Book review

A prosy saga

By
Randeep Wadehra

Arrack in the afternoon by Mathew Vincent Menacherry

Harper Collins. Pages: 315. Price: Rs. 350/-

A great writer creates a world of his own and his readers are proud to live in it. A lesser writer may entice them in for a moment, but soon he will watch them filing out. ----- Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British journalist.

This is a saga of three underdogs, whose lives are intertwined by ties of blood, mutual hatred and/or love, which inevitably but separately meander towards tragic ends. One is Mathai Kochapu Konnikara, another his son Varghese Konnikara and the third is Paddy aka Patricia Murphy – daughter of an Irish father and Anglo-Indian mother.

Kochapu, a brilliant student of literature and first class in B.A., hopes to do M.A. and become a school teacher but ends up as a peon in a school in rural Kerala. He also nurtures great ambitions of becoming a writer, and even finds a mentor in a famous Malayalam writer. But the latter dies suddenly, leaving him distraught. Having failed to succeed in achieving both his cherished aims he turns to liquor. His violent temper only earns him enemies at school.

Just when the school authorities were preparing to sack him he lands a ticketing clerk’s job in the railways and moves to Mumbai. However, after a few years he is sacked for drunkenness and indiscipline. He takes out his frustrations on his wife, Mariamma, and the only son, Varghese. He dies unlamented (except for his pious wife who grieves for him till her last breath).

Varghese grows up into an irresolute youth who is good at nothing. He takes up several jobs but is unable to stick to any. He tries his hand at writing but his very first book of verse – a product of vanity publishing – bombs. During this period he is supported by Paddy, who runs a liquor bar and provides him with the comfort of her body and money, and Pillaichan – a pseudo-intellectual with communist leanings who is himself surviving on an income from his petty shop. However, Varghese turns into an acute depressive and, one day, decides to commit suicide by jumping in front of a speeding truck, but changes his mind midway and contorts his body in such a manner that he escapes unscathed. This attracts the attention of Karan Sarin – a street-smart wheeler-dealer who is witness to this amazing ‘stunt”. He, helped by some fortuitous interventions of Sabu, a newspaper editor, turns Varghese into a godman. The city’s elite takes the new holy man into its fold. Fame, wealth and women become his for the asking. Varghese becomes adept at fobbing off his audiences with pseudo-philosophical discourses and faux spiritualism.

But there is a price to be paid – in the form of hostility of Pasrekar, a politician known for his strong-arm tactics. Moreover he chafes against the extreme restrictions placed on him by Karan, who is filling his coffers by exploiting Varghese’s name. He also feels guilty for having forsaken his genuine friends Paddy and Pillai. One day Varghese chucks it all to go back to his former life, but with tragic results.

Paddy or Patricia Murphy escapes Mhow’s tepid, claustrophobic lifestyle and reaches Mumbai to earn big money. After several attempts she gets job offers from Tisco and an event management firm. She plumbs for the latter and ends up getting sexually exploited by the boss. However, he does help her enter a beauty contest where she reaches the finals. But soon she slips into the oblivion and ends up becoming an underworld don’s mistress. When the don is killed she begins running a liquor bar. This is where Varghese enters her life.

However, reading the rambling narrative needs some doing – the long descriptive passages become irksome after some time. The manner in which Varghese becomes a celebrity godman worth feting by the country’s rich famous and powerful is absolutely unconvincing. Thanks to media overkill/information overload people in India, especially Mumbai, don’t easily accept stuntmen as spiritually evolved beings.

A mere front-page photograph in a city rag will not send the glitterati swooning over a person, no matter what his physical attributes

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