Title : The Lives of Others

Author : Neel Mukherjee

SOC Rating : 5/5

Genre : Historical Fiction/Fiction

Publisher : W.W Norton Company and Penguin Random House

Publishing Year : 2015

#Pages : 528

Sunil Gangopadhay should have met Neel Mukherjee. He would have liked The Lives Of Others very much indeed. On very few occasions have I ever felt so helpless and anxious while reading a novel. I felt a similar kind of feeling when I had read 'Sei Samay' by Sunil Gangopadhyay. You want the seasons of pain to subside fast and when you come across tidbits of happiness, your joy vanishes in a second, thinking that something terrible is going to come up next.  I was in a trance when I read this book, and it took me a week to get over it. Even in this review, which is more of an outlet of my feelings regarding this book, I am not able to do my best I guess; all because I am too overwhelmed.

Adinath - is the eldest of the Ghosh sons. In every family back in those days, the eldest son was a matter of pride for the parents so much so that the moment he was born his father placed all his hopes and dreams on his little shoulders. Adinath wasn’t aware of what was awaiting him, he spent his childhood sharing a distant yet loving relationship with his father. Things took a turn when Adinath wanted to study Mechanical Engineering, but his father wouldn’t listen of it. Charu Paper Mills had to go on, and Adinath would hold the reigns. It is at this point of time, that Adinath started fading away to himself, slowly at the beginning, then expeditiously in his middle age. Everyone saw the ideal son Adinath portrayed to be, nobody saw the hollow within him.

Arrogance –  is one of the vertebrae in the backbone of this novel. Arrogance reeks everywhere. Arrogance is an integrated element within the human being. It just has different expressions. With every class you will find a different method of expression. Within every relationship there is a different way of expressing arrogance. Arrogance between a business man and the world, arrogance between an aunt and niece, arrogance between the chief helper and the lowly maids, arrogance between revolutionaries and common people. It seems like expression of arrogance is an art.

Bholanath – the third brother is the simpleton among all. Always a little neglected by his parents, always the cause of worry for his parents too, as his incompetence caused a financial loss too many at a time when business was already tumbling. When he was a child he used to babble with his youngest brother and keep him calm. His parents didn’t really care about him much and put him in a school which wasn’t in the list of schools parents would be rushing for to give their sons an education. Bholanath is by far the most insignificant character.

Baisakhi – if words may permit then she is one sassy chick. Back in those days, reading books for ‘adults’ was a strict no no. I remember my mother telling me that she got smacked by her father when he found her reading a romantic novel by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhay in their home library, at the young age of 11. She didn’t understand anything of whatever little she had started to read and neither did she understand why she got a thorough scolding for reading a book. She realised both when she was 17. I was reminded of this when I read Baisakhi sneaking the pujo shankha full of romantic stories up to the terrace. At her present age she knew she wouldn’t be reprimanded for reading it, but had it been a couple of years earlier then God could only help her. She is sassy why? Love affairs, walking hand in hand with your lover, being caught in a tight embrace were unspeakable, unthinkable and also undoable to an extent. But then love has no boundaries and Baisakhi’s was of a lightly adventurous kind. Every afternoon she would go up on the terrace to catch her Romeo smoke a cigarette on the adjacent terrace. Shirt unbuttoned till the waist, showing the planes of his chest with a smattering of hair, a golden chain glittering around his neck, tousled curly hair and purple puckered lips was all that Baisakhi was enchanted with. She didn’t care that he was a troublemaker, flunked in his college and ran a catering business. All she could see was the manliness in him. Her Romeo knew she ogled him every day and took action during Durga Pujo, a season ripe with love. Being caught in a passionate embrace behind the para pandal was everything a scandal needed. The next phase included being grounded at home with constant rattling of how Baisakhi has taken all the measures to blacken the Ghosh’s name, and the phases ended with her marriage to her Romeo. This is all that Baisakhi’s young life had seen.

Bold – boldness is often encountered here. The son of the chief helper of the Ghosh family, turned against the people who offered him and his father a living, against the people who taught him, clothed him and trusted him. A bold move. The eldest grandson runs away from home, leaves the luxurious life and becomes a revolutionist. A bold move. A boy falls in love with his uncle’s young widow; a bold move. Baisakhi has the guts to defy her family and flirt with her man; a bold move. You shall find many more, when you will read it for yourself.

