A different stroke
Book title: Rebirth
Author: Jahnavi Barua
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 203
Price: Rs 250
Rebirth revolves around the life of Kaberi, a woman born and brought up in Guwahati in a middle class family. It’s the story of her experiences as she gets married, conceives and is suddenly left by her wealthy husband, Ranjit Bora, for another woman.
Somewhere in the middle of it all, her closest childhood friend, Joya, dies in a blast that rips through the bus she is travelling in while going to a rural medical camp.
Jahnavi Barua adopts a novel technique to tell the story — Kaberi speaks to her unborn child and gives vivid details of her childhood, and the good times she spent with Joya while growing up.
She tells her unborn child the misery she undergoes in Bangalore with her feckless and unfaithful husband and the novel she is working on.
She gets the news of her father’s death in Guwahati and goes for his funeral. There she meets Bidyut, Joya’s husband, who is doing well in Guwahati after an initial struggle. They develop a mutual affection for each other and Bidyut promises her all the help should she require it.
Kaberi goes back to Bangalore to give birth. The story ends with the impending birth of the baby.
Barua manages to make the narration absorbing. The description of the Brahmaputra and other scenery is well done. She also weaves a delicate web around the other characters — her parents, Joya, her aunt and uncle, and the parents-in-law, and, of course, Bidyut.
The finale is again very subtly written.
Ranjit leaves the other woman, but Kaberi does not accept him back. He stays in the company guesthouse.
She informs her mother and other friends in Bangalore and Guwahati, but not Ranjit. Even Bidyut is told.
What happens after the child is born? Kaberi has three options: return of her husband; go to Bidyut; remain on her own with her mother and aunt.
The reader is left to draw his own conclusions.
The story is unique in two ways — the form of narration, and the ending, are uncommon in a novel. She has woven a subtle web around all the characters. The little incidents – her husband’s infidelity and his beating Kaberi, the distant relationship with her parents, the confessions her mother makes after her father’s death, the assurances of security by her mother and aunt, and the controlled presence of Bidyut — have a bearing on the ending.
Jahnavi shows a good command over language. There is a smooth flow right through, without any prolixity or over elaboration. The balance between description and narration is just right. She scores outstandingly well in the conclusion — again an uncommon way of ending a novel.
This is a very good effort by the author. She deserves full credit for such a work and may there be many more.
H.W.T. SYIEM
Published on February 17, 2012
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