Jul 06, 2005 11:31 AM
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(Updated Jul 06, 2005 11:33 AM)
Out of all my ancestors, it’s my dashing grandfather I like to hear about the most. I love to hear about how amazingly handsome he was, how rebellious (read scandalizing) he was and how many reforms he had brought about in his village. He had died young and probably that has immortalized him as this attractive, revolutionary young man. When my relatives meet me, they have a look of wonder in their eyes as they whisper to my mother ‘She looks exactly like him’. I would love to know more about him but it’s always hushed whispers, a shake of head and the topic is changed.
Why do scandalous ancestors sound more alluring to the present generations ? Is it some kind of a forbidden knowledge that keeps us wondering about them ? Or do we hope that some of that glamour may have been inherited by us and maybe that makes us more interesting and hopefully, less mundane.
And that is exactly what ‘Heat and Dust’is all about.
The first thing that attracts me about any book is its cover.
I stared at the cover of ‘Heat and Dust’ for a long time. It was mesmerizing – the handsome face of Shashi Kapoor as the medieval Nawab of Satipur, and two English women, Olivia and Anne, one walking determinedly and the other standing uncertainly. I was hooked. The book has been adapted into a movie (Heat and Dust, 1982) produced by Ismail Merchant and directed by James Ivory. It starred Shashi Kapoor, Julie Christie and Greta Scacchi.
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Anne, a young English woman in the 1970s discovers letters of the Olivia, the first wife of her grandfather who had eloped with an Indian Prince in 1920s. No one in her family is willing to talk about Olivia, a name shrouded in mystery and scandal. Anne travels to India and lives in the same place where Olivia lived, breathes the same air as she did, imitates her actions subconsciously and fits the story, piece by piece.
Why had Olivia left her comfortable English existence to elope with a whacky, quirky Nawab ?
What was so attractive about the mercurial, temperamental Nawab that she was ready to sacrifice her lifestyle and her reputation for him ?
What happened to her eventually ?
And what became of the handsome Nawab ?
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The book is a breeze – you will finish it in a few hours (at the most a day or two). It is autobiographical, with Anne talking to you in the simplest manner. Set in the 1970s, it transcends the boundaries of time and slips into 1920s smoothly.
Anne does almost the same things as Olivia – makes love with an Indian and gets pregnant. What strikes you is that what was terribly scandalizing and shameful in the 1920s is acceptable many decades later. While Olivia aborts her baby in a secretive manner, Anne decides to have her baby.
The book ends on a happy note. The journey that Anne has embarked on ends with her living in the same house where Olivia spent her last days.
Olivia lives. Through Anne and her baby.
Just like our ancestors live on. Through us.
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