Brothers – relationships between siblings are always special and each of them are of a different kind. The younger child always looks upto the elder one and tries to imitate him or her. For the young mind, the elder one is an idol, is a role model; someone they can depend upon when they are in need of help.

But Supratik and Suranjan, the two sons of Adinath had an estranged relation. One brother found solace in the hazy world of drugs and weed, the other brother had his own head hazy with ideas for a better world. What happens when the elder one vanishes suddenly without any preamble? The younger one has no one to tell things that bother him; thereby spiralling down uncharted roads. When the elder returns, again without any preamble, he is shocked to see what his brother has turned into and no amount of elder sibling dominance can bring him back. Why? Because where was he when his brother needed him the most?   

The four sons of Prafullanath too had an awkward predicament. Adinath was never attached to his siblings. Being the eldest he found it childish to play with his brothers. Also when his youngest brother was born, he looked at him in disgust. Adinath had grown up considerably and he had come to know the procedure of reproduction, so whenever he saw his cherubic little brother, bile rose to his throat thinking that his parents had engaged themselves in something so vile at this age. Bholanath was someone for whom nobody cared, in fact the only feeling his brothers possessed towards him was that of irritation. The mistakes he made would have to be recovered by either Adinath or Priyonath and that is why he was never thought of someone significant. The fourth and the youngest brother Somnath had some connection with Chaya and Priyonath, but that too faded away as he grew up since it wasn’t a connection based on love.

It seems unnatural to see that children who have grown up with each other can have such loose ties of relationships. However, deep down none of them would probably leave each other, which shows that the knot maybe loose but the thread isn’t weak.      

Chaya – named so after her complexion, this woman has led a pretty complicated life. In this world, where the fairer tone is lusted for and the darker tone is spitted at, Chaya led a life full of insecurities due to her awkward duskiness. Highly educated, wonderful singer and slightly squinted, this arrogant lady couldn’t find a husband for her. Her parents took her to every studio possible, to click pictures where her eyes didn’t stare at different directions; but none worked. Besides they were too proud to give their daughter away to what they deemed as undeserving candidates. Every rejection stabbed her heart like needles. These needles caused her to bleed at first, but slowly slowly the blood ebbed away and rendered her entire heart raw and sensitive. Any remark directly aimed at her on not, she was sure to turn it her way and emotionally blackmail others. A cunning woman you could say. She was also of a cynical and sadistic kind. She liked hurting others, liked putting them into trouble, gained pleasure out of their discomfort. She was the one who dragged Baisakhi’s father to see what the girl was upto when she saw her standing alone behind the pandal. She also shared a strange bond with her brother Priyonath. Very close in age, they were also very close in heart. However their love is of a questionable kind. You could not give a name to their love. It was somewhere in between that of siblings and of lovers, tilting more towards the latter.Several incidences will definitely make you think that affection is unnatural for two siblings. Due to this reason, Purnima, wife of Priyonath was never in the good books of Chaya. She was always jealous of Purnima and her stomach churned whenever she thought of her brother getting intimate with his wife. She couldn’t stand it if Priyo gave expensive gifts to Purnima. Chaya, a woman who has faced negativity in the intial years of her life, has her attitude turned so sour that she tends to cast a ‘chaya’ (shadow) on the lives of the people around her; as if she survives on their woes.

Change and Communism – we all know that change is the only thing that is constant in our lives, yet we are apprehensive of it. We want to resist it. When the waves of a new change come rushing at us, we run in fear, we criticise it, we detest it, because when the waves hit the shore, they take away a chunk of it and slowly slowly smoothen the remnants, just to strike again. Similarly when Kolkata is witnessing Communism, lives are ripped apart. Adinath loses his eldest son, the Ghosh’s lose money and their mills, the villagers who have gone hungry for years cannot believe that people who want to help them and change their lives exist  – all because of Communism.

