Book Review - '1/7 Bondel Road' by Gautam Benegal

Published in 2011 by Wisdom Tree
ISBN: 978-81-8328-181-2
Genre: Fiction / Short Stories

Each of us would have had some childhood experiences that we come out with in our conversations in life or when opportunity presents itself and nudges you down memory lane, feel the nostalgia take charge of ourselves. But if we were to ask ourselves is there some instance we would like to narrate, maybe we would ask ourselves whether any of our childhood experiences were really worthy of being a good tale for someone to relish? We would look for rare, extraordinary instances that may astound readers or listeners – and perhaps sulk, citing destiny not being kind enough to have conferred us with such exciting out-of-the-world instances, as some others have been!

But this may not be everyone’s predicament. Writers like Gautam Benegal would recount his childhood days and tell us the story of Tutul and his friends all of 9 and 10 years of age, living in a paara in Calcutta in the 70’s and 80’s, with the panache of a master storyteller. That is what he did in “1/7, Bondel Road” published recently by Wisdom Tree which offers 10 brilliantly sketched vignettes of those growing up years. There is nothing unusual or spectacular about the stories that have been told, except the manner in which they have been told – unarming simplicity, mischievous charm, liberal sprinkling of humour embellish the narrative in this engrossing collection of endearing short stories. One wishes they would just go on - surely, Tutul had experienced more, that the author has yet to tell!?!

Tutul, the protagonist of the stories, has Bhultu, Anondo, Shushanto as his playmates joining in a game of badminton, cricket or football. While one is brought up in a household struggling to make ends meet, another enjoys the pleasures of electronic remote controlled toy cars, comics and books that his father could really buy! The different backgrounds and the consequential cracks in the friendly relationships beckons Tutul’s skills to come to the fore as he is found balancing differences between his friends. One would wonder if a career in international diplomacy was just the right thing for young Tutul?! But then, he had errands to run, important tasks thrust upon him to ..er.. forget and rescue the hungry households living in his locality during a particularly bad monsoon, in which torrential rains ravaged the city Calcutta, before he could take on countries.

Tutul’s early fondness for paintings and the encouragement from friends’ parents followed up by a humorous account of his first-ever effort to hold a private painting exhibition in his very home, (on the sly, of course), tells the reader of the difficulties of finding such creatures as ‘interested patrons’. The story of the cyclist trying to raise funds for his ailing son and the reactions of the folks living in his neighbourhood then captures the lives we live even today – causes, fund-raiser events, supporters, critics, controversies, - they all remain, while the only thing that changes is the means – the humble cycle gives way to social media pages!

The television episode dealt with in immaculate detail of hardware and machinations pertaining to those days in the '70s, when ‘Catching the signal’ was both art and science. A thoroughly enjoyable piece, that I felt was enacted before me, as I read it! It also reminded me of the early days when TV was a novelty and how hundreds of us would huddle into a single room in Mumbai…but then that would have to be another story for another post! Another enjoyable story is the prank young Tutul plays on his co-passengers, while on a train journey – an ex-tempore gag, while getting all the attention and stealing the limelight for sure! Even the recent flash-mobs breaking into a Kolaveri-dance would pale in front of this one!

This post is about 1/7, Bondel Road – the book - a must read for one and all – for its simple narrative style. It is not just about Calcutta or the ‘70s it is talking about – it is about growing up. Don’t we all go through this phase of life, without an exception? Gautam Benegal, a writer, National Award winning animation film maker, artist and cartoonist, would surely have more interesting episodes to share with us. His debut book of short stories leaves the reader wanting more…

Rating: 4.5 / 5

IWOTY 2011 Nominations

Ever since your favorite blog, The ArTicKles Blog, has been launched (in April 2008), it has regularly kept its readers informed about the Word Of The Year (WOTY) declared by Oxford Dictionaries, Global Language Monitor (GLM) and the American Dialectic Society (ADS).

The links to these posts are here, in case you have missed them or wish to refresh your memory.
WOTY 2008

WOTY 2009

WOTY 2010 and IWOTY 2010

In the post announcing WOTY 2009, a question was posed to the readers of this blog thus:
“Indians should have their own WOTY! What do you have to say?”

In the very next year, while announcing WOTY 2010, I invited some suggestions and posted them as worthy candidates for IWOTY 2010. The following words featured in the competition: Scam, ScamRaja, ScamRajya, Spectrum Raja, Tainted, Corruption. The Scam –related words dominated the polls, as was expected. As you would observe the words suggested by readers is a reflection of the times we live in. Future generations could study their history of the present times by studying the WOTYs! Psst: Yes we too will be history some day!

