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.
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