Charubala – The mother of the entire Ghosh family, is how we see mothers to be. Worrying about everyone in the family, blind towards her children’s faults, being the CFO of the family and overlooking everything in the household with her eldest daughter-in-law as her assistant. She is even called Maa by all the domestic helpers of the house. Even though she is shown to be a caring woman, she treats Purnima as an outsider and Purba as scum. She believes that Purnima’s low caste is in her blood and her tongue spews venom. But her anger and hatred towards her youngest daughter-in-law is more personal. She detests her because after getting married to her, her beloved youngest son died a gruesome death.   

Dulal – is someone whom the Ghosh’s consider to be ‘namak haram’; a traitor. Just because he is the son of the most adored domestic help of the Ghosh’s, they took him into their business to look after the labourers and manage them. Once he grew up and learned the ropes of the factory, another head spawned from his shoulders.  When the manager of the factory lost his working arm in a tragic accident, the Ghosh’s fired him as they found him no longer useful. This however turned out as the opening through which Dulal wanted to strike at the Ghosh’s and enrage the common people against the wealthy in the society.

Emotional – You may have seen potters working and noticed that while they make the pots  they hold the structure very carefully between their hands as the needle spins crazily. The potter’s hands are a mess, his face too is splattered with mud but then he holds what he is making with nimble fingers; gently. Neel Mukherjee has done this with our emotions. In a ruckus of emotions he has made a mess in our minds very carefully. He has detailed the feelings so well, that you can instantly relate with it. You say ‘Yes I know what this feels like. Oh my God, this is exactly what happens’ in your mind. The emotions in this book are mind wrecking and body wrecking  too. Every time you finish a chapter it feels like you have just run a mile. Your heart pounds that way. At times you just want to stop, because you cannot take the anticipation anymore. But then it is this anticipation that prods you to go back and turn the pages again.

The flaws in the urban system, the flaws within you and me, the flaws among the uneducated, flaws among the simpletons, flaws in being morally correct, flaws in the political system, flaws within a family, the flaws of a great mind – all have been highlighted.

We know that this world believes in the Give and Take policy. Nobody gives anything without any conditions. But there are some people living in this world, who just want to give.

Ashish Roy, the mad math man had lost everything in his life, except his incredible aptitude in maths. When he found Sona, a child prodigy in maths, he wanted to train the child and get nothing in return. He wanted to teach him, give him the exposure he needed, give him the knowledge he earned for.

Supratik wanted to give a better life to the deprived people of the villages. Their poverty and kindness made him cry, their torturers – the zamindars, made his blood boil. All he wanted to do was to give them some substance to live on.

Honour is a big word. The Ghosh family had honour and wielded their power to keep their honour. Prafullanath worked hard to build this honour. He believes  showcasing his financial prowess will bring him honour and can you really blame him? Don’t we all believe that he who has money and power has honour? He demands honour from every sphere. Be it the workers in his factory or the policemen with whom he is on incredibly good terms. For him spending incredulous amounts of money on his son’s marriage is a matter of honour.

Supratik believes honour is gained by doing what you believe in.

Purnima believes that with gold comes honour. Increase in the number of golden ornaments is directly proportional to increase in honour.

When Priyonath gets humiliated in a brothel, all he can think about is his honour that will go down the drains if people get to know.

Chaya thinks rubbing of her knowledge in books will bring her honour.

Sona grows up to receive several honours but doesn’t acknowledge them.

Madan da holds a honoured position in the house. Major decisions in the kitchen are taken with only his permission.

In all our lives we give importance to certain things and certain people. Beyond them we are oblivious of any other happenings at times. For the benefit of such people or ideals we often take measures we didn’t intend to, go to such lengths that there can be no return. Like when Supratik had stolen a family heirloom and put the blame on the person on whose lap he had spent his childhood. For him his ideals were more important than subjecting a person who loved him to humiliation and pain.

Jealousy is a very funny feeling. It is not absolute like love or hatred. You are floating somewhere in between. For jealousy, love and hatred are interlinked. And in a joint family, love is always interlaced with jealousy. It is always present. Comparison will always be there, and that will always lead to the Big J.

Chaya is always jealous of Purnima. She is jealous of the intimacy she shares with her brother. She is angered by their privacy, as she has lost hers with him.

