” I wanted to convert to Christianity,” my father casually remarked as we returned from watching a cricket match, It made a profound and indelible impression on my eight year old mind. We had been talking about the British influence on Indian psyche an how cricket and English language were two lasting legacies that the Indians enthusiastically adopted. After all cricket was just a game and adopting a second language for one’s own benefit could not be considered a sacrilege.
Making the decision to change one’s religion though was very difficult. My grandfather was an orthodox Hindu and leader of the Hindu community. And here was my father contemplating to switch to a completely alien faith. As I grew up in post-independence India and studied history I discovered how religion was often corrupted to exert power, I saw why my father was driven to the desperate conclusion. I researched contemporary sociopolitical literature and began exploring what must have gone through his mind.
More revealing than the history and literature was what I learned about his childhood. My father had a star crossed childhood. It began with a grim prediction, as per his horoscope, that he would die young. This was followed of the discovery of an ominous ” upside down Cobra” birthmark on his body. This meant no sibling born after him will survive! This further strengthened the family’s conviction that Shyam was a bad luck baby.
I took my cue from some of these stories and built the novel around it. Most of it is of course, fiction but it does represent the dilemma of hundreds of proud educated Indian youths who grew up watching British dominance of the Indian subcontinent and the whole world while striving to uplift their own lot and of their society and the nation. They watched the profound contrast between the victorious culture of the British and and what many perceived as their own declining and decaying society. This indeed was a tumultuous period in Indian history, politically and socially. Hundreds of Western educated Indian leaders rose to address the social issues in their society and simultaneously fight the British Raj.
Mt protagonist, Shyam is caught in this turmoil and faces the challenges that rise in his personal life. Loved but neglected by his devout Hindu father, Shyam grapples with the other major influences in his life, including a Christian professor who becomes his mentor and an ill fated cousin sister who forces him to face the challenges on the personal level. His decisions are the turning points in this novel and are the microcosm for the development of a new generation in India.
I am eager to hear your thoughts as you read this novel,please send your comments and questions.
