The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

THE PALACE OF ILLUSIONS by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
We expected this session to be long . In fact, it would have been unending if we didn’t have to vacate the premises .
After all, this was about the woman, the one who should have been the most empowered and yet whose life was one long agonised cry of frustration and helplessness ‘Why me ?’
The initial problem for the book club was to unentangle the novel from the epic Mahabharata.
Story :
Pakhi who was on her way to see a Manipuri play on Draupadi,(incidentally there were as many as three separate Draupadi based plays running in town this week) claimed to be unaware of the legendary facts due to her non Hindu upbringing and had fundamental questions regarding the epic version of events and the point of view in the novel. Our efforts to educate her in ten minutes was enlightening for all of us since it brought the novel into perspective and provided me an opportunity to air my cursory research based on Irawati Karve’s conclusions given in her book Yuganta. Karve was a sociologist and scholar who has studied somewhat the authenticity of sources for the epic. Pakhi’s questions echoed many of ours and therefore we spent a lot of time on the epic story first. Lets clear up some issues about the story behind the The Palace of Illusions .
The novel follows the epic version quite closely with regard to the story and the basic relationships of the characters to each other. The most glaring point of difference is Draupadi’s secret crush on Karna which is a central thread in the novel. Irawati Karve says that the episode of Karna competing in her swayamvar is not authentic but a later interpolation. The rest of the epic also does not mention any attraction mutual or otherwise though some accounts could be considered hinting it.
Traditionally most of us are under the impression that Arjuna was Draupadi’s first and true love which is supposed to be the reason why Draupadi could not enter heaven in her body in the Mahaprasthan episode. Divakaruni ‘s develops the Draupadi-Karna angle extensively thereby rendering a whole new dimension and adding more emotional depth to Draupadi and highlighting her vulnerability.
Draupadi’s relationship with Krishna also figures importantly in traditional accounts and is given its due here. Divakaruni deviates in her embroidery on the Karna relationship but otherwise follows the epic pretty faithfully . So much for the story .
But what colours and nuances she adds to the picture, what depth and perspective!
Charatcer :
Now we can get down to our reaction to Divakaruni’s Draupadi. We all had so much to say :
Pakhi : (She a left a typed sheet of points ) Draupadi a woman of many contradictions ; a woman of substance and not a pawn in a male dominated society.
On the one hand a woman of destiny born for a purpose but brought up as a mere woman schooled for ‘womanly’ pursuits. She garners her scholarship by listening in on her brother’s lessons and through her closeness to him develops her wider political perspective. Incidentally the brother- sister relationship is also very tenderly depicted and is a cornerstone of her character. The orthodox upbringing fails to curb the independent and rebellious spirit which rages at the male centric order of society which makes a plaything of woman in general and her in particular.
In fact the crux of the portrayal is the sheer contrast and irony of a hugely intelligent, iron-willed, passionate , intensely loyal, dutiful, learned , independent minded and eventually wise woman, and the fact that she is always a pawn :- to her circumstances of birth, her marriage or rather marriages, her father’s life purpose, husbands’ political position, their personal weaknesses and the sheer fact of being of the female gender. The disrobing incident would never have happened if she had been a man. This is the ultimate hurt to a woman’s spirit and self-respect. Divakaruni conveys again and again that Draupadi is ever thrust into events and circumstances over which she has no control and which is none of her doing . She has to adjust repeatedly to circumstances beyond normal parameters – marriage to five brothers and a responsibility to keep them united; hostile in-laws and virtually no emotional support from anybody including her husbands who are too busy upholding dharma ; or her mother in law who could have done better but has baggage of her own. Swept along by the fatal alchemy of the passivity of her righteous husbands and the aggressive ambition and greed of the Kauravs she suffers personal humiliation, loss of princely comforts, home, and finally the loss of family and children. One thing after another. It seems that fate really emptied the dregs on her. So random. Divakaruni compellingly conveys Draupadi feelings of this helplessness at the hands of fate and her vain rage against it. The source of her temper and anger , her revengefulness could be the fact that she has never been allowed to take charge of her own life.
In the victory of Kurulkshetra Draupadi is faced with a devastated kingdom depleted of all vitality, a kingdom of widows and orphans and despoilers. The realisation and sense of futility is complete.