Purnima is jealous of Adinath and his wife. She feels Adinath is given more preference than her husband and he is going to rake away all the business money and leave her family to beg. She is jealous of her mother-in-law’s jewellery and is always on the lookout for an opportunity to make them hers. 

When the youngest son of Prafullanath was born, he was a beautiful sight to behold. The best looking child of Prafullanath, he was considered. His beauty however didn’t go down very well; especially with Chaya. He was the apple of his parents’ eye. His every move was looked after and cared for. This excessive show of affection for the child wasn’t favoured by Chaya. She thought that just because he looked good her mother loved him more than her. So out of sheer jealousy she and Priyo made the little boy purposefully walk on the hot terrace slowly to make his delicate soles break out in blisters. When Charbula saw her baby boy’s feet, she realised that this wasn’t an act of childish folly.

Kolkata during the late 19 and early 20th century has been highlighted beautifully. The political upheaval which made Kolkata burst at the seams and ripped apart families and uprooted lives has been described painstakingly well. There was a time when people resembling sticks had to come to Kolkata from their villages in the hope of some food. They went from house to house just to get the slimy starchy gruel thrown away while cooking rice. They had flocked the city like house flies . But the number of hungry people that thronged the city grew to such an extent that the city houses could not give them enough of that thick gruel either. As a result they lay on the roadsides, lifeless, without the ability or desire to move. Crows hovered over their heads thinking that they were already dead. They picked on the skin and eyes of living people who did not have the energy to cry out in pain and move them away. They died while they were being pecked at, their spouses or children just stared at them, as they were equally helpless.

While this was the scenario on the roads of Kolkata, what was going on in the houses of Kolkata was a different and affluent affair. When Supratik had returned home he had asked his mother doesn’t the poverty bother her? To that she said, it doesn’t affect the rich so why should we be bothered?

Kolkata is always known as the city which talks and never does. Here we see that there are some people who want to put their words to action. But there are more number of people who oppose that.

Kolkata people are not renowned as businessmen. They are known to be too lazy, too egotistical. While there are men who are willing to turn their blood into water to set up their business and do so like Prafullanath, at times their progeny do not realise the potential of an already running business or their interests lie elsewhere. As there is a touch of liberality in Kolkata, there are loopholes in the restrictions. Due to this reason individuals cannot imagine themselves to be running on the same wheel as their parents or others. So the desire to run their father’s business is not integrated in their blood.

Kolkata gives birth to some great minds, some great literati. We get substantial proof here.

Love is there in every relationship.

But Neel Mukherjee shows love in an unnatural relationship too.

When a young boy of seven or eight years sees a beautiful girl who is about seven years elder to him come to their house, he is bound to feel enthusiastic. This young girl was his ‘kaki’, the wife of his youngest uncle. He was the only one closest to her age. Both of them grew up together. The young boy sees that his young ‘kaki’ is not loved by his uncle, in spite of being a beautiful and homely girl. On the early demise of his uncle he witnessed the humiliation she faced. He saw how she was made responsible for her husband’s death. Unknowingly this boy had developed a kind of affection which was more than appropriate for him to have for his aunt. He respected her, loved her and cared for her. His love was not for her body only. The only touch he had ever received from her was when she silently went up to the terrace to put her clothes on the washing line and he on the pretext of helping her would hold her hand. When he clutched her hand all he could feel was the blood pounding in his ears. She didn’t draw her hand away. She liked his touch. It wasn’t rough like her deceased husband’s. That was the only physical intimacy the two shared. He felt he was the one who should look after the much neglected and ignored widow who was left to fend for herself in a single room on the ground floor with her two children. Her children had grown up on leftovers but he with his limited means tried his best to give them something little to bring a small smile on their face. This arrangement of snatched affection ended when he left the Ghosh household. When he returned, he didn’t go to his mother, who had lost the will to live after her son left. He wanted to look at his ‘kaki’ first. Her daughter failed to recognise him with all the scrawny beard he had grown, with the tan he had caught and the stick like figure he was the now the owner of. But the woman for whom his eyes earned for, recognised him in one instant. After all, how could she forget his face?

