Silent Life: Memoirs of a Writer by Chaman
Nahal
Review: Anita Nahal
Physical journeys,
emotional, metaphorical, philosophical and of self-exploration to the point of
self-depreciation, journeys that reflect upon the nature of life and humans are
spilled over the 286 pages of my father’s gripping memoir, Silent Life.
Published in 2005 by Roli Books, the memoir stops when he turns seventy. By his
own choosing. He says on page 273, “I was seventy in 1997 and that’s where I
want to end… one has to stop somewhere…” We would joke with him that his life
had been anything but silent. Over time I comprehended why he selected that
title, or that blurry, shadowy image for the cover page. Despite how much we
might say, sometimes loudly, or even writing about it strongly, yet at the end
of it all, we come and go alone… silently most of the times, even when in
physical pain. And then when we are alive, we still seek silence on numerous
occasions for varied reasons. It’s the juxtaposition of the universe with
humans that confronts us deeply and when we are confused or shocked or numbed,
silence takes over. As a writer, our life can be especially alone and silent
when searching excruciatingly or embarrassingly for answers to colossal
metaphysical questions of ‘Who are we?’ ‘Where did we come from?’ ‘Where will we
go after this life?’ ‘How do we behave so we don’t hurt others?’ My father’s
humanism is what shines through like a golden star in his memoir trying to find
solutions, mostly withdrawing humbly, in silence! The reality of human
limitations, human compulsions, needs and desires, sometimes to our detriment
is a recurrent theme in my father’s memoir. However, the return to basics of
family, surviving and thriving is also deeply embedded in the book.
I found fascinating how
my father weaves daily living with mammoth philosophies and constantly checks
himself throughout life, trying to improve upon himself. He would have liked to
improve others instead, like we all do, yet he also accepted its impossibility,
like we all grudgingly do too! Talking about injustice…individual or
collective, promoting fairness, equality and equilibrium in what he saw as
wrong and unhinged, plus the duality within himself and most humans also is a
constant theme in the memoir. My father travelled extensively in India, the US
and to the UK, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Japan, and
Fiji to name a few countries, and his objectivity in speaking about the
positives and negatives in different places is refreshingly unrelenting.
He called himself a
novelist, yet at a plethora of places in the memoir, it reads like a prose
poem. His words are lyrical and enchanting. He would often tell me, “I wish I
could write poetry like you do.” I would be quick to say, “Oh, you can write
anything, you are so good!” And we know as a fact that he had written a long
poem on India titled, Bharat, Bharat, Hum Is Ki Santan (India, India, we are
its children) for Doordarshan, Delhi which was created into a song by
Doordarshan. Sung by Udit Narayan and Vani Jayaram with music composed by
Bhajan Sopori, it ran for many years before the evening news. Sadly, the song
is not given in the book and I can’t find a copy. There are a couple of poems strewn around my
father’s memoir though. I had forgotten that was the case, and I smiled because
my just completed novel is a combination of prose and poetry.
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[my father]
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My recollections of my
father and his remarkable teachings have always remained clear and fresh in my
mind. And this honestly written, very readable memoir reminds me that many of
my traits, philosophies, mannerisms, and words, and much more comes from
him…and my mother. I feel my memoir, whenever I write it, if I do, would have
many similarities!
Bio:
Anita Nahal, Ph.D.,
CDP is a poet, professor, short story writer, flash fictionist,
children’s books author, and D&I consultant. Currently she teaches at the
University of the District of Columbia, Washington DC. Besides academic publications,
her creative books include, two volumes of poetry, Hey...Spilt milk is
spilt, nothing else (2018) and Initiations (1988), a
collection of flash fictions, Life on the go-Flash fictions from New
Delhi to America (2018), and three children’s books: I love
Mummy and other new nursery rhymes, When I Grow Up and other new
nursery rhymes and The Greedy Green Parrot and Other Stories (1993-1995).
Her poems and stories can be found in national and international journals
including, Aberration Labyrinth, Better Than Starbucks, Aaduna,
River Poets Journal, Colere, Setu, Poetryspective,
and in a number of Medium publications in the US, Confluence in
the UK, Lapis Lazuli in Asia and The Burrow in Australia. Nahal
received an honorable mention in the 2017 Concrete Wolf Chapbook
competition. Nahal is co-editor (with Roopali Sircar Gaur) of the anthology,
In All The Spaces-Diverse Voices In Global Women's Poetry (2020).
She is also a guest contributing editor for aaduna journal and is co-host of
the monthly online creative series, Tan Doori Gup Shup. Nahal is the
daughter of Indian novelist and professor, Late Dr. Chaman Nahal, and her
mother, Late Dr. Sudarshna Nahal was an educationist, author and principal of a
K-12 school. Originally from New Delhi, India, Anita Nahal resides in the US.
Her family include her son, daughter-in-law and their golden doodle. For more
on Anita: https://anitanahal.wixsite.com/anitanahal
