance. Known as an officer who served as an exemplar of fairness by applying the law without fear or favour, Nath took whatever came his way on his chin. Frequent transfers and disciplinary proceedings did not deter him.
Manoje Nath has penned a collection of 10 stories in Tales from Banana Republic that are linked by the common theme of fatuity and corruption of power. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“I have been eager to get to this stage where I could write about it, but I am also overwhelmed by a growing sense of terror because one can never be sure of what the reader wants,” he says during an interview in Delhi.
Excerpts:
The IPS officer’s book, both witty and profound, delves into how the elite can easily compromise their ideals for selfish ends. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
What made you write Tales from Banana Republic?
Even after 75 years of independence, have we produced a police force that maintains a character divergent from the government of the day? I wanted to write about the perils that face a police officer who fancies himself an agent of law but at every step finds himself at variance with the organisational culture.
So, where is this Banana Republic?
O Henry’s Anchuria, original banana republic where, “Outside in the shade of the lime-trees the crew chewed sugar cane or slumbered, well content to serve a country that was contented with so little service,” might have been describing a normal day in our country; in government offices, in banks, in customer care centres, even in the emergency wards of hospitals. We see people well content to serve a country that was contented with so little service.
Banana Republic in its historical context refers to a specific economic and political trope created by and in service of U.S. interests. Kleptocracy, legislators for sale, the phony majesty of the sovereign citizen, intolerance to the stories contrary to officially ordained truth are now the givens in democracies. I have used the banana republic term because of its association, in my mind, with the whimsies of power which leaves a diminished democracy, a dysfunctional system, a deranged society.
Why did you resort to humour?
In uniformed service, one always came across people so hung up on issues of form, seniority and protocol that they lost sight of everything else. The senior was also a junior to someone and the ease with which people slipped down or climbed up into their roles of subservience and superciliousness never ceased to amuse me.
‘We only joke to avoid an issue with someone. Humour is the most engaging cowardice’, said Robert Frost’. So lampooning and ludic caricature were the only weapons to available to a junior officer to get back at the system.
You say the stories do not lampoon any particular public figure, but dwell on character traits of those who wield power. They must have been drawn from real life?
I have not consciously lampooned anyone. Of course, one draws upon what one sees around. The permeability of the boundary between your own experience, fiction and information absorbed from a welter of other sources as the stuff of fiction is an accepted fact. Of many, a particularly funny incident stuck to my memory. A nonentity of an officer, courting this man’s favour and that man’s forgiveness, rose to become the police chief. Post-retirement, he was given an extension in instalments of three months each which he greedily accepted. All official activity came to a halt as he, along with his courtiers, waited for the message giving him the lease of life.
On a particular occasion, the message of another extension was received few minutes before midnight. Apocalypse Postponed may have its origin in this idea, but I am not sure.
Who do you think would be your readers?
I write for people like myself, for kindred citizens, befuddled by the system, lost in this maze that is both maddening and easily lends itself to mockery.
What were the challenges you faced as a fiercely independent officer?
The greatest challenge for police was, has been, and shall remain to be - applying law as if all citizens were equal before law
I have used the banana republic term because of its association, in my mind, with the whimsies of power which leaves a diminished democracy, a dysfunctional system, a deranged society, says the former DGP of Bihar. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
