ssm@cmu-ri-leg.ARPA (Sesh Murthy) (02/27/85)
IN CUSTODY. By Anita Desai. 204 pages. BessieHarper & Row. $16.95.
Literature has a way of devouring those who put too much faith in
it, and Deven, the ineffectual hero of Anita Desai's new novel, is
one of its more hapless victims. He lives and works in a dusty
provincial town near New Delhi, teaching Hindi at a local college,
but it is not a job that brings him much satisfaction. As he enters
middle age, he is still only a temporary lecturer, and in any case
his first love (inherited from his father) is Urdu, a language that
has lost ground in India since partition. Meanwhile, his hopes of
winning recognition as a poet are ebbing, his marriage (if it was
ever sweet) has turned sour and he feels the constant pinch of
near-poverty.
Enter Murad, an old friend - or so Deven supposes - from his
schooldays, who has come from Delhi to enlist his services. Murad's
family is wealthy; he has persuaded it to buy him a magazine, and he
is planning to bring out a special issue on Urdu poetry. Will Deven
agree to write a feature for it, an interview with the venerable Urdu
poet Nur?
He most certainly will. Nur may not have published anything for a
very long time, but he is still a legendary figure, and one of
Deven's idols; he has even written a monograph about him, though
without managing to get it into print. So when he sets off for Delhi,
where the poet lives, it is in a fever of anticipation. Over the
years, while outwardly lying low, he has been waiting for his life to
be transfigured, but he had never expected that when the call came it
would ring out in tones as ''leonine, splendid and commanding'' as
the voice with which he is finally summoned into Nur's presence. Now
at last he is about to make his escape to a higher realm, ''the
domain of poetry, beauty and illumination.''
Alas, the lion turns out to be decidedly mangy. The first thing the
poet wants to know is what kind of fool would interrupt an old man's
afternoon nap: ''It can only be a great fool. Fool, are you a fool?''
- to which Deven replies joyfully: ''Sir, I am! I am!'' Before long,
as reality keeps tripping him up, this begins to seem an all too well
justified response.
Not that Nur is a complete disappointment. It is still possible to
make out, even at this late stage, the signs of his greatness. But he
is also vain, crude, capricious, heavily preoccupied with his food
and drink - and the sight of him attacking a kebab or lowering his
face into a biryani is not an edifying spectacle.
Nur is also surrounded by a gang of parasites, jokers who go through
the same stale conversational rituals night after night. His second
wife, who is dolled up like an elderly dancing girl, recites her own
poems to a raucous musical accompaniment. His first wife screams and
rages - not without plenty of provocation - as the full consequences
of his drinking catch up with him, and Deven, who is in her line of
fire, finds himself ordered to mop up the great man's vomit.
Despite the indignities, Deven is determined to press ahead with his
interview. The best thing, he decides, will be to get it down on tape
- a rash decision for someone who barely knows how to switch on a
radio, and one that leads him into a downward spiral of disaster. The
recording sessions take place in a room that has been rented in a
brothel, with Nur's hangers-on in attendance, and the result is
pandemonium - meandering conversations, the noise of traffic from the
street, cries for biryani and drink, Nur suddenly taking it into his
head to recite Keats's ''Belle Dame Sans Merci'' three times in
succession.
By the time it is all over, Deven has virtually nothing to show for
his labors. He is in trouble with the college authorities, who
advanced him the money for the tape recorder, and with the students
who helped him piece together his one presentable tape, and expect
him to give them good marks in return. Murad leaves him in the lurch;
Nur writes to him with shameless, ever-escalating demands (a medical
allowance, the money for a pilgrimage to Mecca). To be the custodian
of Nur's genius, he now realizes, is to be in custody to him as well
- but when he thinks of the poetry, it is a burden he is still
willing to shoulder.
In telling Deven's story, Anita Desai avoids either farce or easy
pathos; she sympathizes with his plight, and at the same time remains
clear-sighted about his weaknesses. When he boasts to a colleague
about knowing Nur, he feels that the occasion calls for pomposity -
''a state to which he had always secretly aspired''- and he has a
temper (for ''the meek are not always mild''), which he doesn't
hesitate to vent on his wife. Nur's wives are victims, too - the
second of them, the poet with the painted face, a good deal more so
than at first appears.
