My first contact with Rohinton Mistry came in my second year of degree. We had his short story 'Condolence Visit' as a part of the English literature syllabus. The repressed memories of that horrible teacher trying to explain the story to us, I shall not try to recall. Our second meeting was in the crowded book store in the Bangalore airport. Unable to get my father to actually purchase a book for me, I was forced to sit in the store, pushed against a bookshelf, reading 'Family Matters'. After reading about thirty pages and being shoved against the bookshelf a couple of times, I looked up to find the salewoman in the store glaring down at me for bending the spine of the book. I gave up.
During my birthday book store splurge last year, I came upon a perfect copy of A fine balance. I couldn't resist. Last week, almost a year after I had purchased the book, I got down to reading it. I regret two things. First, that it took me a year to get down to reading the book, a year I wasted in reading several novels that were nowhere as enjoyable. Second, that I have now finished reading it.
It's been a few hours since I said goodbye to Dina, Ishvar, Maneck and Om but my mind still lingers with them. I consider it a sign of a good book. A good book always leaves the reader lost when they are returned to their own world. They are left in a daze, requiring some time to regain their balance. It's like getting a leg cramp. You need to sit back down for a moment and when the cramp wears off can you move. A fine Balance is not a happy book. It does not leave you with a smile on your face. Yet, I loved the book. I loved it for its characters. I loved it for it's intricately woven stories that somehow seem to blend in to each other just like the patchwork quilt.
What is the novel about? It's about four people. Dina, a widow struggling to lead an independent life. Maneck, a student who is trying to cope with the struggles that every youngsters goes through.Ishvar and Om, tailors who have lost their entire family and come to the city in search of success. And all four stories are set against the background of the Emergency in India. You are thrown into the lives of each one of the characters. You know their strengths, their weakness. At times when they behave badly, you make excuses for them like you would for a friend.
Rohinton Mistry tells the story in a way that leaves you entangled in the lives of these four people. He points out the small things, the small things that make you say 'Oh that is true. I have seen it happen so many times!'. He brings in characters from time to time who become a part of these four lives. You count them in as an extended family. When they return to the story after a long interval, you feel happy like meeting a long lost friend. Everytime Ishvar and Om meet someone from the slum, you almost say out aloud 'oh...I remember him!'. The connection between Dina, Valmik and Maneck is like a secret known only to you and you wish that you could point it out to the characters.
As an Indian and having witnessed what games politics and religion can play with people, you feel enraged when the characters become pawns in these games. The author does not glorify any character. Each one is presented with his or her faults. It is left to us to judge him or her. You are left to analyze the circumstances and make sense of the character's behavior.
I guess 'A Fine Balance' could be considered a moral story in the sense that through the story you see the characters changing, their opinions changing and this in turn brings about a change in the readers' opinion. For instance, Dina who in the beginning sets aside cups for Ishvar and Om, at the end of the story serves them lunch on the plates used by her family. You see her throwing away the trivial traditions that had it's roots in the ancient caste system that pokes its ugly head from time to time. Rohinton Mistry makes comments not only on the caste system but also on the government on India. He sheds light on the suffering of the poor as a result of every decision that the government makes. While we sit in our comfortable homes and praise the government for taking steps to beautify the city or enlighten people about family planning, we are not the ones affected by the ugly consequences of these steps. Rohinton Mistry talks about all these issues but it doesn't seem preachy.
What I loved most about this book, and I cannot stop emphasizing on this enough, is how Rohinton Mistry wraps you into the lives of these four people. You sit there in Dina's living room with Ishvar, Om and Maneck and watch her put slowly add bit and pieces to the quilt. You feel the grief when a character dies. You begin to question the injustice of it all along with the character. You become a part of this strange family. Through the course of three days, I made four new friends and the hardest part about reaching the last page of the book was letting go of these friends.
