March 16, 2008

Nectar in the Sieve is a novel that simply enthrals the reader. One does not want to skip a single line and is seized with a nostalgic sadness when the book ends, as getting out of its magic spell is the last thing one wants. The novel is an eloquent testimony to Kamala Markandaya’s mastery over all the intricate technicalities of storytelling. It is no wonder that the novel is taught in many universities in India and abroad. As the Malawanki Journal aptly points out, ‘It is a novel to retain in your heart.’

The simplicity of the plot and lucidity of expression enraptures us right at the outset. The characters of the novel seem so real. Most of them are victims of penury, which instantly arouses our sympathy. The story revolves around the central character, Rukmani, who wages ceaseless battles with the traumas of poverty. Rukmani narrates her life story in the first person and evokes our empathy instantaneously. Her life with her husband in a thatched mud house is full of tragedies, the greatest among them being the death of her son caused by starvation and the divorce of her childless daughter.

The starry-eyed poor woman revels in her far-fetched dreams only to ultimately admit, ‘we try to reach desperately for perfection of delight which can surely never be.’ All the characters of the novel grip our mind due to the author’s flawless portrayal. Rukmani’s husband, Nathan, a tenant farmer, lends a subtle thrust to the story. He has nothing to offer his wife except his passionate love. We share the heartache he suffers when he has to part with the land he does not even own.

Kennington’s (Kenny) tenderness gushing beneath the veneer of his tough exterior touches our hearts. This doctor with a sallow complexion and sunken cheeks is a source of emotional strength for Rukmani. He overawes her with words like, ‘It is no use whatsoever to suffer in silence. Who will succour the drowning man, if he does not clamour for his life?’ Rukmani’s profound reverence for Kenny gives rise to juicy rumours among the women living in the vicinity, and the spicy scandals that the simple village women love to indulge in are very interesting to read.

The author possesses a unique ability when it comes to the magic of her pen. She gets us emotionally involved in the joys and sorrows experienced by the characters. Our heart goes out to Rukmani’s daughter Ira who is a helpless victim of circumstance. As her mother wistfully says, ‘The sweetness of her life has departed, as indeed it has for a woman who is abandoned by her husband.’

Pulli, the beggar boy with fingerless hands and an artful demeanour wins our hearts as he becomes an emotional anchor for Rukmani and Nathan in the midst of their tribulations. With a strong conviction Rukmani remarks, ‘Pulli, the compassionate creature, drew from me the arrows of sorrow one by one.’ The human interrelationships are very realistically depicted by the writer.

With the masterful strokes of her pen, Markandaya paints the images that seem to flash right before our eyes. The lonesome figure of the granny brings tears to our eyes. We can picture an old bedraggled woman selling piles of vegetables on the roadside to fend for herself. It saddens us immensely when she dies of starvation and her dead body is found on a tattered gunny bag.
 

The story revolves around the central character, Rukmani, who wages ceaseless battles with the traumas of poverty. Her life with her husband in a thatched mud house is full of tragedies, the greatest among them being the death of her son caused by starvation, and the divorce of her childless daughter.
 

Our hearts literally ache for Rukmani and Nathan as they embark upon an arduous journey on a bullock cart in quest of their missing son. We are awash with melancholy thinking of the hapless couple in a temple, after all their belongings have been stolen. We seem to share the pangs they feel in their empty stomachs as the sweet aroma of cooked rice in a shop reaches them. The details about their strenuous time in a quarry, where they toil under the sweltering sun for a mere pittance, turn our minds to the irrevocably harsh realities of life.

The fluency of the language in this novel does not fail to impress us. Some sentences are pungently piquant. We are moved by the innocent questions that an illegitimate son poses to her mother: ‘Mother, what is a bastard? And where is my father?’ The mother has no answer for the prickly questions of her son who is subjected to taunts by his schoolmates. We, as readers, share the helplessness of a mother who resorts to prostitution in order to ease the pangs of hunger. The author is fully conversant with the art of titillating the imagination of her readers.

Rukmani, overwhelmed by the kindness shown to her by a woman when she was in deep distress spontaneously says, ‘Her friendliness, her smiles were warming like the sun on old limbs, gentle as the rain on patched earth.’

Nectar in the Sieve is, to say the least, a thought-provoking novel encompassing the disillusionment of mortals who are liable to take recourse to anything, however lowly or wily, to curb the insufferable pains of hunger. Thematically the novel is very forceful and fully reflects the author’s keen observation. Markandaya has delved deep into the fears, insecurities and desperations of the downtrodden. It is a masterful work of fiction that seems so tangibly real and true. The novel is indubitably a must-read.
 

Nectar in a Sieve
By Kamala Markandaya
Penguin Books, India
ISBN 0-67-0008142-6
191pp. Indian Rs295
Reviewed by Nilofer Sultana