''In Custody'' is a civilized and satisfying piece of work. As
readers of Anita Desai's previous novels would expect, she writes
with complete command of her material. The Indian setting, with its
jumble of old and new - ancient rituals, Japanese nylon saris - is
beautifully evoked, but there is no straining after local color; the
descriptive detail flows naturally from the story. And running
through the whole book there is a compelling sense of life's
incongruities. The comment on Deven's smoking, for instance, seems to
me worthy of Italo Svevo: ''Strange how, with all the world around in
its stupefying profusion, there was nothing in it that could be
counted upon for solace as much as a cheap cigarette.''
TODAY'S FOCUS: Bhopal Tragedy Still Embraces Both Dead and Living
By SEEMA SIROHI
Associated Press Writer
BHOPAL, India (AP) - They lived through the world's worst industrial
disaster, but now thousands are finding that survival is a mixed
blessing.
Almost three months after toxic gas poisoned this central Indian
city, the survivors of Bhopal are sick and weak, unable to work,
dependent on government rations that do not reach all of them.
Most are still without the compensation money they were promised,
and many face mounting debts. They are emotionally crippled. And many
are legally crippled as well, having given away crucial documents to
American and Indian lawyers who promised them big settlements and
then disappeared.
Neelam Devi's story illustrates the tragedy that embraces both the
dead and the living in Bhopal.
Her husband was one of the more than 2,000 people killed when they
inhaled poisonous gas that leaked from a Union Carbide pesticide
plant here Dec. 3. She was one of the estimated 200,000 others who
survived but were made ill by the gas, 60,000 of them seriously.
Since breathing the fumes, the 32-year-old widow has not reported to
her job as a maid. She says she is exhausted and feels acute pain
everytime she exerts herself. She feeds her three children with free
government rations.
''I haven't earned a penny all these days. How will I go on like
this?'' she asked.
Ashwaq Mohammad, a 40-year-old laborer, said he has no relief money,
no rations, no work. And he has a 12-member extended family to
support.
''No one wants to employ me now. My body is wasted inside,'' he
said. ''I look strong but I can't even lift my child. I start
coughing.'' He has had to borrow more than $200 from a moneylender.
In the shanties and mud hovels surrounding the U.S.-owned pesticide
plant, most breadwinners among the 200,000 slumdwellers are like
Mohammad - out of work.
Most had been construction workers and casual laborers in stone
quarries. Now they are unfit for physical labor, suffering from such
after-effects as extreme fatigue, eye irritation and shortness of
breath.
They are dependent on government aid and charity, and hopeful for
compensation payments. But the relief program has been sporadic, and
many victims may never get compensation because they handed over
relatives' death certificates and doctors' reports to unfamiliar
lawyers, or never obtained the documents in the first place.
The Madhya Pradesh state government says it has spent more than $1
million on relief, including rations of wheat, rice and milk, and on
payments equivalent to $830 to families of each of the dead. It
expects millions more to be spent.
But in early January, faced with mounting bogus claims, the state
government suspended its program of compensating the injured with up
to $166, pending an official door-to-door survey expected to be
completed by March.
''Our eagerness to provide relief has put us in a spot,'' the
state's chief secretary, Brahm Swaroop, said in an interview. ''There
are thousands of claims - and from people who never lived in Bhopal.
It is a tough job to sift genuine claims from bogus ones.''
American and Indian lawyers flocked to Bhopal after the tragedy and,
in the rush for compensation, signed up an estimated 30,000 people as
clients.
The victims granted the lawyers rights to almost half any damages
awarded. Some signed up with more than one. Many illiterates used
their thumbprints as signatures.
American lawyers, in the names of victims, already have filed at
least 18 lawsuits in U.S. courts, totaling $280 billion in claims.
The Indian government also plans to file its own lawsuits against
Union Carbide in the United States.