I think that the crux of the novel is that despite her enormous character and substance she is always a pawn , always an object to be bartered, shared, used and made a scapegoat .
Susmita : What if Draupadi were a man?
Certainly one can see her holding pride of place among the mighty heroes of the Mahabharata. She reacts to all situations from a clearcut intellectual, rational point of view. ( Hate to say masculine ) Even during her worst moment being publicly humiliated she doesn’t appeal to the assembled elders from a position of weakness.... she asks about rights. ( Observation made by Irawati Karve, btw) Does Yudhishtir have the power stake her etc. instead of saying help me. When nobody answers she does not break down , she curses and swears vengeance. As a man,I suppose she would not have been in any way remarkable because she would not have been challenged in this way.
Krishnaa and Krishna : Susmita thinks that they are in a way two sides of the same coin e.g male /female principle... she is a part of Krishna just as Arjun is, hence the strong subliminal bond. Krishna is her better self and probably why she has the freedom to do be herself. Krishna gave her confidence in herself from the time he said they were both dark. Draupadi is passionate, hasty, proud, vindictive and earthy, rooted in the worldly stage of action and events. Krishna is omniscient, empowered , indeed the grand puppeteer himself and no one more on a string than Panchali. He has wisdom and possesses knowledge of spiritual reality. Grooms Draupadi for Arjun .
They end up calling each other Sakha and Sakhi which is difficult to translate in English. Not a romantic connection but certainly almost mystic. We get the impression that Draupadi was a bhakt rather in the style of Meera, something we are very familiar with in the Hindu tradition. Also modern women would recognise an assexual ‘best friend’ situation.
We all agreed that the relationship is beyond gender.
Indu, Gita, Shakun : The Pandavas are not very well sketched as individuals.
All: Draupadi didn’t think much of her husbands. They appear to be more of her responsibility rather than spouses to whom she is a first priority.
Probably appears that way because we are seeing them as impressions, through D’s eyes and feelings. After all no man is a hero to his wife and his valet. The brothers are basically peace loving and unambitious. On a personal level they accord D the respect and consideration which is her due, but take her pretty much for granted. They have to periodically be pepped up by family and friends to go claim their inheritance ; otherwise they are quite happy to live in exile and pursue their own personal interests. We realise why Draupadi needs to stoke their fires up to the War because how could one let injustice prevail? This is the moral of the story - that tolerance of injustice only breeds more injustice.
All : Draupadi much more grounded and real than a Sita or some of the other legendary heroines. Appeals to us contemporary women.
Plot
Some said it was jumpy but that is inevitable given the vast canvas. What the author resorts to is a picture of Draupadi’s mental landscape to hold the thread together. She doesn’t waste time actually describing events as a third party. Instead we gather what happened from the heroine’s reaction to the events. This comes out beautifully in the description of life after the War and serves to highlight Draupadi’s compassion and maturity as a woman mellowed by life .
Gita : The secret crush on Karna is beautifully brought out adding a whole dimension through an entirely internal dialogue within Draupadi.
Also the subtlety of the last episode where D realises that Bhima had truly loved her the way she yearned and the greatness , generosity and chivalry of Yudhishtir( too often unappreciated and devalued by her) in not revealing her guilty secret. These touches make her come alive as a strong but emotional and vulnerable woman. In the end she recognises his greatness which she didn’t throughout her life.
Indira : Remarkable how so many of the so called miraculous effects /divine weapons and so on, are to modern eyes the equivalent of sophisticated weapons like self-guided missiles etc. that we know of today.
This has been said of both the epics and is certainly more credible to us than to readers of a hundred years ago.
Universality
This portrait of Draupadi would strike a chord in every modern woman . Do we not face the same need for empowerment in a man’s world, the same sense of betrayal by the society even when we play by the given rules.
Rhythm and Style
The author has used the first person singular narrative to give a very intimate and personal rendering not of the events of the story but of the feelings, thoughts and personal evolution of the central character. Light and natural touch.
It is impossible to stop talking about such an interesting subject so interestingly rendered.
Conclusion
Resounding thump and thumbs up with bells on.
I beg pardon if I have not done justice to the views expressed by all members.
Please post comments to complete.