Chaya and Priyonath were siblings. You couldn’t call their love as incest, but Neel Mukherjee does give hints about their relationship to be more of comfortable lovers than as normal siblings sharing a deep bond. When a brother enters the bathroom his sister is in and doesn’t budge and neither does the sister mind it after a few passing seconds, a tingle of discomfort is bound to travel down your spine. They both bunked their classes to catch movies together, an act performed by young lovers. Priyonath took a pledge to not get married before Chaya does because as per age Chaya should be the one who should be married off earlier. But as Chaya’s marriage could not be arranged at any cost, Priyo’s marriage was decided. On the day of Priyo’s bride’s reception Chaya settled to sing a few Rabindrasangeet songs on requests from relatives. On this day Chaya did not need any coaxing, unlike other days when she had to be oiled heavily  to perform . She sat down to sing. With her beautiful voice she sang songs of betrayal and pain in such a way that the entire audience heard her, all enraptured. They didn’t even realise that a wedding does not call for such songs. Only her mother Charubala, and Priyonath knew towards whom those songs were aimed at. They were the only two to cry copiously that evening.

Madan – popularly teased by being called as ‘Ude’ by the Ghosh kids due to his Odisha origin, he has been a Ghosh loyalist. All the kids have grown up in his arms, on his lap. When they hurt themselves he was the one to put Mercurochrome a.k.a Red Medicine on their wounds. When he was a young lad of fourteen he would carry Adinath in his arms and tour the entire house. After Adinath, all the Ghosh kids were looked after by him. Madan was a family member. Not a domestic help. He knew who ate what at which time, whom to emotionally blackmail and how, knew the likes and dislikes of everyone in the family. He was the boss in the kitchen. Not a single maid was hired without his consent. If Madan said yes, then Charubala would appoint the maid or else not. To Charubala, Madan was nothing less than her own son. To Madan, Charubala was Maa and Prafullanath Baba. Madan never considered his ancestral house in Odisha as home. For him, home was in Bhowanipore, where Maa and Baba lived. Madan was trusted with everything. Charubala thinks that if Madan wasn’t there then she couldn’t have handled this motley crew of people in the Ghosh household. However, it is this Madan who is blamed of treachery. This news leaves the Ghosh family devastated and he dies a sad death; for no fault of his.

Mother - mothers are made of a different soil. A woman may be vile to the whole world but when it comes to her children she is an entirely different being altogether.

Charubala loved all her children dearly, but she was anxious for Chaya and her youngest boy Somnath. She knew Chaya didn’t have the looks required for the matrimonial market, yet she never said it before her. Tried her best to make her feel happy and not be affected by the harsh words of the society. When it came to Somnath her anxiety almost killed her. She could not hear anything ill about her boy. She couldn’t find any fault with her angel. She didn’t know what her love was turning her son into. When she heard tales of him smoking and drinking with friends and sneaking home late at night, she would make up her mind to be angry with him and scold him, but on seeing his smile all her anger would melt away. Even when she caught him in a compromising position with a young maid in the prayer room, she immediately summoned Madan to get rid of her, because having a young maid when there is a young boy with raging hormones in the house is an absolute no. Leaving her sons and daughter aside and apart from his eldest daughter-in-law , she had venom in her tongue for the rest of her daughters-in-law; especially Purnima and Purba.

Sandhya, wife of Adinath is a soft natured woman. She holds no ill will for anyone in the family. Just helps her mother-in-law with the household activities and wants peace to prevail. When she found her eldest son’s letter in the prayer room, her soul and her body became two separate entities. She searched for him frantically, went to his college, hauled his friends out of their classrooms to ask if they knew anything about her son and endlessly nagged her husband to do something. As the months went by she started losing hope and her body didn’t leave the bed. After two years on one fine day she went up to her mother-in-law and said that today her son shall come back. She wasn’t wrong.

Purnima is considered to be crass and substandard by all in the family. She will get into ugly spats with everyone in the family, but she does all of this so that her daughter can get all the good things. The fact that they must go to her daughter through her is also a consideration. She wants to keep no stone unturned for her daughter’s marriage as she is her only child.

