Keki N Daruwalla, a well known poet, is often asked how he manages to combine his job as a police officer with writing poetry. He always manages to answer the question politely, without betraying any exasperation. The Minister for Permanent Unrest & Other Stories is his latest collection of short stories "" seventeen in all "" some of which have been published in magazines over a period of time, and a novella.
It would have been interesting if Daruwalla had introduced his stories, and talked about his different creative moods, some resulting in poems, others in stories. But the self-effacing person that he is, he would never talk about himself except in an interview. He would much rather let the stories speak for themselves. The novella titled The Minister for Permanent Unrest, set in an unnamed country in Latin America, has a universal appeal. The claustrophobic atmosphere with the dust overhanging so densely, ...that neither light nor darkness can find their way through it could be a reference to the cortege of a slain dictator in an Asian country! Daruwallas experiences as a police officer find their way into the novella, subtly, without imposing upon the narrative. The conclusion is so much like a surrealist landscape that one wonders if the author has ever tried his hand at painting.
A number of stories in this collection indicate Daruwallas interest in and knowledge of the history and socio-cultural heritage of the Parsis. One of them is The Owlet Beats the Drum which looks at the bond of obsession shared by Burhanuddin and Zulekha in a Rushdiesque manner: After dusk Zulekha would feel the strong tug of his desires. It was something physical or para-physical tugging at her tether. She would fling her tent flap and try to fly in to the night towards Saqsin. Predictably, the lovers cannot be united and the story ends in an outburst of violence which explains the title.
The poet in Daruwalla surfaces often enough in his stories. The delicately crafted story of the poet Abul Qasim Firdaus, the author of the Shah Nama, transports the reader to a semi-magical world which is ruled by imagination and dreams and projects a poet who looks down at money and does not like selling his poetry.
The predicament of a young Muslim woman called Nasreen, divorced by her husband who is involved with another, is elaborated in Crossroads. What makes the story stand out is Nasreens determination to do her own thing in a patriarchal system at the cost of being stigmatised. Daruwallas message, though implicit, is quite clear. On the other hand a story like The Bride Returns seems to explore a theme just for the fun of it.
What one appreciates most about this collection is the thematic variety of the stories. They range from the influence of Gandhi to partition cameos to the commercialisation of a shrine. Daruwalla does not experiment with language or the narrative. His simple, direct mode of narration might appear a little outdated in this age of linguistic acrobatics, but the delicate lyrical nuances that characterise his style are all the more telling in the simplicity of the language.
The novel, and of late, poetry, are popular genres of published Indian writing in English. But the short story is usually confined to magazines/newspapers, and only emerges now and then in a collection that a publisher might consider commercially viable. In such a situation the publisher of The Minister of Permanent Unrest... deserves a special mention for bringing out a collection of stories by a writer better known for his poetry.
This reviewer remembers reading a story called Love in the Desert by Daruwalla (not included in this collection), prescribed at the secondary school level and explaining it to an adolescent son. That was quite some time ago and the first story by Daruwalla that one had read. At that time one had marvelled at the way in which he had turned what was probably an experience while posted along the border, into a sensitive love story. Some of the stories in this collection possibly have a similar genesis. This ability to sift the essential facts gleaned from professional experience and turn it into fiction without any stylistic melodrama, is Daruwallas forte.
Post script: Any review of the book is incomplete without a mention of the jacket illustration by Mickey Patel. It is a surrealistic impression of institutionalised corruption that the novella explores as well.
