Good fiction mixed well with history always makes for a great read. Sudeep Chakravarti’s The Avenue of Kings falls into that category of books, which build a story around a major event(s) in the history of a nation.
The book which seems rather autobiographical, traces the life of Brandy (aka Barun) Ray starting after the assasination of Indira Gandhi (referred to as IG throughout the book) to after the assasination of Rajiv Gandhi (referred to as RG throughout the book). “Between the Assasinations” would have been a rather interesting title for the book. But that is a book that Arvind Adiga has already written, though surprisingly the book had got nothing to do with assasinations at all.
But getting back to Chakravarti. The Avenue of Kings traces the life of Brandy (aka Barun) Ray, a character Chakravarti first introduced in his rather engaging Tin Fish, through three novellas, The Avenue of Kings, The Cradle of Innocents and The Well of Three Wishes.
In the first, Brandy has just passed out of St Stephens College, has rebelled against his father, who wants him to take up a job with a foreign bank. So Brandy is without a job and is supported by a Anusuya (or Suya) a Christian girl and a fellow student, who happens to be his girl friend. Also sleeping with the landlord’s wife ensures that once in a while the rent to his small pad is taken care of. There are also portions which deal with Brandy’s rather chilled out and doped out days in college. The potrait of Delhi as it was is rather enchanting.
Brandy sees a young Sikh being burnt alive in the aftermath of IG’s assasination. He wonders what RG means when he says “when a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it does shake a little”. Brandy is angry and finds peace in Suya.
The Cradle of Innocents fast forwards the story a few years . Brandy is now a journalist, like Chakravarti himself was before he settled down in Goa to become a full time writer, and is having more troubles. Troubles with RG and RG’s idea of India, and troubles with Suya who he once loved so much, and had now almost lost.
Brandy’s state of mind is best summarised in a letter Suya writes to him: “We still feel and sometimes hope, but the balance is far more basic now. Idealism is for the very young and, maybe, for the books. Cynicism is something else.”
The Well of Three Wishes, explores the post RG India, the rise of the BJP, and the fall of the Babri Masjid. Of course Suya has left him by then, though Brandy has not left her. As he says “I had Suya in me”. Brandy is out there trying to do what he calls a “slice of life” piece on how Muslims feel about the entire episode. This at a time when his editor is running out of ideas to keep pleasing the Congress party (is that Chakravarti’s potshot at a rather famous editor who has recently been in trouble because of the Radia tapes?).
As far as stories go this is as normal a story can be. There are no dramatic plots. No over the top end. The love story is rather straightforward. Boy meets girl in college. Boy loses girl to life.
But there is still something about this book that keeps the reader glued in, and makes it a page turner. Its Chakravarti’s first class prose. His ability to evoke melancholy and nostalgia at the same time is rather brilliant. The lines just keep coming. Sample this: “We became people our imaginations could not keep up with”.
The book in the end clearly leaves you wanting for more. You wonder what ever happened to Brandy Ray, after the dome in Ayodhya was brought down. Is there another sequel in the works?
The Avenue of Kings
Sudeep Chakravarti
Rs 299
Harper Collins
222 pages
