I completed reading the novel yesterday. Yes, I do read Marathi, though I take a little longer time to read it. I had been used Marathi books since childhood. However, only to the interest of the famous ‘Diwali Annk’ then, only till the cover page; the lady never let me peep into the inside pages. To my utter surprise, I haven’t been able to figure out how I used to win the Marathi essay writing competition in my school, for four consecutive years, that too a first prize.
My serious reading with Marathi, apart from the academic books, began with "Parel 68" by Divakar Kambli. And that precisely is the reason I picked up his latest novel, “Girangaon Naakaa” to read. My fascination for Marathi (in terms of creative field and certainly not for fear of Raj Thackeray) can surely be attributed to Mr. Kambli, and lately to “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa – Little Champs” & “Sandip Khare”.
“Girangaon Naakaa” is Divakar Kambli's third fiction novel that sumptuously illustrates conditions of once flourishing textile mill reign in southern suburbs of Mumbai. Though this book is published precisely at a time when Mahesh Manjrekar’s “Laalbaug Parel” is about to release, which may sweep off all the limelight, “Girangaon Naakaa” can certainly not be overshadowed.
Set in the period of seventies, much before the hitherto going on strike that devastated lives of the mill workers, “Girangaon Naakaa” is a narrative about poor yet varied cultural life that was not disturbed till then. There have been many attempts on documenting the supremacy & decline of textile mills, and about the lives of people that were woven together closely. However, “Girangaon Naakaa” is a different treat, for the way Divakar Kambli handles it with his peculiar style of story telling. Kambli’s expertise in handling stories with backdrop of Parel and portraying anguish of a common-boy-next-door character can be compared to the likes of artistic brush strokes of Salvador Dali. Rustic writings that hit the reader point blank has been his forte'.
“Girangaon Naakaa” traverses through pockets of central Mumbai comprising Byculla, Kalachowki, Chinchpokli, Lalbaug, Parel, Dadar, Shivaji Park and Mahim, all of which together mingle to form a single cotton ball called ‘Girangaon’ – the land of cotton mills. As such, there is no Girangaon in Mumbai, unlike Girgaon, Paralgaon, Mazgaon or Worligaon. It does not have postal pin code either. It was a culture that the selfish builders of high rise towers crushed ruthlessly. The story exactly takes place in this area.
The storyline is that of a common working under-graduate boy who deserves more than what he could get. He lives as a paying guest and has a good job where he is happy. However, he gives up his job on a small pretext and decides to be a hawker, selling shoes on a footpath. His tryst with life makes him across two girls and middle aged women of an impotent man who incidentally is his boss, a good man. In this small span of his living he navigates through a happy state of having a separate bedroom in a plush flat in Mahim to the foot-path in Lalbaug. And finally, in the house of the middle aged woman, minus the initial sexual feelings. The Oedipus effect reversed!
The life of mill worker families, their humane approach towards life, helping nature, their tasty foods, cleanliness, their basic interest in dramatics, small rock groups in this land, Simla beat contest; rock concert based on Woodstock held in 1974, rock singer Nandu Bhende, anchor Kabir Bedi, intelligent director Arun Hornekar of Marathi version of Becket surface magnificently in the narratives.
The story has its own pace and the author makes cryptic comments about the life styles of the clusters of the lower wage working classes that do not have roof over their head, emotional outbursts of the working class, and hawkers on the street.
The then class difference in a well to do area like Shivaji Park in central Mumbai and a couple of kilometers away mill area of Lalbaug is vivid. The three leading ladies come from a middle class family. The central character too is cultured. However, the backdrop is a gloomy mill area. It grips the reader with hands invisible. The day-by-day richer getting mill owners, and the exploited workers getting destroyed in the process, is one of conformist thoughts frantically expressed by the author.
Today, it has come out as a 100 percent truth. The spotless foot path where the characters in this novel slept is nothing but the foot path of the 7 star ITC Grand Hotel in Lalbaug! Obviously, novelist Divakar Kambli is influenced by existentialist French novelist like Albert Camus and Bhau Padhye in Marathi. The Franz Kafka of Marathi literature and recipient of Sahitya Academy Award, Vasant Abaji Dahaake has literally placed Divakar Kambli in stratum of Kiran Nagarkar and Bhau Padhye.
I recommend give this novel a serious read, it will certainly be an ecstasy for you.
[Pages: 167, Cost: Rs. 165, Language: Marathi]
Comments
poor try by Mahesh Manjrekar!!!!!!!!