Title: A State of Freedom
Author: Neel Mukherjee
Publisher: Penguin Random House
ISBN: 9780670090150
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 275
Source: Flipkart Review Program
Rating: 5/5
While trying to check the bill before
settling at the reception desk – just an old habit, inculcated by his father,
of giving any bill a once-over to see that he had not been overcharged – he
realized that he had lost the ability to perform the simple function of adding
up the individual items and the tax that together made up the grand total. He
tried again and again. Then he took out his wallet and tried to count the rupee
and US dollar notes nestled inside; he failed. Something as fundamental to
intelligence as counting was eluding him. In the peripheries of his vision he
could see a small crowd gathering to look at him; discreetly, nonchalantly,
they thought. The news had spread. It was then that he broke down and wept for
his son.
First of all, allow me to keep this
structure-of-the-novel thing away, and let me focus on the initial paragraph of
A
State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee. I am sure, after reading this, you too would have noticed
the way Mukherjee drew attention of his readers. It simply showed the power of
his prose style. The way he observed things and transformed them into words is surely
inexplicable. It was like he opened a hidden window of a world which existed
inside us only. Our surrounding, that we often ignore, Mukherjee took his
characters from there only and showed us the mirror. Frankly speaking it was
gut-wrenching at some place.
STRUCTURE
A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee, It fascinated me more because it is written in an unconventional style. Five Protagonist Five Stories, not linked on the plot basis yet connected somehow.
In first segment, Mukherjee
introduced a man, who returns to India with his six years old son, he visits
Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri, trying to revive his roots. Meanwhile he realizes he
has become the stranger in his own country. Then something happened that
changed the whole situation. Just loved the part where he was trying his best to
save his kid from witnessing this grim situation of India.
In Second Segment, a London based son
(unnamed) visiting his parents in Bombay, he has come for local research
on Indian cooking as he is going to write some regional cuisine book. Here he
met Renu, who cooked food for his parents, Suddenly he started to take interest
in their lives and realized the gap of these two classes, how the renu’s past
unfolded, it was really heart storming. You read those characters and trying to
identify various faces into our own surrounding, that's the impact of Mukherjee’s
Characters’ Arc.
When it comes to third segment, it
would fascinate you the most and if you are four-legged angel’s lover then it
will be heart wrenching read. Mukherjee unpacked the emotion of fear and love
while revealing his quaint characters especially baby bear, Raju and his owner lakshman,
how he tried to get him ready and trained for another source of income. There was so much to read between the lines, those pauses provoked you to read quickly
with a curiosity—what will happen next with baby bear?
In Forth segment, you meet a girl who
is trying to alleviate her social condition, in her own possible ways. Her struggle for
existence seemed so apt in current scenario. It is always hard to read about
underprivileged characters. Yet soothing to your soul cause they come up with
hope at last, to a better future. And you feel inspired of after experiencing their will to survive.
Last segment of this book, leaves you
with myriad of questions, If you unintentionally obstruct the freedom of others, gradually
it effects our concept of belonging and loss. In Neel Mukherjee’s word—the sense of migration.
All in all, You could read the book,
you could close it with great relief but you could hardly get rid of its deeply-woven characters. I have no words to praise Mukherjee enough. Just loved the way Mukherjee
narrates his stories. Sometimes it feels so engrossing that you found
yourself enveloped into his world only. Extraordinaire!
CORE
When we heard of any abroad based Indian
author, it is presentiment that he would have written about Cooking or Migration, more so ever the complications he had to face while changing countries and all that
nostalgia especially Maa Ke Haath Ka Kadi-Chawal.
Here, Mukherjee tried to derange this league and coming up with a new concept of Migration. He made me rethink the definition of it. How could we attach the with migration thing only, while migration is a state of mind that we usually sensed here in India only. And this is the core of Neel Mukherjee’s A State of Freedom.
In our lives we often migrate through our social class, thought-level process, and financial condition. Of course, A State of Freedom would not be an easy read. It will move you, along with doubts, expression of freedom and trouble your mind till the last. A State of Freedom is a portrait of our own existence. Worth every moment.
Here, Mukherjee tried to derange this league and coming up with a new concept of Migration. He made me rethink the definition of it. How could we attach the with migration thing only, while migration is a state of mind that we usually sensed here in India only. And this is the core of Neel Mukherjee’s A State of Freedom.
In our lives we often migrate through our social class, thought-level process, and financial condition. Of course, A State of Freedom would not be an easy read. It will move you, along with doubts, expression of freedom and trouble your mind till the last. A State of Freedom is a portrait of our own existence. Worth every moment.
READER’s MOMENT
Something about the urgency of the swarming and
the indescribable sound that emanated from that swiftly engorging clot of
people, a tense noise between buzzing and truculent murmuring, instantly
transmitted the message that a disaster had occurred. Otherwise how else would
the child have known to ask, ‘Baba, people running, look. What’s happening
there?’ And how else could the driver have answered, mercifully in Hindi, ‘A
man’s just fallen from the top of that building under construction. A
labourer. Instant death, poor man.’
He had refused to translate, had
tried to pull his son back from craning his neck out, but as the queue of cars
moved forward, through a chance aperture in the hive of people around the
death, he saw, for the briefest of flashes, a patch of dusty earth stained the
colour of old scab from the blood it had thirstily drunk. Then the slit closed,
the car started advancing inch by inch and the vision ended. He saw his son
turning his head to continue to stare at the spot. But had he really seen the
earth welt like that, or had he just imagined it? There was no way he could ask
the boy to corroborate. As soon as he thought that, all the worries came
stampeding in: had the child seen it? Was he going to be affected by it? How
could he establish if he had without planting the idea in the boy’s head?
‘Who knows what he’ll do? We have never
been able to tell what goes through his head. He says he’s going to come back
in two years.’ Pause. “Two more years of sending money,” She said, then quickly
tried to dispel the burden of the last few words by her usual dismissive tics.
‘I said to him: Stay as long as it
takes to finish what you are reading, you don’t need to think of money… but who
listens to me?’ the shift in tonal gear this time was to mock-carping, a
time-honoured Bengali way of expressing deep affection.
Then, another shift with: “He says
he’s going to come back and built me a house. We shall see”
ABOUT AUTHOR
Neel Mukherjee was born in Calcutta.
His first novel, A Life Apart , won the Writers’ Guild of Great
Britain Award for best fiction, among other honors, and his second
novel, The Lives of Others , was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize
and won the Encore Prize. He lives in London.
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