Thoughts and Review on- A state of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee


"We are all writers at heart, only most of us have lost our words."

I almost felt a void when i finished reading A State of Freedom. I felt a kinship with all the characters & for me all these days, nights & the restless moments were filled with them. At times, this novel or a consortium of linked short stories filled me with so much sadness, that i was almost tempted to keep the book down. To let it unfinished. But perhaps just as an unfinished work of a writer leaves a writer incomplete, a book unfinished also leaves reader incomplete.

Its almost been 24 hours that i have finished this book reading, i am almost tempted to start it again. The novel is undoubtedly sad. But it kind of invokes a thought process inside your head, on what does sadness means to you ? Is it longing for someone, something you have lost or sadness is just a poor far fetched cousin of struggle and survival.

Neel Mukherjee's touches on these timeless subjects. It might've been just a novel with a matte effect, facts, event, judgement and the end. But the way, Neel Mukherjee spins words in each page takes the novel to a new level. It stays, breathes with us & lingers for a long time.

Neel Mukherjee's novel is divided into 5 parts each almost dedicated to a single character and its back story. The book starts with a NRI Father and son duo who are touring Taj Mahal & its surrounding monuments. The father tries to ignite interests in his son of seeing the monuments, but the son takes minimal interest. Towards the end of their trip, on the way to their hotel, the father gets an omnious feeling about everything surrounding him, where he doubts & questions everything. His mind almost becomes a restless compass.

We are soon shown insight into Sen household, where the much loved son from London comes to Bombay for a short vacation. We are introduced to the Sen household, the generous mother, father & the important pillars of Sen household -the house maids-Renu & Milly.

The family banters, bickers over common things of day to day life. their love and camardie is displayed in the fine nauances of Bengali cooking. To add mustard oil or not that is the question. The pungent master of any Bengali household plays a small but pivotal role in this segment.

"keeping my voice down, I said- "Well, a personality like good mustard oil-it goes straight up your nose," .

 The underlying turbulent currents between master & servant relationship is shown subtly , the rivalry between the two servants Renu & Milly is shown at a basic level, its more and less of a jealousy of being in the same profession.

The NRI son empathically wants to erase the ineqaulity between the servant & the master, the mother keeps a respectful distance between herself & the servants & the father clearly treats them as servants.

This part of the story ends with a lingering thought, that who is the immigrant here, do you understand your surroundings much better if you are tourist in your own country. And on an under rated end note, how our palate changes when we move to a new town or a country.

The other part of a story starts, where in a far off village in the foothills of himalayas, Lakshman finds a bear cub. Knowingly unknowingly he forms an unbreakable bond with the bear cub. Neil Mukherjee describes poetically the existence of poverty. Its heart breaking. I was so disturbed by it, that i almost wanted to stop the book reading.

A cunning Qalandar baptises Lakshman as the master of the bear cub who names it Raju. Here starts the story of survival where Lakshman's family strives for a decent meal given also the upbringing of the bear Raju.

Lakshman leaves the village with Raju to move towards city and find his brother Ramesh who is working as a construction worker. Its here where the reality hits hard. The sorry, deprived state of Lakshman & Raju hits with a powerful intensity. An intensity so hard that it halts you on your tracks.

The track in the story changes to two childhood friends Milly & Soni, who are burdened by the government corruption, exploitation. Their childhood paths are changed drastically, when Milly moves to a small town Dumri to work as a house help and Soni joins a Maoist Rebel Party.

Their lives are described in detail & each circumstances in their lives breaks our heart. I am not describing anything more. While Milly works her way upward to move to Mumbai, Soni involves in the heart of the movement of the Maoist philosophy.

The next segment finally moves toward the lingering, nagging, desperate thoughts of perhaps Lakshman's brother Ramlal, who is working as a poorly paid construction worker.

It was perhaps scaffolding of dreams of Ramlal, Lakshman, the NRI father & Son, Milly , Renu, Soni, Sen family. We are all immigrants at heart. We take somewhere a bit of us where we go & we leave a bit of ourselves when we leave that place behind. And in that manner of speaking we are all immigrants, everyday, day in & day out.

Binay said- "look, the sea. Have you seen the sea before ? "that the sea ? Like a huge pond whose other side you couldn't see ?

Neel Mukherjee pens a beautiful, heart wrenching novel. I almost cried while reading through it. The prose is beautiful, hypnotic & it keeps you engrossed in the novel. Neel Mukherjee has breathed soul into every character. These stories are about  rural India, the well settlers outside India, dreams, hopes & aspirations.

Its how everyday, we built dreams, new ones, mend the old ones & nurse the broken ones. We are in a sense children of our dreams, failures & our need to survive.

Neel Mukherjee has given us a novel of a life time. I wouldnt say anything more, but would urge everyone to read it.

Book Name :- A State of Freedom
Genre :- Fiction
Publisher :- Penguin-Hamish Hamilton
No.of Pages :- 275
ISBN- 9780670090150

You can buy the book from - amazon | Flipkart | Infibeam





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