Chowringhee by Sankar

CHOWRINGHEE by Sankar
5th February 2010
Present : Indira, Pakhi, Runa, Gita, Susmita

Welcome to the two new members Gita and Susmita. Madhushree was content to remain an onlooker for the time being.

I was struck by the way eyes lit up when starting the discussion. Obviously the book inspired enthusiasm. Sankar, alias Mani Shankar Mukherjee, wrote ‘Chowringhee’ in 1962 and it was published in the same year. The English translation however was published only in 2008. This preoccupation with dates arose during the discussion because even after more than 50 years since it was written , it was apparent that our sense of identification with the novel and its impact was very immediate. Plus we wanted to fix the context: the story is set in the fifties. This is important. It was Calcutta (not yet Kolkatta) in its heydays, before its inexorable decline economic, political, cultural, social. When it was a gracious city with its expansive Maidan, rolling Central Avenue, chic and sophisticated Park Street and Theatre Road, grand mansions and Victorian houses in Alipore ; when streets would be hosed down every morning, and in spite of the bustling crowd of a metropolis and erstwhile capital. Poverty existed of course, but in the back streets, bleak and sordid, but the city was still not overrun with the post Partition teeming millions of refugees and the resultant criminalisation of the poor which eventually changed the demographics , politics and economy of Calcutta and the state.

The story depicts the life of a great hotel ,the varying clientele who pass through its doors with their own separate motivations, desires, sorrows and triumphs as well as a picture of the people who function to service the needs of guests , their public personas and their private personalities. It is a microcosm of the city, past and present wihtin the entire range of society from the richest and most powerful, to the dregs of the back slums. The different threads of separate stories , characters and events are held together in the narrator, Shankar, in the style of a sutradhar. The story unfolds through the prism of his perception and he not only describes but also evaluates. He is also however,a character in his own right ,young, inexperienced ,in urgent need to make a living and a fundamental ability to like people and be liked in return. His simplicity and innocent idealism infuses the entire story with an ineffable charm.
The story reflects the typical Bengali psyche : affluence and riches are almost synonymous with corruption and venality whereas the milk of human kindness and common humanity is found amidst the stench and rot of society’s lowest rungs. The ending is essentially tragic in that all the more endearing and noble characters suffer through death or deprivation of some sort and are forced eventually to exit Hotel Shahjahan the main stage where their lives play out their fate. Shankar himself, almost randomly, loses his job and the story ends with him fading into the Calcutta night saddened, disillusioned but .... not in despair. His refusal to lose hope in humanity and reassertion to believe in life resurgent is like a small flame in the dark and is the keynote of the book.

The characters are many larger than life. Pakhi’s professional experience in a Calcutta hotel vouched for the authenticity of many characters behind the scenes, while it is common knowledge that some of the prominent clients of Shahjahan are modelled on well known real life personalities of the day.
To discuss all the major characters would require reams. Just to record some comments from the members – Susmita remarked how Marco Polo is the quintessential hero to the Bengali psyche: a foreigner whose generosity of heart embraces/rescues the downtrodden – witness Anthony Firinghee, Mother Teresa, Sister Nivedita, C.P. Andrews to name a few. To Pakhi he recalls the soldier of fortune a la Grahame Greene. Connie , the example of a fallen woman with a heart of gold ; Gomes the artist forced to trivialise his talents.
And of course the king pin of the book, Sata Bose... suave, quick witted, and with a world weary savoire faire , accepting the hypocrisy and corruption of his clientele with equanimity. Yet thoroughly sympathetic and kind and genuinely helpful to those in need . It’s not for nothing that Shankar looks up to him as his guru and role model. A lot of the humour and wit in the book is due to his pithy remarks.
All characters are a mixture of the good , the bad and the weak and vulnerable which makes us relate to them very easily.
One small factor worth noting is that this is a novel without a central heroine. There are memorable female characters but none who is central as compared to the tradition of authors like Tagore and Sarat Chandra who wrote many novels which were heroine centric.

Universality – Indira declared the canvas to be almost epical - no doubt as to the intellectual depth as being in a totally different class from our last book The Immigrant. No doubt at all as to the timelessness and wider appeal of this book. We started talking about how Mumbai was going the same way... maybe any large city where material success is paramount would have the same effect. Bigger socio political and spiritual issues are hinted at throughout – People who lose their moral authority also lose their right to life in this milieu – they fade away , as I have mentioned earlier.

Style as mentioned earlier, very picaresque and brilliant use made of the traditional Indian Sutradhar figure which allows the narrative enormous flexibility so that themes can weave back and forth and connections can be made to appear resulting in a canvas of immense richness and with hundreds of nuances of colour , light and shade. Humour and a gentle tolerance leavens everything, though as a Bengali I think some of the humour was lost in translation.

Rhythm is smooth and flowing and it is an easy and page turning read despite being a translation.
Vote : Thumbs up