Purba, has led a very placid life. She didn’t know what happiness was. At a very young age she was married off to a husband who didn’t care for her. Then after his death life had turned even worse with her two children. She cared for her children like any mother would, but there isn’t any heightened anxiety. She makes do for them with whatever little she can. There isn’t any overt expression of emotion but she loves her children. The minor outburst of her feelings occurred when she was explained that her son is a prodigy and must be sent abroad for higher education. On hearing everything patiently, she completely ignored all the eulogies for her son and silently said ‘So Sona will leave us?’ Her entire life has been surrounding her two children. They were the only thread with which she was attached to this world. Had they not been there she would have left this physical world long ago.

There are certain inescapable agents which prevent a person from reaching to their ultimate height of success, and such things aren’t usually in control.

Sona, a boy who is beyond brilliant in mathematics, couldn’t wrap his head around English. English acted as a barrier in his life when he wanted to shift to a better school. But as he is possessed a great mind, with a lot of effort, he managed to pass in that subject and enter the school he desired. Money was another such agent in his life. He couldn’t afford tuitions so he taught maths to another boy whose English tutor gave him lessons on that subject in return.

Supratik had to go to the villages with his fellow comrades to help them rise and bring a revolution in the rural areas of the country. Their number was insufficient, communication wasn’t of the best form, the police were always on their trail. Most importantly to gain the trust of the ruralites, they had to work along with them, sleep on the floor and share their meagre food. The city boys who faced no hardships in their life, had to face back breaking work. They, who were used to a filling meal, had to eat half a plate of rice or puffed riced with jaggery; sometimes they had to go without meals as well.

Prafullanath wanted to expand his business. But his mills were in a bad condition. Bribing officials for importing high end machinery was very expensive. The political unrest was gnawing at his mills. He wanted to bring his mills back to their former glory but that was turning out to be impossible with the way funds were draining. 

The old Kolkata has always fascinated me. We can still see remnants of that era. But the habits of that era has faded. There was something intriguing about the people of that age, their mentality, their mannerisms. In fact the architecture of that era has a certain charm. The alleys in North Kolkata look like each of them hold a different story. One has seen little boys playing cricket on a strike,one has seen young boys running away frantically from policemen, another one still echoes the words of the procession that went over it, one has been witness to two young lovers sharing a private moment under the veranda of some building and almost all of them have seen men of all ages sitting on the rock every evening for a round of heated ‘adda’.

As time passes, we have a tendency to disrespect the old, we don’t give them their due. Prafullanath had set up Charu Paper Mills all by himself. He had set it up from scratch. He had an impeccable insight into business. Took hold of opportunities by the neck and made correct decisions. In his old age he believed  that his mills should adopt the new technology, otherwise they will dwindle out. Adinath however did not see eye to eye with him on this matter. For him his father had turned delusional. Adinath wanted the factories to go on the way they were going, for bringing in new machinery would be heavy on cost and manpower. He thought that his father’s success had made him overconfident and that overconfidence would bring about their doom. Adinath felt that just because his father had made all the right decisions earlier in his life wouldn’t mean that he could do so at this age too. However, if only Adinath could see his father was saying maybe their mills could stagger back to their feet once again.

Prafullanath had a tough start to his life. His father was the owner of a pompous Jewellery house and Prafullanath was his second son from his second wife. He was adored by his father, but things took a toll when his father died. His half brother put on a façade and did everything possible to rob Prafulla of all his rights. To him and to the world he tried to show that he was a caring elder brother, but Prafullanath could feel his wrath at home. His brother stopped him from coming to the store, saying that he was too young to understand business. His father had taken Prafullanath to the store when he was a child and taught him all the tricks and trivialities of being a jeweller.Even when he had come of age his brother barred him from entering the store. When he had called a helper by an abusive term, his brother took out all his pent up anger on him. He took of his belt and beat him up with all the wrath he contained. To the world he was being an idealistic brother, but Prafullanath knew that he was satisfying his soul. Prafullanath left his ancestral house to never return again. He joined a paper shop and learned the ropes of the paper business. The owner of the paper shop trusted him and gave him his business and the hand of his daughter.  Ever since, Prafullanath had to never look back.

Purnima – haven’t you heard enough about her already?

