Book Review: Rustling Alphabets by Nirmal Jaswal

Book: Rustling Alphabets

Author: Nirmal Jaswal (Dr.)

Publisher: Har-Anand Publications Pvt. Ltd.

Publication year: 2024

Pages:118

Price: ₹ 499 INR / US$8 / Cad. $10 

ISBN: 978-8119798-29-2

Reviewed By: Vinod Khanna

There are as many stories in the world as the number of people inhabiting this planet. That means there are roughly eight billion stories- nay eight billion books of stories, not one identical to the other. A story writer has the capacity to imagine and visualize the events happening around him or her and paint these in the form of word pictures. Uncountable stories have been written by famous and not-so-famous writers, but the stream keeps flowing endlessly, sometimes roaring in nightly darkness and at other times reflecting the ebullient, charming colours of the rainbow.

Every story writer has a unique canvas and his favourite colours which are reflected in his work barring some great masters who have written iconic stories that will endure till eternity. Their canvas is much greater. The stories by Munshi Premchand, Saadat Hasan Manto, Chekhov, Tolstoy, O Henry, Qurratulain Hyder, Ismat Chughtai, and many others fall into this category that cover a wide range of emotions. They were masters because their stories left a lingering effect upon the mind of the reader and continued to haunt him for a very long time.

Nirmal Jaswal is a famous story writer in her own right and has exhibited a deep understanding of various complexities of life, mainly of man-woman relationships. 

Most of her stories are born out of feelings of love, lust, longing, and even lesbianism. A writer doesn't necessarily write based on pure imagination. His or her sojourn through life provides enough food for thought and once you are a working woman or a single mom in a traditional conservative society, you encounter people of all sorts who provide you enough plots for many stories. Long back I read Nirmal's book ‘Nazakatan’ and that gave me enough understanding of the psyche that is reflected again and yet again in her stories and novels which I have read or reviewed. She has a keen sense of observation and she is a mind reader par excellence. She doesn't brush her feelings under the carpet but writes a little bluntly and boldly without fearing that it may earn her some enemies too in the process.

It is not that she writes only about the intricacies involving man-woman relationships. It is surprising that the same Nirmal who has written ‘Gelling with Sand’ bordering on a lesbian relationship between two friends, has also written a story like ‘The Vampire’ describing the horrors of the gas chambers of Auschwitz. It is like a good actor who can perform the roles of a king as well as a beggar with equal felicity. Nirmal switches her subjects comfortably like a bird flitting from one branch to the other and from one tree to another. The horrors of Auschwitz bring alive in her mind the stories of victims of partition of her own country as told by her mother and the genocide of the Sikhs that she saw in 1984. A writer has to be alive to the pain suffered by the society. I have yet to read another story like ‘The Vampire’

Flirting and philandering by men of the neo-rich society is reflected in her story ‘Celebration’, and mind it, it is not only the men but women also irrespective of their age who have a glad eye in a party, where it seems, it is free for all. Here Bacchus rules supreme, although the protagonist in the story doesn't seem to like it when an old man trying to entice her ultimately blurts out, ‘After a couple of drinks, one does fall morally’. She thinks of her husband enjoying the party in the company of other women. It makes her so uncomfortable that she doesn't like her husband’s touch who comes to sleep with her. In his touch, she feels the crawling of a million scorpions on her back. What a real depiction of the feelings of a wronged woman!

Moving away from the oft-repeated theme of man-woman relationships, Nirmal does not forget to write about burning social issues. Her story ‘Slavery’ has been written focusing upon the rampant issue of racism that still exists in the so-called developed world. The curse of racism has come to stay despite the martyrdom of leaders like Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi.

The problem becomes more acute when the younger generation of the white population takes it forward with greater audacity and more vehemently. Everything looks hunky-dory from the outside but stinks below the surface. An undercurrent of racist tendencies is visible when the young white children hurl stones and abuse at an Asian lady of the age of their mothers, who is trying to make a phone call at a telephone booth in their area

Coming back to the man-woman relationship, the story ‘Cocktail’ deals with the phenomenon of midlife crisis that occurs in every person’s life, more so in men than in women. The advancing middle age signals the declining libido. As they say, sex is in the mind, the increasing responsibilities result in mental tensions and the sexual urge is directly hit. The gulf between husband and wife starts widening. But the man does not easily accept this decline in his bed room performance and in order to prove his manhood, hunts for another partner outside the marital limits. The protagonist of the story is in a somewhat similar situation. However his efforts prove futile while his wife scores over him here also. This cat and mouse game is rampant in the society and the writer needs to be applauded for boldly depicting this sordid side of our social fabric.

