Desai, Anita. In
Custody. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1984. 204pp. Print.
Anita
Desai is an English-language Indian novelist and author of children’s books who
excelled in evoking character and mood through visual images ranging from
meteorological to the botanical. Her sensitive portrayal and understanding of
intrinsic human nature makes her writings conspicuous and captivating. The
novel,In Custody is one of the examples.
I
just loved reading the novel. It’s a fantastic experience for me. As I was
reading the novel, I was able to imagine the things happening within in the
novel in my mind very clearly. I felt one among the characters. The vivid
character portrayal and the language of the author carried me into the world of
imagination where I travelled without any hindrance and got an unimaginable
experience for my life.
As the saying goes: “If winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”
in spite of all the bad things,
there is a ray of hope in everyone’s life.
Desai’s
novel, In Custody paints this idea of hope in the life of the
protagonist, Deven, his life is tinged with optimism in the end, in spite of
all the pessimism he had in the beginning.
The
story is told in a third-person point of view. The setting of the novel is
Mirpore and Delhi. There are three main characters in the novel around them the
story runs. They are: Deven, Murad and Nur. Other characters are: Sarla (Deven’s
Wife), Manu (Deven’s Son), Nur’s two Wives, and other side characters which
include Deven’s friends in college and assistants. The novel contains eleven
chapters. Throughout the novel, some poetic lines are quoted which adds colour
to it and makes the reading a pleasurable one.
The
Epigraph which sums up the whole theme of the novel is:
‘…..they
should take the power
And they should keep who can.’
Rob Roy’s Grave
William Wordsworth
The
state of Deven can be summed up in his own recitation of Nur’s verse:
“Withered
as the last leaf upon the tree
Shaken
by the chill blast of winter”
The
novel starts with an air of pessimism hung over in the atmosphere of Mirpore,
where the novel’s protagonist, Deven resides. Deven is a simple professor of a
college in the department of Hindi, a department that carried the capacity of
high literature but, presently lies, almost in a dilapidated condition,
firstly, due to the lack of enthusiasm on the part of the students to master
the subject-a subject that had little or no value in the job market and
secondly, due to the composition of the town itself, a town of the tea wallahs
and the truck drivers, in short inhabited by a class of people that form a
distant part in the desire to grasp the beauties of philosophy, art and poetry.
Into
this dismal world, comes a ray of hope in the form of his childhood friend and
companion, Murad. Murad is the editor of an Urdu magazine that aims to publish
long lost unpublished pieces of poems of high artistic value of the once
famous, decrepit poet Nur Shahjenahabad who“is a whale in a pail of water”. Deven being an Urdu lover jumps in joy
as Murad gives him the opportunity to interview the poet, something that he had
wished since the time he relished the writing of Urdu poets and novelists.
The
twist in the story occurs when he finds how the life of Nur whom he considered
as the epitome of reverence and regard, the God of Urdu poetry, is fraught with
misery and poverty. Poverty in both the sense of the lack of material goods and
the poverty of the mind-the psyche. He is not only plagued by ill-health but
also by his surroundings. The competition between his two wives, the noise and
chaos of the fanatics, and the absence of decorum all combined create a
distorted atmosphere, an unaesthetic ambience.
Nur’s
Verse:
“Night
ends, dawn breaks, and sorrow reappears,
Addressing
us in morning light with a cock’s shrill crow...”
“My
body no more than a reed pen cut by the sword’s tip,
Useless
and dry till dipped in the ink of life’s blood”
It’s
Deven who gets entangled in the innumerable chains of difficulties surmounting
Nur in the process of his interview. The interview turns out to be less of an
oration of his lost poetry and more a revelry comprising rum, kebabs, biryani
and gluttonous talks combined with an inefficient assistant and a second hand
tape recorder meant to record Nur’s voice, in an attempt to make the work
easier. All this leads up to dismal failure, making him shell out money on food,
on room rent, on bribing his first wife to fix up the appointment, followed by
Nur’s letter back in Mirpore about his intention to visit Mecca and to inform
about his cataract operation. The whole novel portrays a descending trajectory
of Deven and the rise of miseries coupled with misfortunes.
The
happiness of being with a child is one of the elements, which touches the heart
of the reader. Manu is the son of Deven.
Deven forgets all his failures and troubles when he sees and chats with his
son. Manu gives hope to his father. He redeems him from his sufferings and
gives happiness with his childish prattle. Deven admires his son with rapt
attention which Deven didn’t get from his parents:
“He
(Deven) told himself how lucky he was to have exchanged the dangers of Nur’s
poetry for the undemanding chatter of a child.”
The
novel questions the meaning of friendship that stands on selfishness and
insensitivity as observed by Deven’s relationship with Murad, the bonds of
marriage mirrored in Deven’s complacent behaviour towards his wife and the
educational system of the nation where students with scientific backgrounds are
meant for the luxuries of life whereas those with a knack for humanities are
shown to rot in dingy classrooms. This fact is also revealed in the way in
which Deven’s Hindi students take technical classes outside in order to get
employment, giving least importance to the learning of the subject within the
college premises. This is a reflection of the fact that the art, culture,
heritage and history of the country lies threatened in front of the emerging
technological boom of the globe.
The
novel can be regarded as an optimistic tale of Deven and Nur in spite of the
repeated pessimisms hovering in their lives. This is because Nur at the end
finds himself a custodian to breathe to him his life as it actually is and
Deven gets the opportunity to take the custody of the divine poet whom he
almost worshiped. This is an achievement in itself:
“He
(Deven) imagined he was taking Nur’s poetry into safe custody, and not realized
that if he was to be a custodian of Nur’s genius, then Nur would become his
custodian and place him in custody too.” – The Title of the Novel.
Desai’s
In
Custody is a portrait of human lives. It incorporates language-confrontation,
male-dominance and existential concerns of Desai.The character, Deven is not an
individual. He is the representative of the entire middle class people. Through
his life, we can see the struggles, financial need, insecurity, controlled
aspirations, and restless working of the middle class people for their hope of
getting better in life.
To
conclude with the verse from the novel that resonate the theme of hope:
“The
breeze enters, the blossom on the bough wafts its scent.
The
opened window lets in the sweet season, spring”.
- S.VEILLAKSHMIKANTH
