Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Four feet and shaky ground
DEEPTI PAREKH
Believing in a cause is one thing. Trying to make others see
why you believe, completely another. You have to be objective
towards a subject you feel strongly about, tell your reader
the story without sounding indignant, and hope it will move
him enough to think, even act.
Indra Sinha has pulled this off with Animal’s People, and quite
effortlessly at that. The man has taken on the onus for justice
for the victims of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy- writing appeals,
contributing to the clinic and doing everything possible to
make Union Carbide pay its due. He’s also met some exemplary
people along the way. Animal’s People is their story, told simply,
without making victims of the Bhopalis, or the ‘Khaufpuris’,
as they are known here.
The narrator and protagonist is an unruly, shrewd boy of seventeen
who refuses to call himself human. Back literally bent by the
poisonous gases from the Kampani, ‘Animal’ walks around on all
fours ‘jamisponding’ for Zafar, the almost superhuman activist
who is hero for the entire town. What really defines him is
his relationships with the women in the story, be it four year
old Aaliya, the resolute, batty Ma Franci, the mysterious Elli
doctress or the idealistic Nisha, who both Zafar and he adore.
Having Animal tell the story is a great device, and, in retrospect,
the only way Sinha could have got through without sounding preachy
or plain barking mad. This account is anything but bitter. Funny,
yes. Ironic, yes. Bitter, no. And somewhere between the endless
questions about the future and the sharp one-liners (“…that’s
a trade secret, Kha”) you start understanding why, thirty years
later, they still haven’t given up.
The most moving part of the book? The dedication to Sunil, one
of Bhopal’s unfortunate survivors and heroes and a man who,
like the protagonist, heard ‘voices’ after that night. We may
have been spared from hearing those voices, but Animal’s voice
is not going to die down anytime soon. Here’s hoping it never
does.
Posted by Deepti at 12:12 AM
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