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The Wait and Different Tales by Damodar Mauzo, translated from the Konkani by Xavier Cota, Penguin India, 2022
Damodar Mauzo is a brief story author, novelist, and critic hailing from the Indian state of Goa. He writes in Konkani and his works have been translated into English by Vidya Pai along with his long-time collaborator, Xavier Cota. The Wait and Different Tales, a brief story assortment, has been translated by the latter. In 2021, he was the recipient of the Jnanpith Award, India’s highest literary honour. The author Vivek Menezes calls Mauzo “an exemplar of Goa’s fluid cultural id, marked by an unabashed pluralistic universalism that persists regardless of threats and depredations.” His tales seamlessly bridge the hole between timeless and present, invoking the good brief story writers of the nineteenth century—de Maupassant, O Henry, Saki—when it comes to how usually they take an surprising flip on the finish, but additionally fashionable practitioners of the shape in post-Independence India like Anjum Hasan and Aruni Kashyap, in the way in which they evoke each an area and nationwide sense of place.
Goa’s historical past is tumultuous very like the remainder of India, however additionally it is distinctive because of its separate, and for much longer, historical past of European colonization. Within the fifteenth century, it was dominated over by the Adil Shahis of Bijapur. The Portuguese overthrew them and claimed Goa as their territory in 1510, a sovereignty that remained in place for greater than 4 centuries. As such, Goa was by no means part of the British Empire and its Indian holdings. Subsequently, India’s eventual independence from British rule in 1947 didn’t affect its Portuguese-controlled standing. When the newly established Indian authorities requested Portugal to cede all its territories on the subcontinent, it refused. In consequence, India invaded to annex Goa, together with the Daman and Diu Islands, into the union in 1967. For 2 extra a long time, Goa remained only a union territory after a referendum however was ultimately designated because the twenty-fifth state of India in 1987.
Goa’s shifting dynamic of languages and religions is a microscopic mannequin of India. Whereas Portuguese is not a extensively spoken language, older audio system are nonetheless current. The official language of the state is Konkani with the very best variety of audio system. Marathi is outstanding as Goa shares its boundaries with Maharashtra. Hindi, Kannada, and Urdu are the opposite demographically much less represented languages. By way of faith, Hindus are probably the most populous adopted by Christians and Muslims. These tensions and tussles lie beneath the floor of Mauzo’s tales. In “Yasin, Austin, Yatin,” a cab driver tailors his id to each consumer to win them over and acquire large suggestions: “He had learnt by expertise that by making use of faith and caste card, he might win anyone’s coronary heart.” So he switches his identify, modifies his commentary, and adjusts the tour to fastidiously pander to the sensibilities of every buyer. As Yasin, the Portuguese are merciless conquerors; as Yatin, they’re forceful evangelists; and as Austin, benevolent liberators.
All of those tensions, notably within the context of post-2014 India, develop into startlingly palpable within the chilling final story of the gathering, “It’s Not My Enterprise,” which follows a carefree and unemployed not-so-young man who often works as a minor political functionary. Babgo is the very picture of the liberal centrist who has robust opinions on nothing and who all the time toes the non-committal center line. He’s akin to the speaker of Martin Niemöller’s closely quoted poem, “First they got here . . .” Bagbo glides by the non secular and political conflicts going down in his village and ignores the issues confronted by the villagers so long as he stays unaffected. His mantra is, “I don’t intervene in anyone’s affairs. It’s not my enterprise.” Mauzo critiques all political events with respect to how false assurances are given and the way corruption is rehabilitated however he not directly singles out BJP, presently in energy on the centre in addition to in lots of states. He references its guarantees of bringing again black cash so as to add 15 lakh to each Indian’s checking account, its disastrous resolution of demonetization, and its free rein to the lethal vigilantism of gau raksha (cow safety) teams who’ve killed folks simply on the suspicion of slaughtering cows and consuming beef.
It’s apt that “The Wait,” the very first story, offers the title to your entire assortment as a result of it thematically cuts throughout most, if not all, of the tales. The protagonist, Viraj, declares that he would somewhat get married to Sayali who doesn’t meet his sister’s approval, or all the time stay single. Sayali, then again, plans to make him await a yr to see if he stays true to his vow earlier than resuming their relationship. There’s a lot to be mentioned concerning the anticipatory nature of the act of ready. It turns into infinitely insupportable once we are conscious of the target of the wait and we need the result. On the obverse, being unaware of the explanation may be equally debilitating, for the wait then appears pointless. For Mauzo, in a Beckettian trend, human existence is outlined by ready, by our have to go from one second to the subsequent because the previous eats away at present and the current collapses into the longer term, all of it limned in uncertainty and the futile want to occupy a “now” that may all the time be virtually uninhabitable.
