:: Books Plus

Myriad musings

By Anil Bhat

Those who have read three earlier books by Roswitha Joshi — Life is Peculiar, On the Rocks and Other Stories and Once More (a novel) and her newspaper middles — should not miss out on her latest Fool’s Paradise, a mixture of essays, poems and anecdotes, which suggest that the population of those residing in or making frequent forays into such a world may be many more than what we think and maybe, with room for many more.

As a Hamburg born, who worked in the German Embassy at New Delhi and married an Indian scholar-turned-businessman, making India her home, apart from the mix of both cultures she happily manages and writes about, there is in her a healthy irreverence for beliefs and customs bordering on bothersome or boring and finally, it is her imaginative and impactful use of English — often with humour to boot — that neither she, nor her books can be put down.

In the book’s prologue the author amply and delightfully justifies her choice of the title Fool’s Paradise by citing the example of her husband’s American aunt and many in Germany, who thought she was heading for, or was already in a fool’s paradise, by deciding to settle in India. When the American aunt wrinkled her nose about filth on the road, Roswitha smiled beatifically at the "flowering crowns of Jacaranda trees scintillating above" and made her point that "it was better to live in a fool’s paradise than in none at all".

Having spread the book’s 50 stories and poems over three parts — On Human and All too Human Conditions, Spreading Wings and Other Things and Fools of More or Less Distinction — the author on one hand brings out what she believes about India being a great land of sunny climate, contrasts and very powerful stories, whose people and culture she loves and on the other, she juxtaposes her European experiences, particularly of course, German. Based on her personal experiences of being in India for three decades, the book is a collection of musings, short stories, travelogues and poetry.

There are many kinds of situations with typical or unusual characters — Indian, German and other nationalities — who feature in her stories to prove the disadvantages, or in some cases even advantages, of residing in, or visiting a fool’s paradise. The first and last chapters are poems titled The Gardner and Lodhi Garden and Ever To Be, somewhere in between, are pleasing musings.

Some of the stories leave a lasting an impression. Good Luck Soldier is about this young cheerful German lad who, having signed a four year contract of serving in the army after completing his compulsory military service, has been assigned to a unit in Afghanistan and is bubbling with excitement about the same, not at all apprehensive of the kind of dangers he is in for. The Final Verdict is about the Muslim gentleman, who, married to a merciless battleaxe, simply cannot think about availing the custom of marrying and maintaining more than one wife. Then there is Weird Apparitions about a former archaeologist in a German university, who while travelling in a tram in Kolkata, was accosted by a eunuch "collecting contributions", who she took to be an unusually dressed ticket checker and so, offered her ticket and faced the wrath that followed. Aggression — a Forward Strategy Against Insignificance? is an appropriate analysis of the present-day syndrome of materialism pushing idealism into a sulking corner. The two consecutive chapters The Road Less Travelled (from Germany to India) followed by the same title (Back in Germany) are delightful stories of human entrepreneurship for a good cause against devastating odds. And so on.

While some of the stories in this book will certainly make the reader laugh, some will certainly lead to pondering over the why some people do what they do, are what they are and maybe lead to the conclusion that it is not only actual fools or those categorised as such who happen to be in a fool’s paradise. In fact, not only individuals, but even collectively, a whole group of people, like say, a political party, governments etcetera can also remain in such domains for extended periods, or at least till they are shaken out of it by some development. For instance, recently I heard a retired Indian Army General lamenting that if the Indian government has not yet figured out what Pakistan and China’s intentions are and still soft-pedalling and only trying to talk peace with them, then it is living in a fool’s paradise.

Anil Bhat, a retired Army officer, is a defence and security analyst based in New Delhi