Monday, Nov 21, 2005
Run of the Mind - A Collection of Essays By Vijendra Rao
- Maya Khankhoje Maya Khankhoje is one of the talented new voices in the evolving literature of science fiction and fantasy. Long dominated by Western-centric
technological positivists, speculative fiction has become more complex today --- it asks more difficult questions, takes less for granted and includes more diverse voices than ever before. However the so-called Third World is still under-represented in speculative fiction, not only in terms of setting and subject matter, but also in terms of writers and points of view that are unique to its many cultures. Maya Khankhoje's writings help fill a great void. Her bilingual (Spanish/English) anthology for children A Panther in your Dreams, will soon be published by Gyldan Edge Publishing.
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Run of the Mind. A collection of essays. By Vijendra Rao, IoU, Mysore, India, 2005. Run of the Mind is a collection of ninety essays –most of them already published in The Mysore Mail- by Vijendra Rao, journalist and essayist, about a subject he knows and loves well: India and its highly idiosyncratic people. It is also any journalist’s dream. Who has not dreamt of writing a daily, or weekly column on any subject, however banal or lofty, and of being assured of its right to publication? The author himself informs us that he had the privilege of publishing his own work in his own newspaper while being the paper’s editor, without having to subject it to peer review. But he is honest and explains in his preface that he doesn’t consider “the essays anything more than mere ramblings of an editor that enjoyed unbridled freedom.” Moreover, his intellectual honesty has compelled him to seek the opinion of a complete stranger on the other side of the world. That stranger happens to be me, a stranger who knows and loves India both as a stranger as well as an old friend.
I would disagree with Rao when he dismisses his essays as mere ramblings. They are much more than that. They are keen observations on life, mores, traditions, modernity, self-delusion and much more. We all go through life thinking apparently random thoughts, not daring to put them down on paper, as Rao has done. But our thoughts are never really random, because they are a composite of our daily lives, the values inculcated by our parents and the formal education we have been exposed to. Vijendra Rao has had the courage to put down on paper many of the observations that have resulted from his encounters with daily life in a country where chaos is sustained by the natural order of things whose machinations are not always clear to the casual eye. We can imagine the author walking, cycling, riding on a tonga or a rickshaw or as a passenger in a taxi or perhaps driving a battered Maruti recording the smells and sounds and sights of this chaos that is modern India, as well as the wonder that it was, to paraphrase noted British historian Prof. Basham.
Rao touches upon subjects as varied as rape (the victim should not be stigmatized), the cloning of gods (i.e. Ganesha), profanity as self expression (it diminishes human dignity and demeans women), the nature of sympathy (it is not a democratic emotion), the impending demise of literature (Rao challenges V.S. Naipul’s ridiculous claim) and most importantly, the essence of Indianness (difficult to describe in a nutshell). And he does so with a deep knowledge of Hindu traditions and curiosity about the modern world. He also muses on the follies of his fellow human beings with compassion and understanding.
And since Rao has been so honest in his appraisal of his own work, I will be equally honest in my own appraisal, for all it is worth. It took me a long time to get through the book because, even though I have lived in India for eleven years and visited it many more times, I have lost my ear for Indian English after having lived most of my life abroad. Some of the author’s use of archaic terms or “liberal” ideas expressed within the context of a very traditional mind-set have struck me as sometimes naïve and often plain outmoded. His views on women, which are highly respectful and considerate, might be deemed too liberal by ultraconservatives in India but condescending by Western feminists. However, these are just the views of a stranger from the other side of the world who does not know the country as thoroughly as the author does. Some turns of phrases which sound just right in India might sound quaint, if not downright ungrammatical, to a reader attuned to the language of modern media and literature. But these are minor blemishes that do not mar the very rich and complex portrait of India painted by Rao.
If you want a polished account of India as seen from the outside, read Dalrymple’s books. If you want a raw look from the inside, read Rao’s Run of the Mind and … enjoy!
To purchase write at: vijendrarao@iouindia.com / vijendra.rao@gmail.com
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