NOMINATIONS FOR IWOTY 2011

This year the following words have been suggested by enthusiastic readers of the ArTicKles Blog (and some are my own wild imagination) :-

1. Anna

Anna Hazare’s first name - Anna - Just a word? I am sure Anna is not just a word, but a phenomenon that 2011 witnessed. The “Anna movement” ; the “Team Anna”; the “Anna factor”’ the “Anna phenomenon” was the much talked about subject by the print media as much as TV coverage of the events that Anna’s movement organized in several parts of the country. Newspaper editorials and opinion pieces may have debated his manner of protests being methods of “arm-twisting” and argued about the concept of the Lokpal being flawed in a democratic republic, but the people of India found the basic movement against corruption just the right course of action to deal with the widespread malaise that is eating into the fabric of our nation. Whether the movement will result in a strong Lokpal Bill or not, however important, one cannot deny the awareness that Anna spread about the need to combat corruption in our lives in all its manifest forms.

2. Annagiri – This derivative form of ‘Anna’ would perhaps be another worthy candidate. It is now rampantly practiced by the common man donning “I am Anna” caps and taking up cudgels with the corrupt powers-that-be. Akin to the “Gandhigiri” which is not exactly following the Mahatma’s principles, but really just adopting the methods demonstrated by Munnabhai in the cinematographic depiction of the Mahatma, - that of offering flowers and winning hearts to get redressal to grievances, Annagiri would turn out to take up a strong, determined stand against those in public service, who later turn despotic in their stance, once elected to the chair.

3. Kolaveri – A tamil word that every school-going child has heard about thanks to the song “Why this kolaveri di?” sung by Rajnikant’s son-in-law, Dhanush and featured by all TV News channels. They told us that It means “murderous rage”. Although the ‘Tanglish’ song is basically a drunken lament of the heart-broken young boy as he asks his ex-girl friend a question that is now on the minds of all leaders of the world today “Why this murderous rage?” In fact without the “kolaveri” emotion felt by millions in the middle east, the “Arab Spring” or the “Occupy Wall Street” movements would not have been much to talk about. There is kolaveri doing the rounds of the globe and the world would see how it fits into the global scenario – Tamil heartbroken soup boy singing in Tanglish is not a frame that can hold it within or contain – it has gone viral as it rightfully deserves! This murderous rage has dislodged despots, changed regimes and will probably serve the masses well by keeping the rulers in every country in check of their excesses.

4. Lokpal – The perceived panacea for the ills of corruption and the proposed Ombudsman with a larger than life role being sought by Civil Society is another worthy candidate for IWOTY 2011. The Lokpal will soon enter lexicons, for sure, as there is no proper equivalent word in the English language. Whether we will have one or even if we have one, will it be strong enough to serve its purpose, is another matter altogether!

5. Anshun - Protests have been the theme of Year 2011 and India was not to be left behind. Anna Hazare. Whether this word will become popular or not, one cannot be sure, but the protests that one witnessed in 2011 do characterize the year 2011 very well. No wonder, the Time magazine has announced the Person Of The Year 2011 as “The Protestor”!

6. Slaptivism n. activism by slapping [slap + activism] – This form of activism was resorted to by an Indian youth recently when he slapped Sharad Pawar to vent his frustration on corruption and uncontrolled food inflation. We have come a long way from being ‘slacktivists’ - slack armchair activists, who click on causes pages or online petitions to protest. We have also seen ‘hacktivists’ like Julian Assange who hacked into computers and exposed (and thereby embarrassed) governments by revealing secret pacts proving ulterior motives. We also witnessed legal activism in India, Dr Subramaniam Swamy’s crusade in courts to fix corruption using existing laws. Implementing laws has always been the real hurdle in fixing the corrupt – laws may need to be changed, but without all these various forms of activisms, the Lokpal Bill or any other law will do little by itself.

7. Sibal v. to remove offensive content from social networking sites
Also - Siballed – offensive content removed by Government by Sibal’s laws’
Also -- Siballing - the act of removal of offensive content ~

This diktat from Kapil Sibal was greeted by dollops of kolaveri from the aam admi! Champions of the ‘Free speech’ cause fired salvos on their blogs and challenged the government and debates followed as celebrities who are also the targets of hate posts, abusive language and photo-shopped images supported some kind of action against such malicious posts and such offenders who attack them in public platforms.

8. Civil Society – This was another much talked about phrase in 2011. The fact that the government did engage with unelected, self-appointed campaigners with a cause became the bone of contention. “Representatives of ‘civil society’”, was a term used to justify discussions with a view to bring a stringent law through debates. Although the government had been always posting proposed draft laws in public domain, inviting suggestions from NGOs, public/industry bodies in the past, this was an unusual engagement with ‘civil society’. It is hoped that ‘civil society’ plays a larger role in policy formulations in a participative democracy in future.


9. There are some more words suggested by subscribers to my blog, such as ‘Incorrigible India’, ‘Jokepal’, ‘2ji’, ‘aggrandisement’ etc. that some of you have suggested that deserve mentions.

From the scam-related words in 2010, we have moved on to protest-related words in 2011!

Is there any Indian word for too much debate and scant action? We must have one! So maybe we can hope for something to look forward to in 2012. Will we have a Lokpal in 2012, one wonders?