Lines That Bind

Starting with a focus on history (mediated by way of travel experiences), the narrative moves to a predominance of present-day concerns, returning often to the symbiosis of Indian cultures and religions. In the process, one gets to meet some memorable characters: famous personalities like Khushwant Singh, Mulk Raj Anand, Bhisham Sahni etc, and unknown ones like a Dargah caretaker who gave up a career as a journalist.

An accomplished novelist, Vassanji brings to bear a novelist’s eye for details on a place that, having come to him in childhood songs and inherited languages, is always both outside and inside him. Faced with lines of connection (history, literature, film, poetry, a heritage of composite cultures etc) and the horrors sandwiched between these lines (riots, poverty etc), Vassanji does not throw up his hands in despair or close his eyes in blind pride. Instead, he takes it into account, puts it in context if possible; he even takes responsibility for it, just as he takes pleasure in the beauty and the wonder. It is this, finally, that makes his account such a sensitive and unusual one.