But the victims did not understand that such lawsuits can take years
to settle and seemed to think payments would come immediately. They
gave away their only copies of papers documenting death and illness,
certificates they need in order to obtain more immediate compensation
and relief here.
''The evidence of damage and death has been taken away from these
people. They can't even read Hindi, and what can they understand of
tedious legal papers?'' asked Vibhuti Jha, a Bhopal lawyer doing
volunteer relief work.
''I must have signed at least 10 different forms,'' said Bange Lal,
a Bhopal vegetable vendor who has suffered serious lung damage. But
he does not know the names or addresses of any of the several lawyers
who knocked at his broken tin door. No one left a calling card.
The state government has opened five legal-aid centers to inform the
public of their rights, advising them to avoid foreign lawyers and
instead empower the state government to appoint attorneys on their
behalf.
By the end of January, more than 45,000 people had requested
government attorneys. But local social workers and lawyers say many
of these had also agreed earlier to representation by foreign
attorneys.
Bhopal's victims, meanwhile, stage marches and sit-ins to demand
more cash relief, widows' pensions and better medical treatment.
Doctors say many are suffering from severe depression and emotional
trauma that medicine cannot cure.
''How can you forget the experience? It was like atomic warfare,''
said Dr. Ashok Luthra, a physician at the main Hamidia Hospital.
''The gas, the escape, the death. . . It will take a long time for
Bhopal to recover.''
Maharaja's Son Killed by Police in Alleged Campaign Shootout
By VICTORIA GRAHAM
Associated Press Writer
NEW DELHI, India (AP) - Politics is normally rough-and-tumble in the
world's biggest democracy. It sometimes can be deadly.
Consider this Wild West-style campaign tale from the desert of
Rajasthan:
A famous independent candidate - a late maharaja's son - and his
underlings batter their military jeeps into the helicopter of the
state's chief minister of the governing Congress Party.
Reason: Rival Congress Party workers had torn down all the campaign
posters and banners for 64-year-old politician-candidate ''Raja'' Man
Singh, the local strongman seeking his eighth consecutive term in the
state assembly.
Result: Man Singh, considered a modern Robin Hood, and two
supporters were killed Thursday in an alleged shootout with police
who tried to arrest them for the copter assault. A close relative was
quoted by the United News of India as saying the prince had been shot
six times in the back.
The royal blood spilled on the Indian campaign trail has caused an
uproar. Early today, Chief Minister Shiv Charan Mathur, in a decision
prompted by the furor over the shooting, announced his resignation as
head of the Rajasthan state government.
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has expressed condolences and thousands
of citizens mourned the death in Bharatpur, 84 miles southeast of New
Delhi.
The state has ordered a judicial inquiry into the death. The
official police version has been challenged as a ''fake encounter''
by the family and opposition leaders.
Mourners shouted ''Raja Man Singh is immortal'' at the cremation
Friday and police sent reinforcements to prevent violence.
The death of the maharaja's son was the worst violence in the
current campaign for 11 state assembly elections to be held in early
March. During the campaign and national elections last December, at
least 45 people died.
While Indian campaigns seldom end in death, clashes between rival
groups are common and fair play is not always the order of the day.
Despite Gandhi's efforts to clean up politics, unsavory characters -
some with criminal records - are running for election in parts of the
country.
Bizarre tales of Indian elections are not unusual, but the saga of
the raja, the copter and the police is remarkable even by Indian
standards.
Man Singh was one of the two ranking lawmakers in the state and had
served in the assembly since the first election in 1952.
He was never known to have attended sessions regularly, never
campaigned on issues and counted on the royal name to win election
after election.
For more than 30 years, his only campaign slogan was ''Long Live
Giriraj Maharaj'' - the royal family's local diety of valor. It was
chanted to traditional folk music of drums and trumpets. He never
raised an issue and never lost an election. Man Singh had been
educated in England, joined the air force and enjoyed a reputation
for great courage.
In 1947, when local people resisted Indian nationhood in their
princely state, Man Singh supported the jailed royalists and forced
the police at gunpoint to release them.
