Book review

The Avenue of Kings: Angst amidst violence

By

Randeep Wadehra 

The avenue of kings by Sudeep Chakravarti
Harper Collins. Pages: 222. Price: Rs. 299/-

Our national capital’s Rajpath (translation: avenue of kings) forms a small but significant part of the narrative. But it is not about Delhi’s kings or their modern democratic avatars. It is, in a sense, about the consequences of their actions; consequences for the common man ranging from the 1984 anti-Sikh violence to the post-Babri Masjid scenario, among other things. The story opens with the burning of a Sikh who had, foolishly, ventured out to buy vegetables – unaware of the bloodbath that was planned for the day. It ends with the portrayal of the curfew-bound walled city of old Delhi after the Babri demolition. In the process it depicts India under three prime ministers – spanning the period circa early 1980s to early 1990s – as experienced by the novel’s protagonist Barun “Brandy” Ray.

The novel is divided into three parts. Each part depicts evolutions at two levels – the macro and the micro. Chakravarti has skillfully juxtaposed the two in order to weave an absorbing story.

The macro level evolution involves changes in the country’s political regimes, their economic policies and the prevailing societal turbulence. At the micro level we see how the individuals and their fates change according to the happenings beyond their control, as typified by Brandy Ray’s life. The first part unfolds a skein of events against the backdrop of transition of India’s premiership from Indira Gandhi to Rajiv Gandhi, after the former is killed by her Sikh guards. Those were the years of violence and despondency – with the events in Punjab bringing communal animosity to a boil and Indira Gandhi’s assassination proving to be the flashpoint. Barun was a student then – embroiled in his own mundane struggles, like rebelling against his father, trying to carve out a career that would not be the stereotypical banker’s or engineer’s. Drugs, liquor, partying and sex are as much a part of his quotidian existence as are ennui, anger and angst. There is confusion in his ambitions although going to the US of A is an option with which he is not entirely comfortable. His love for Suya is marred with all the uncertainties that inter-community relationships often attract. But, essentially, this part depicts the educated youth of 1980s – with all attendant capers and anxieties.

In the second part the economy shows more optimistic prospects. There is hope for the youth who begin to talk of staying back in India rather than go abroad for employment. Barun realizes his dream of becoming a Delhi-based journalist with an American paper but pays a heavy price in terms of his love-life. Although married to Suya now the two begin to drift apart as their ambitions pull them in different directions. Adultery and suspicion only make things worse for him. Matters are not helped by his overbearing boss. Barun goes through emotional turmoil – almost reaching the stage of insanity.

The third part, fundamentally, deals with the post-Babri Masjid demolition scenario in the walled city of Delhi. Prime Minister Narsimha Rao’s inaction and the obvious complicity of the Uttar Pradesh state government vis-à-vis the demolition fuels the Muslim rage. Educated Muslim youth, who would normally have preferred to join the mainstream, are drawn into the murky communal politics and end up becoming foot-soldiers of a fundamentalist demagogue.

However, one wonders whether use of profanity is a desirable literary language, even if one has to depict anger, frustration and other negative impulses. There was a time when a cussword had shock-value – waking up the reader to a character’s ire or agony. But its proliferation has virtually turned into a substitute for more aesthetic narrative. Although Chakravarti has shown great imagination in coming up with metaphors, nouns, verbs and adverbs involving the F-word (all the typical street invectives featuring mothers and sisters too have been liberally used) one would have preferred the employment of this imagination and talent for crafting better alternative language.

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