All four pieces presented in this edition of Out of Print are excerpted from longer works. Three are from novels: Vivek Shanbhag’s fine Ghachar Ghochar, translated by Srinath Perur, Kaushik Barua’s edgy, contemporary No Direction Rome and Janhavi Acharekar’s period novel, Wanderers, All. The fourth is from a translation of the epic narrative, Tilism-e-Hoshruba translated by Shahnaz Aijazuddin.
The origins of the Tilism-e-Hoshruba are shrouded in rivalry, conspiracy, intrigue, and mystery. Believed to have been first transcribed to print in the late 1800s, the creation of the tale of Hoshruba, an extension of the Hamza Nama was apparently motivated by a complex combination of cultural, and regional alignment, and is a clever incorporation of Indian fantasy elements into the oral Dastan storytelling traditions that originated in Persia. The story of this ‘great tentacled beast of a tale’ set in a magical realm or Tilism is beautifully described in the Introduction to Hoshruba by Musharraf Ali Farooqi in Out of Print 4 and by Shahnaz Aijazuddin who summarises the tale and describes its history on the Out of Print blog in a feature accompanying this issue. Regardless of it’s provenance, the story is one that is filled with adventure, intrigue, politics, fantasy, magic, fun and nuance, and we are immensely pleased to feature Chapter 1 of Aijazuddin’s translation.
The excerpt from Vivek Shanbhag’s novel, Ghachar Ghochar translated with elegance by Srinath Perur captures the heart-stopping intensity of a first encounter between a man and woman with all the thrill and underlying portent that must accompany such perfection. The layered complexity of the story is revealed with a straightforward simplicity of narrative that can only come from an incredibly strong and intelligent mastery of craft. It is an honour to feature it.
Green Room, excerptedfrom Janhavi Acharekar’s Wanderers, All is set in a pre-Independence Bombay and centres around a Superintendent of Police who is drawn into the characters he assumes when he disguises himself to gather information. It places the reader in a fascinating space that crosses boundaries between theatre and police work, between assuming another persona in all its complexity, and the device of assuming a disguise to solve crime. We are taken to another world, another time, and like with the other excerpts in this issue, taken to a situation that leaves us yearning to know more.
From these worlds of magic in Hoshruba, of a Bombay of yore in the Green Room, and of a robust middle-class whose solidity only highlights the fragility of individual relationships in Ghachar Ghochar, we are thrust, in Kaushik Barua’s excerpt Come ON Take a TRIP from his brilliantly paced recent novel, No Direction Rome, into the tension and angst of young man’s existence. Told with a voice that balances an essential integrity with the aggressive flippancy of the contemporary, we follow a small part of the character, Krantik’s journey as he wends his way in an apparently self-destructive, acutely self-aware path of self-discovery.
The art on the cover of Out of Print 21 is by Delna Dastur.