This ready takes totally different shapes within the numerous tales. Whether or not it’s ready for the pin to drop and for the key to return out, or ready to have the ultimate phrase and shut a chapter in a single’s life. In “Burger,” Irene shares a beef burger together with her finest pal, Sharmila, whereas unaware of the truth that Hindus don’t eat beef—allow us to hold apart the unquestioned generalization of Hinduism implicit in such a common declare—and dreads the second when Sharmila will lastly ask concerning the burger’s provenance. In “I Was Ready For You,” Mini and Manmohan have been in a relationship till Mini is sexually assaulted and her unapologetic public combat for justice drives the latter away till they reunite after a few years with the hope of lastly saying to one another what they’ve wished to for thus lengthy.
A couple of of Mauzo’s tales even have meta facets the place the protagonist is a author determine, seemingly a stand-in for Mauzo, struggling to provide you with a narrative and in the long run, the one he finally ends up writing is the story we’re studying. In “I Haven’t Tied My Shoelace,” the author protagonist is ready for some form of inspiration to strike so he can submit a narrative to his editor whereas he muses about outdated romances, previous flames, and the girl he ultimately married. In “Gentleman Thief,” yet one more author affected by yet one more author’s block strikes up an acquaintance with a well-mannered thief who got here to burgle his home. The latter seems to be a university lecturer who steals the author’s manuscript to persuade him to go to his class for a chat. The story appears to be a homage to Franz Kafka and it’s peppered with barely absurd components, particularly the habits and actions of the thief. Each these tales discover craft and composition, whereas drawing consideration to the act of writing.
Unrequited romance is yet one more thread that binds a few of these tales. In “The Jalopy,” the first-person narrator Rajesh recounts a narrative from his youth of when he met a lady referred to as Veena at a seminar. She persuades him to suggest marriage to her as her father is about to finalize her match. The plan is unable to return to fruition as Rajesh will get misplaced and can’t discover her home inside the important interval. In “The Lover of Desires,” Mukut, a migrant employee expert at carpentry, falls for a younger lady who crosses his path; class and faith separate them. He christens her “Katrina,” imagines romantic situations, and obsessively stalks her from a distance, even after she is married. Each these tales evince a unique form of ready, created both by indecisiveness or plain destiny. Whereas Rajesh offers as much as make a lifetime of his personal, Mukut stays trapped within the dream.
There are additionally tales of affection soured and of infidelity. The narrator of “The Aesthete” has a style for all issues stunning, so he fastidiously curates his life to take care of his persona as a person of tradition. He additionally selected a “drop-dead stunning” lady as his spouse however when she begins to develop vitiligo, he spurns her and tries to steer clear of her. In “Evening Name,” a health care provider feigns a piece name to get away from his spouse and hold his deliberate tryst with a hospital nurse whose physician husband, additionally a colleague, is out of city. “The Subsequent, Balakrishna” explores the intertwined nature of colourism and casteism in India, the place a fair-skinned lady resents being married to a dark-skinned man though he dotes on her and misguidedly cheats on him with a Brahmin landlord. In these tales, Mauzo highlights the failings of human nature and critiques the resort to impulse.
Xavier Cota’s presence because the translator may be very unobtrusive. His translation is clean, free-flowing, and simply readable. It’s maybe justifiable to see this as an indication of over-translation. The tales really feel naturally written in English, albeit distinctly of the Indian variety. There aren’t any wonky transliterations or calques although the phrases and phrases retained from the unique are sparse and tellingly denoted by italics. As a translator who has labored on a number of books by Mauzo, nevertheless, a translator’s word or an afterword explaining a few of his selections concerned within the technique of translation would have been a helpful addition to the gathering.
Cota calls the conferral of the Jnanpith Award on Damodar Mauzo “[a] singular achievement for a language mockingly denigrated as bolibhasha or dialect [of Marathi].” Certainly, The Wait and Different Tales frees Goa from its slender standard notion as a glitzy vacationer vacation spot to emerge as a spot past its seascapes and monuments, the place folks lead common lives with goals fulfilled and deserted, succumbing or triumphing over their struggles.
Areeb Ahmad simply acquired finished with a Grasp’s in English and is doing his finest to get pleasure from a brief educational break. He likes to write down concerning the intersections of gender and sexuality throughout texts. He enjoys exploring how the private and the political in addition to kind and content material work together in artwork. He’s a Books Editor at Inklette Journal. Most of Areeb’s writing may be discovered on his bookstagram, a real labour of affection. His critiques and essays have appeared in Mountain Ink, Gaysi, The Chakkar, and elsewhere.
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