The raja was so popular and powerful that voters in his district
resisted the Congress Party landslide that engulfed India in the last
elections.
According to authorities and news reports, this is the tale of Man
Singh's end:
On Wednesday, Man Singh and his supporters learned that Congress
Party workers had ripped down his campaign posters in Deeg town and
the prince reportedly went on a rampage.
He and his men tore down Congress banners and he rammed his heavy
military-type jeep several times against the rostrum where Mathur was
to address an election meeting.
He and his jeep party also drove through a security cordon and
repeatedly battered the helicopter rented by Mathur. The helicopter
was seriously damaged but the pilot escaped unhurt.
Police charged Man Singh with attempted murder, rioting and criminal
trespass, issued a warrant for his arrest and went searching for him.
On Thursday, they found him in a town bazaar and Special Inspector
D.K. Dugga said Man Singh and his supporters started firing on the
police and refused to surrender. He said police returned the fire in
self-defense. Man Singh, reportedly firing a revolver, was killed on
the spot, police said.
a049 0334 23 Feb 85
PM-India-Train, 1st Ld-Writethru, a039,0300
Eds: LEADS throughout with death toll at 40, other details
NEW DELHI, India (AP) - A train crowded with wedding passengers
caught fire today in Madhya Pradesh state in central India and at
least 40 people were killed and 12 injured, the United News of India
reported.
UNI, quoting unidentified railway sources, said the fire broke out
in two cars of the train as it passed near Musra station, about 480
miles southeast of New Delhi. The nearest town is Raipur.
The cause of the fire, which was fanned by strong winds, was not
immediately known. UNI said the blaze was noticed at about 12:45 a.m.
by passengers aboard the Chakradharapur-Nagpur train, which it said
was crowded by people traveling during India's traditional marriage
season.
A railway spokesman said rescue operations were under way and that
more bodies might be recovered.
T.A. Subramaniam, joint director of the Railway Safety Department in
New Delhi, said the fire started in the third and fourth cars of the
11-car train.
He declined to comment on a passenger's report that there was no
emergency alarm system in the coaches. He said stranded passengers
had been rescued.
UNI, quoting an unidentified passenger, said many people were
trapped by the blaze inside the train, but that some managed to jump
out of the windows. The passenger said the engineer stopped when he
noticed smoke.
A railway spokesman told UNI 12 injured passengers had been admitted
to a hospital in serious condition. A medical team was sent to the
site and train service was limited to one track.
UNI said J.P. Gupta, chairman of the state-run South Eastern Railway
Board, was flying to the scene of the accident.
Undamaged cars of the train were taken to a nearby station to
continue the journey, UNI said.
a250 1604 23 Feb 85
AM-Wolf Boy,0267
Ramu, the 'Wolf Boy' Who Lived in the Wild, Reported Dead
NEW DELHI, India (AP) - Ramu, the ''Wolf Boy,'' is dead.
Ramu, who, according to the United News of India, had been raised by
wolves, walked on all fours and ate raw meat, died Monday in a home
for the destitute near Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh state, about 250
miles southeast of New Delhi, the news agency reported Saturday.
Ramu was in his 20s. The exact cause of death for was not known, but
he developed cramps two weeks ago and did not respond to medical
treatment, UNI reported.
Ramu created a sensation in 1976 when he was captured in a forest in
the company of three wolf cubs, UNI said. He was about 10 years old
at the time.
The agency said that when Ramu was found, he was walking on all
fours, had matted hair, his nails had grown long, and his palms,
elbows and knees were calloused, like the pads of a wolf's paws.
UNI said Ramu had been eating raw meat like his wolf companions.
After he was captured he still was attracted by raw meat and would
sneak out and attack chickens in the neighborhood, the news agency
said.
Ramu was handed over to Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity, who
taught him to bathe and wear clothes, UNI said.
But like other children who spent their early years separated from
human contact, Ramu never learned to speak, UNI said.
Although he created a press sensation at the time he was found, he
was never put on display, UNI said.
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uucp: seismo!rochester!cmu-ri-leg!ssm
arpa: ssm@cmu-ri-leg