Book Review: Portraits in Dignity
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| Portraits in Dignity | Short Fiction | Eva Bell | Notion Press (2022) | ISBN: 979-8-88815-644-5 | Pages: 207 | ₹ 249 |
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Reviewed by:
Atreya Sarma U
One of the best-known fiction writers, “Dr. Eva Bell
is a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Her short
stories, articles, and children stories have been published in magazines,
anthologies and on the Net. She is a published author of novels—Silver
Amulet, Halo of Deceit, Runaway Widow, and Power Surge in
Eden” (Blurb).
Dr Eva Bell—whose professional experience comes in
handy especially to pen stories about patients, doctors, and ailments—is adept
in keeping the reader on tenterhooks, and maintaining suspense even in the
other type of stories. Portraits in Dignity is a must read—especially
from the need of women empowerment in a country (Bharat/India) where there are
many factors against women, with not only men acting against the fair gender,
but with some of the women themselves being unfair to their co-women.
‘Pink Magnolia’ is
about Nimmo, an early adolescent and the oldest of seven siblings, born
of poor Nepali parents, living on the Indo-Nepal border. The parental poverty
drives her, without her knowledge/volition, into a Bombay brothel. But she
doesn’t get into a rut, taking every care to maintain her individuality and
self-respect, giving importance not just for money but even for family and
moral values.
Rahul Chinnappa, a young and well-off jobholder,
provoked by his friends, goes to her for an overnight relationship, but her
stand changes him, a first-timer. He
eventually helps her rescue herself. So also, Gregory D’Mellow—a sexagenarian
storywriter who engages her as his cook-cum-maid and teaches her Hindi and
English—helps her out.
This is the longest story in the collection. It is
gripping—with psychological insights—narrating the problem of poor families
with many children, and showing how Nimmo stays to her moral, ethical and
family values with due tact and intelligence and gives no hoots to earning
unfair income. How shaky, insecure are the lives of the poor, especially girls!
Nimmo is a self-respecting girl.
The portions of “Ram” and “Aum” in the names of Ram
Ghising and Madam Aum vis-├а-vis Gregory Saheb aka Gregory D’Mellow—could be
seen as anti-Hindu bias by a section of readers. Gregory’s penchant for living
in the Himalayan region reminds us of Ruskin Bond.
On a lighter note, despite the long-standing change of
the names of cities like Bombay, Bangalore, Madras, and Calcutta as Mumbai,
Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kolkata…still there are writers who prefer the old
names. The old names are alright if the story belongs to the then times.
Appu, a street orphan, found wincing with a high
fever, is helped by Mrs Irani—who lovingly teaches her a few English tunes (‘Gateway’s
Singing Sensation’). Calling her Nagina, Mrs Irani gives her a good job at
her wealthy home. Yet the girl—used to the freedom and company of friends at
her earlier habitat—runs away. She can’t, however, totally adjust to the street
life where she has chosen to return, and regrets her action of leaving Mrs
Irani who was even ready to send her to school.
Nagina, by belting out a few English songs that Mrs Irani
taught her, turns into a singer of sorts at the Gateway of India and also a
kind of tourist guide. A foreign woman traveller spots Nagina and loving her
for her inherent qualities and talent, comes forward to adopt her. The woman is
married and is from the USA. Martha and Ross take her to the USA and take care
of her. Nagina is now a part of a music band, and the band comes to India to
perform. Nagini invites Mrs Irani to attend. In this touching and insightful
story with psychological nuances, Nagina has a frightening moment with Mrs
Irani’s husband, a sadist psycho.
The story could, in the view of some readers, appear
to be biased towards the Western/Christian way of life since there are any
number of philanthropic organisations run by Hindus for orphans, needy and poor
women, etc. However, such characters may not be ruled out in real life.
‘Flight to Freedom’
is a heart-moving tale of a 10-year-old girl whose mother is a Devadasi.
Reluctant to be a Devadasi herself, Ammu runs away from home, and somehow
settles in Dharwad, taken care of by a compassionate childless widow working in
a child welfare organisation. The girl joins a school and completes her XII
grade. She wins a prize in an important elocution competition and it helps her
to go in for further studies, when Jahnavi—her foster mother—worries about
finances. Muthu, Ammu’s mom—thanks to newspaper reports—comes to know of her
daughter’s accomplishment and feels happy. And they run into each other in
Dharwad.
In the story ‘A Memory to Treasure’ Sudha
a Dalit, who passed XII grade, becomes the only woman autorickshaw driver in
the city. She ferries only women passengers. Only once, she has to give a ride
to a male—Anil Rao—a bureaucrat. He is sympathetic and generous. The male auto
drivers, riven by jealousy and hatred, harass her and even mangle her vehicle
and her—black and blue—since she refuses to join the strike called for by their
union, even as they were never sympathetic to her. Barely escaping from death,
she quits auto driving, does the law course, and joins the State’s Human Rights
Commission. Anil Rao, who helped her with the hospital treatment, happens to
meet her after a gap of 4 years. They blossom out their unexpressed love, and
marry, despite protests from their respective parents.
While Sudha is a Dalit, Anil is a Brahmin. A co-Dalit,
who is in a one-way love with her, attacks Anil and leaves him dead, in an
honour killing with reverse discrimination. And Sudha, despite her parents’
advice to lie low, is determined to bring the culprit to book, come what may, armed
as she is with concrete evidence. The story points at some of the negative ways
of trade unions, gender discrimination, and reverse caste discrimination.
Linda is a qualified artist and singer (‘Legally
Unbound’). Her pastime is to perform every Saturday at a Mumbai club where
she happens to run into a rich, young businessman who falls in love with her.
