A mixture that is both good and bad, peppered with a sense of humour

LOPA GHOSH’S debut is an Indian khichdi—it takes generous chunks of fact, mixes it with fiction and fantasy, evokes from the past and merges it with the present, take political engagement along with apathy, solid prose with grammatical suicides and headache-inducing sentences. The problem in Ghosh’s collection lies in its consistency— the language oscillates between pure rococo and Indian Hinglish-Benglish. However, all is not bad in this pish-pash; Ghosh’s strength lies in her occasional humour—acerbic and empathetic at the same time. And in her metaphors. She offers interesting insights into the corporate world; one which she knows closely as she was very much a part of it before moving onto her present stint at the United Nations. Though her characters are sometimes not a direct part of the corporate world, they remain deeply influenced by it. And bosses, power points and off sites make their special appearances. For those intrigued by Ghosh’s choice of the title, the stories are not exclusively about the Bengali community. Though the writer is admittedly one. She has also centred several of her plots around NRI Bengalis. But The Revolt is named thus because Ghosh believes that fisheaters enjoy a ‘momentary sense of happiness’ after eating the meat because of the presence of Omega3 fatty acids in it. Thus, her stories are about fluctuating emotions; desire, longing, loss and manipulation. Revolt is also the story of other fish-eating communities of India and contains mesmerising flights of fantasy along with deceitful forces including a ghost of a dead mother, clueless communists and post modern arrogance. A chairman manipulated by his mother’s ghost; a midrung career woman in love with a Siberian oil digger; a corporate anthropologist in love with a suicide bomber; IT companies growing tea; a radical theatre actor creating boardroom Buddhas; the leader of an impending revolution who can only sing nursery rhymes; the world’s richest man in the middle of witchcraft, rape and idol immersions, Revolt of the Fish Eaters is a strange and motley collection from the business world going through its worst recession period yet. If her plots sometimes let you down, Ghosh’s style makes the collection an enjoyable read. And her intriguing characters are a strength.