|
 Do
you remember the foggy afternoon of January 2, 1975 when the then Union
railway minister L.N. Mishra was assassinated at the Samastipur railway
station in Bihar? Before a team of investigators headed by Shashi Bhushan
Sahai could unravel the mystery, dark days of the Emergency descended
on the nation and Indira Gandhi quietly handed over the case to the CBI.
Twenty-seven years on the case is still pending in a Delhi court. Who
cares?
Now, the assassination that might have exposed a deep-rooted conspiracy
to eliminate an influential Bihari politician, has found a mention in
Sahai's first novel, The Alien of Fakeland (Minerva). In a way Fakeland
(that is, India) is a spontaneous overflow of the frustration of Sahai,
71, who joined the Indian Police Service as an idealist. He had seen the
fading years of the Raj, the Freedom Movement and Independence. But his
idealism, as he realised later, put him on the wrong side of the political
establishment. His disenchantment found expression in the three books
that he has penned since retirement-Politics of Corruption: The Goddess
That Failed (1995), India: Twilight At Midnight (1997) and South Asia:
From Freedom To Terrorism (1998).
His latest offering is a stinging commentary on Indian politics and
society. It revolves around an idealistic young man faced with bitter
realities. "It is a work of fiction," he says, "but not
a pure figment of imagination either. Any meaningful work of fiction is
drawn from the experiences of the writer." So you have Satish Shaw,
the troubled but fascinating central character whose alienation is manifested
in his outburst: "Prostitutes are real, the only real, genuine people
in this land of fakes..."
In a sharp departure from the current Indian writing, Shaw is nostalgic
about the Raj. As Sheila, the principal woman character, says, "Our
finest hour was when we were fighting the British for freedom and not
when we got rid of them." For people of his generation, asserts Sahai,
it is difficult not to be nostalgic.
-Farzand Ahmed
 
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CURRENT
ISSUE MARCH 25, 2002
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