Purba – you know she was pretty and young, her husband was someone no one would ever want as a husband, widowed at a young age, as a result of which her mother-in-law couldn’t bear to look at her, mother of two children- one of whom is a prodigy, and had an unconditional loving relationship with her nephew.

If there is any one character in the entire narrative that will make your heart wrench then that is Purba. You will be left thinking that what had she done that she deserved a life like this? Even the maids of the house lived a better life than hers. When her husband died she felt no pain; she was pregnant with their second child. Have you ever seen mashed banana with black cumin seeds used for pujas? That is what her husband’s head resembled when she saw him covered under a shroud. Her wedding night was horrific. The rough bout that followed was just the beginning of what would follow for the next two years of her life. Constantly made to work by her mother-in-law, despised by her for her son’s death and deprived of all her rights Purba had turned into an insipid being.

Prologue – Most of us don’t really like reading the prologue. Sometimes it pulls you into the story, sometimes you feel like there is no link at all. Rarely have I ever seen such a well written prologue. A poor farmer who has been rebuffed by the zamindar for a cup of rice to feed his children yet again, walks all the way home with the scorching sun burning his malnourished back. On reaching his hut he finds his wife sitting outside waiting for him to return. Nonchalantly he enters the hut picks up his sickle and strikes his wife’s neck. He himself being feeble, one blow from his side wasn’t enough. His children looked at him astonished. They couldn’t scream or do anything as neither did they understand what he was doing nor did the have the energy to revolt. After his wife, he did the same to his children.Finally covered in the sticky blood of his family, he killed himself. He couldn’t take the suffering of his family anymore. He couldn’t feed them. Nobody would help them. This was the only way he could bring an end to this.

Q ....

Relationships are weird I tell you. They define a certain path, but some go astray. The Lives of Others describes both kinds of relationships in such astonishing detail, that it makes you feel you have seen it all.

Somnath - is the only person whose name I haven’t been taking so long. He is the youngest son of Prafullanath and Charubala. He is their angelic looking son. He is their only son educated in an English medium school. The fact that he turned into a brat and couldn’t pass school is another matter. He is the apple of his father’s eye. His father even in his old age would take his little son on his creaking knees and play with him. Such affection had been extended to none of his children. Somnath is the young sibling, whom Chaya was jealous of. Somnath is the young sibling by looking at whom Adinath imagined his parents' intimacy and felt repulsed. He was the boy who had his eyes on the young maid of the Ghosh house and was caught engaging with her in physical intimacy. He was the man who was Purba’s husband. He was the father of Sona. He was the man who died at a young age, leaving his wife pregnant with their second child Kalyani. His death, however is a fascinating read. Somnath, adored by his parents so much that he became what we Bengalis call ‘adore bador’. He started smoking and drinking, stayed late out at night and failed in his class numerous times. He wasn’t really reprimanded ever, because a flash of his smile was all that was needed to melt his parents’ heart. Children are generally known to be simple and innocent. Somnath however wasn’t really so. Once a starving man with his daughter had come to the Ghosh’s house for some of their rice starch. Accidentaly while the daughter was drinking it, some fell on her dress. Driven by hunger she started licking her clothing. Somnath watched this with his big round eyes. The next day when another man arrived with his daughter, Somnath ran to take the bowl of gruel and threw it on the road. He wanted to see if she would lick it off from the road. The man and her daughter were left stunned. They walked away slowly, looking at him, not facing their backs against him, and said ‘May God bless you my son.’ Talking of daughters, Somnath had an insatiable sexual appetite. From an early age he catcalled at woman, ogled them on the roads and spoke about them vilely with his friends. His world begun on the bossom of a woman and ended on her thighs. So much so that even during his son’s rice ceremony he wondered how could he pack the terrace so that he could brush his elbows against the heaving bossoms of women. His lust drove him crazy and it was his lust that brought about his death. Santhals are an exotic tribe. Their women have a strange kind of beauty. They are a liberal tribe. Men and women remain intoxicated with their own brand of alcohol. They have a very simple life. Somnath had gone to their village for a vacation with his friends. After staring at them all day, he felt particularly attracted to one girl who he thought made suggestive moves towards him. The way she spoke to him, gave him a different high. He planned for a meeting that night with the girl on the pretext of knowing more about their Mahua flower. While the entire tribe was accumulated, he told her he will give her one rupee if she comes along with him. The girl went to tell him but then when a drunken Somnath’s grasp on her arm tightened, she panicked. Somnath forcefully took her into the dense forests. The girl resisted him. Somnath could feel the jungle shrink on him. As if they knew he was taking undue advantage of someone who was a part of them. He realised that the girl wasn’t going to be easy, so in the hustle bustle he tried to gain whatever pleasure of touching her. His rough pleasure didn’t last long, for he felt something heavy hit the back of his head. It was a Santhal man. He along with some other tribal men had come to save her. When they hit him, they asked him about how could he muster the courage to touch a girl of their tribe?Just because he was a foreigner, he thought he could get away with anything? They knew that to kill a snake, they needed to smash its head. Or else it would rise again and come for revenge. Now you know why I said Somnath’s head resembled something like that of a mashed banana with black cumin seeds?

