|
errors in first edition
of neem dreams
|
neem dreams published by Rupa (Delhi) 2003 Buy new edition of neem dreams in USA Buy first edition of neem dreams in Australia Baranay has risen above her feminine voice and foreigner perspective to strike a neutral unbiased language as far as basic values and issues are concerned. She uncannily conjures splashes of Indian reactions, attitudes or relationships with as much authenticity as she does the American, Australian and British ethos. What makes the novel endearing is the high voltage resonance of the poignant tales of the protagonists woven around the theme of globalisation, leaving a sea wave effect on the readers long after they have finished the read. Padmini Devarajan. The Hindu There is no one India or, you can't know all of India. It refuses to be fixed in a theme. Read the interview in The Hindu here. Despite the neo-hippy vibe of its title …Neem Dreams is not your average culture cuisine, the “how I got the shits in Shirdi” kind of novel about white people who “find” themselves leper-hugging in India before they return to their monotonous life-sentences in Manchester or Melbourne, immersed in mortgage and middle-managerhood. Woven around four characters and a neem tree, this is a novel about globalisation, corporate rapacity, environmental annihilation and political villainy. … The
novel’s four central characters – Pandora, Meenakshi, Andy and Jade
(Australian, Indian, British and Australian-American) – come together as a
result of capricious twists of fate: an article in a magazine, a chance
encounter at a café, and finally, a community project in a village centered
on a factory producing neem products. Neem was the “village dispensary”,
known to “ancient civilizations whose refinement was undreamt of by a still
barbarous, distant Europe slowly evolving towards its imperialist
technologies”. The neem project promised to give each of the four what they
had been looking for – Meenakshi needed something worthwhile, something more
than her marriage to sustain here: Pandora longed to be “an instrument of
justice and vengeance”: Andy needed a miracle cure: and Jade wanted to source
skin-care products for an exclusive New York store. It is a grassroots
project, it is socially conscious, it is morally responsible, but, of course,
something dark lurks beneath. The tree stands as an antithesis to all that is
wrong with humanity. To top it all, a number of multi-national companies are
now looking to patent it. There is outrage in every page, enough to ignite the passion of the droopiest of cynics, and a palpable sense of mourning for lost traditions and ancient wisdoms. It is fiercely philosophical, written in paragraphs of poetic prose, but really, the reason you keep reading is because the book is about life, journeys and that intoxicating affinity of spirit we sometimes find in total strangers. A book totally worth exploring for the “wanderers in search of an authentic moment”. Tara Sahgal, India Today September 1, 2003 There
are many good reasons why I would wholeheartedly recommend Inez Baranay's
latest novel Neem Dreams to anyone. Here are some of them. "We can no longer assume our attitude is obvious, reasonable, widely shared. Can you believe what's happening? Political leaders with the loudest voices are echoed by resonating chants of crowds of increasing, maniacal magnitude, proclaiming that India is only Bharat, only Hindustan. A secular, tolerant, democratic India, that is the vision we have been born to inherit. Our pious Hindu ancestors would be appalled at the suggestion that any one Indian tradition was more indigenous than any other. Yet it is in their name that the so-called Hindu nationalists exhort the domination, the elimination, of others. Hinduize politics and militarize Hinduism: the old slogan is revived and now within the context of an increasingly apparent organizational complex embracing the phenomenon of mass communalism. Prashant begins to speak of returning not only to India but to his rural home." The writer does not use India as an exotic backdrop. …The novel focuses on four characters, Andy, Pandora, Meenakshi and Jade. … In the brief time that their lives are intertwined in India, their past is also unraveled. Simple enough but as the story progresses one has only to sense Pandora's frustration and rage at the non- happening growth of the project; or Andy's repulsion in the Benares scene, to understand that the author in no way adheres to the stereotype of India as the land that helps to ease pain. In Pandora's complete harmony with Meenakshi, her almost omniscient glance into Meenakshi's mind and heart; in Andy's affinity with Jolly; the author illustrates, in her characteristic no-fuss-about manner, the old adage that people of the same family need not always be under the same roof-that cultural barriers and national boundaries, not withstanding Kipling's poetically expressed beliefs on this subject, do not prevent the meeting of minds. The novel educates. It touches on an issue - the patenting of neem products - that few, even among the educated elite are conversant with. It reminds us that Australians are sensitive to their 'Otherness' in a manner akin to the 'Oriental'. … The narrative technique adopted by the author is engrossing. It is centripetal in that the four protagonists who occupy the same territorial zone for a while are each preoccupied with his/her own private emotional baggage of the past and of a different locale. The intricate enmeshing of each character's psyche with his/her interaction with each other prevents the narrative from flagging. And the device of the central symbol, the Neem Tree, that threads the characters is unusual yet some how appropriate. The language is liquid, it flows. It is poetic in parts, self-reflexive at most times and the idiomatic English spoken by some of the Indian characters does not read as some sort of gimmicky parody: the author is careful to delineate the different 'Englishes' spoken in India based on class, community and nature of education. Perhaps the closure that the author chooses to give to the novel could engender dissatisfaction. But it could also be read positively. Whatever it evokes, it is certainly startling. It makes one think. And thinking is surely an excellent reason for reading a novel. So, Read It. Swati Pal, The Sunday Pioneer September 14,2003 |