In the meantime, he gives an impression that her art is very good. But once
they are wedded, he—originally and even now cockish—turns into someone to
insulate her from any normal freedom, and gets to belittle her. He likes her
just to be his toy, that’s all. She consults her clubmate cum surgeon, and then
a counsellor in Pune, her parental place. Finally, she divorces him to be back with
her creative self with self-respect.
In the story ‘No Second Deal’—Valerie and Robin
married just 6 months ago, but Robin moves away to a girl Olga who is the wife
of Desmond, a rich man. She is far younger than Valerie. It runs into
friendship between the two couples. A few months later, Robin walks out on
Valerie to live with Olga, whose hubby Desmond had met with a disabling
accident. In fact, it is ploy by Olga and Desmond to have Robin help them
financially—since they are in deep debts. In the meantime, Olga develops a
relationship with another rich man and she poisons Desmond. Robin wants a
reunion with Valerie but she flatly and rightly refuses. She is hoping for
wedding with Mathew.
‘Entrapped’
is a story wherein Meena, an 18-year-old widow, with both her parents already
dead—is not treated well by her in-laws though they are rich. She is forced to
flee away and is trapped in a Naxalite camp and turns into a terrorist herself.
The Naxals, despite their tall talk against the rest of the non-tribal
society—are themselves given to patriarchy, killing of poor and innocent
people, looting and robbery, and even forcing their woman cadre into sex with
them. In such a situation, Meena successfully resists such a raping attempt,
strides back into the mainstream society, decides to fight for her share of
property from her in-laws, joins the police force, and takes up cudgels against
the very Naxalites who had entrapped her. This story was first published in the
Muse India literary ejournal (Jan-Feb 2017).
‘Love’s Miracle’
narrates the story of Rathi, a transgender girl, who becomes an orphan when
sixteen. She comes to Mumbai to get some job, and happens to be parented by a
childless couple in their 40’s. They take full care of her by adopting her and
spending all their money on her treatment so that she can be a fully biological
girl. She goes to the US on full scholarship for higher studies, and comes back
with Danny to marry him. They return to the US. The old couple, upset
financially, sell away their large house to eke out their livelihood.
Surprisingly, there is no offer by Rathi to help them financially. This is a
fly in the ointment, though parents don’t have any such regrets.
In ‘Her Treasured Secret’—Ritu marries Narayana
when she is 17. He is caring, and they have a baby girl, Gita. He somehow turns
lethargic and out of mind, and loses his job. Ritu is clueless. Helplessly, she
leaves him at a temple, and goes away to another place to eke out her living,
and by chance leaves her baby with a good old childless couple she runs into.
First, she is a maid in a roadside restaurant, and her beauty fetches her more
income. Then she gets a chance to go to Bombay and turn into a bar dancer, and
then into a pricey item girl. The daughter’s guardians (foster parents) die,
and she, a bright student, leaves for Australia after getting a job there. She
earlier despised and disowned her mom but now she invites her to settle down
with her for good.
Now here is the story of twists and turns of a famous
teenage film heroine, Nakshatra (‘Run While You Can’). She is duped by
her sadist husband Vinod who grabs all her property. After realising that she
can no longer live with him and also losing her real “self” in the buzz of her
restless shoots, she disappears from the scene, all of a sudden. Vinod, in the
meantime, makes the police believe that her dead body is found in a creek. The
police close the case. Nakshatra, whose real name is Veena Seshadri, joins as
the warden of a residential school for poor girls, at Darjeeling. Darshan,
earlier her film director, happens to know of her location. Smelling Vinod’s
fabrication through him—and having already decided to restart her film life
once she regains her inner peace—she goes to Bombay and complains to the
police. Real star she is, true to her name Nakshatra, isn’t it?!
Romi and Jatin (‘A time to mend’) are very
bright engineering students and fierce rivals, always outsmarting each other in
every activity. They are competitive with a view to being friendly! But once
the graduation ceremony is over, they realise their innate but unrecognised
love for each other. And they tie the knot. The twosome are on the upper rungs
of their respective professional ladders. Romi’s mother-in-law Mrs Das wants
them “to start a family”. But being impotent, Jatin hides it and boasts of his
virility. He refuses to undergo fertility tests but Romi goes through them, and
she doesn’t have any fertility flaw. In the meantime, Jatin coaxes her into a
bash, but not disclosing that it’s a wife-swapping party! She attends the party
but doesn’t slip into the trap. Thanks to artificial insemination, Romi begets
a baby girl. The distance between the couple now widens further, owing to
Jatin’s stupid lies. Romi along with her baby moves out. After a year, Jatin
gets penitent and the couple reunites.
The final story is ‘Resurgence’ wherein Shirley
secures a seat for PG in Paediatrics. And she is in undisclosed love with
Reggie, her college mate. But her father’s cancer and her mother’s appeal make
her sacrifice both. Shirley’s parents
propose that she marry Martin, a handsome IPS officer. She is attracted to him,
but she is at odds with his possessiveness demanding that she should be a
full-time housewife never practising medicine. With her mother’s advice, she
turns into a very good cook. Shirley is open and learns a simple, cheap,
healthy recipe from her maid. She receives a prestigious prize of $5,000 and
has already her own culinary blog which is very popular.
When she is on edge to reveal it to her hubby, he
himself congratulates her. How has he come to know of it? It’s through his
colleague’s wife who avidly follows Shirley’s blog.
Turning every seemingly undesired situation into a
challenge and creative opportunity is the forte of Shirley.
It’s time, dear readers, to pick up Eva Bell’s Portraits in Dignity full of healthy doses of a creative tonic.
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