‘Guilt Consciousness’ is another story that is bordering on the same phenomenon. Here an army officer spends a couple of nights in a guest house with his lady-love. But next time when he stays with his wife in the same place, the hawk-eyed attendant catches him. He reminds that last time he entered the name of his wife as Navneet in the guest register instead of Kulwant Kaur. The only analogy for such behavior on the part of that army officer I can think of is reflected in the title of a play enacted in Chandigarh years ago. The title was ‘Halwa sooji da te chaska dooji da’ (The taste of company of other woman is as good as the taste of semolina pudding).

With her mastery in depicting man-woman relationships, Nirmal does not forget the third gender.

The story ‘The Perverse’ brings out yearning of a pervert for a beautiful looking girl who turns out to be a eunuch. Sitting on the adjacent seats in a bus, he strikes a note of friendship with her and invites her to stay with him at his home, although he has a wife waiting for him at home. The writer successfully drives home the point that it is not a crime to be beautiful and born as the third gender at the same time; it is hard to beat society’s skewed thinking about these lesser children of the same God who kept the lucky ones out of this dilemma.

Then there is this story ‘Rustling’. It is a story of two theater artists satisfying their carnal desire unmindful of others sleeping nearby, after a hard day’s work. The actress named Zari flips partners like one changes dresses. The narrator of the story watches her in the act and feels jealous while hearing rustling of clothes of the two bodies inter-twined together. Her secret desire of interchanging her position with Zari overpowers her thought process. But Zari, when confronted, is least ashamed of her behavior and is very clear about her sexual preferences. She philosophically justifies it saying, ‘This too is a play! Enjoyment of the world, to play your own part, the deceitful act of sensuality, while awaiting another day to repeat the same play’.

The irony of our conservative society comes alive when we see our people falling prey to some of the maladies prevalent in the white population whom we condemn for evils like racism and permissiveness. The story ‘The Scattered Man’ is a case in point. When a Sikh gentleman wants to enjoy the company of a beloved and seek divorce from his wife, he seems to be cast in the mould of a white man for whom divorce is something about which one does not have to think twice. However, it goes against the grain of the traditional Indian family system, where your life is subservient to the interests of children and senior members of the family who need your care and support. There is no equivalent word for divorce in many of the Indian languages. Even ‘Talaq’ is an Arabic word. But is there a word for it in Hindi or Panjabi? None. So when there is no word for a phenomenon, the phenomenon itself does not exist.

West has always wondered about the uniqueness of the Indian family system where you have married couples living together for decades. But then roots are roots and our Sardarji, the anti-hero of our story, who is ready to apply for divorce in favour of his ladylove, develops cold feet when told to sheer off his long hair. It is the dilemma of the scattered man trying to enjoy the best of both worlds. Between the two stools, you are sure to fall. That becomes an eye-opener for his beloved too, who is quick to withdraw from this toxic relationship.

All in all, Nirmal Jaswal can be said to be an acute observer of life that routinely passes by her. She does not theorize, moralize or philosophies about the people, situations, and phenomena she observes and writes about.

She exposes everything as it exists in society, raw, real, relishing, or repulsive. 

To that, I call the intellectual honesty of a writer. You too will be surprised to discover this plain-speaking author when you read her stories.

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Bio: Vinod Khanna (b. 1948), is an Engineer by profession He writes poetry and prose in English, Hindi and Panjabi. He has written and published 10 books and edited another two books.

Three of his books were got released by the Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla through the Honourable Governor (H.P) and the Honourable Chief Minister (H.P).His book of English poetry 'Lamp Post'(2014) was adjudged the best poetry book for the tear 20214 by The Poetry Society of India, Gurgaon.His latest book ‘Rhyme and Reason’ was sponsored for publication by Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi.

His writings have been published by the daily Hindustan Times, Contemporary Vibes (Englsh), Pushapgandha magazine (Hindi), Preet Lari, & Akhar (Panjabi)

Presently, he is the President of The Readers and Writers Society of India, Chandigarh.

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Setu, December 2024

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