Sona – Sona was always quiet as a child. He only cared about mathematics and absolutely no one else. He thought about numbers and numbers only. No human being ever mattered to him much. The interaction he had with them were just the mandatory ones. The fact that he is a child prodigy was discovered by Ashish Roy, a mad mathematician. He realised that the boy was stumbling across proofs that were taught in the masters level all by himself. Ashish Roy sent a letter to one of his old students who himself was supposed to have a bright career in mathematics but failed to do so due to financial crisis and lack of suitable jobs for graduates. This student of his turned out to be Sona’s maths teacher in school and when he came across  Sona’s scribbled notes he realised the potential the boy had. He was the sole reason why Sona could go to the US to turn into an award winning mathematician.

Suranjan – was Supratik’s younger brother. He too was a student in Presidency, but by name only. With his friends he remained stupefied in the world of cocaine, hash, weed and cigarettes. His family knew nothing about his addiction. He had no one to stop him. When his elder brother returned for a short period of time, he was astounded to find Suranjan like this. A resounding slap only elicited ‘Where were you all this while?’ from Suranjan’s lips before he left their room.    

Selflessness and Selfishness – true selflessness is something which we hardly ever come across.

Supratik worked for the poor selflessly. Supratik loved Purba and her children selflessly, but there was also an act of selfishness involved. He had never imagined his future with Purba. He just loved and respected her. He didn’t think what would happen to her if he was no longer there. He assumed that she would continue living in humiliation and her children would grow up to be something probably. He had not thought about his mother. How she would continue to live her life without knowing how her son was, whether he was alive or dead.

This novel will take you back to an era which you have only heard of from your parents and grandparents. It will give you an insight of the old Kolkata and its people.

Nothing in this world is unconditional. This novel aptly describes the phrase ‘Even Santa comes with a Clause’.

Violence – the violence described here is not full of pomp and gore.It is an authentic description. The violence that Supratik and his comrades had to endow and involve in, in the villages is as real as it can get. But the violence inflicted on Supratik when he was caught by the police is the real deal. It wasn’t just simple beating up with sticks in a lowly locker. It included peeling of skin and nail, then subjecting him to electric shocks. The beating goes without saying. And finally the shot that killed him.

Verve – there is never a dull moment in The Lives of Others. It engages you to the core.

Women are a colourful kind. You can never really fathom them. You never know what she is capable of. The most vapid can turn venomous and the most thorny can turn soft. Their minds are like fertile soil, where feelings of different kinds grow.

When you will be reading this novel, you will be visualising everything with a xanthic touch. All because of the era it is based on.

Because it is a period piece, the young may feel baffled. But once you start reading it, you will realise that neither is it a lesson on history, nor is it a class on morale. It is a story which you cannot stop reading  you once start.

Once you are done with The Lives Of Others, you can almost feel the zeal with which Neel Mukherjee has written this. The amount of research he had to do in every category to make this novel as authentic as possible. One cannot simply do it if he or she isn’t passionate enough about it. This is precisely the reason why I said Sunil Gangopadhyay would have loved to meet this man and read this book, for his novel ‘Sei Samay’ is a thoroughly researched and beautifully written one.