Novel Watch: ‘Culling Mynahs and Crows’

I’ve known Rumjhum Biswas  (or RK Biswas) for some years now. I have read her poetry and her short stories, so am happy her first novel is just out. It’s set in a very intriguing time, as she explains it. So if you’ve seen and read about Calcutta of the 1960s and 1970s from, and this is by way of example, the films of Satyajit Ray and novels like Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland; this novel Culling Mynahs and Crows is set more than a decade later, when Bengal’s decline is clear and palpable. It is a story told through the eyes of two women, and what to me is more interesting is how their lives might unfold in Biswas’ narrative: for Bengal at the forefront of women’s emancipation in the early decades of the last century now cuts a sorry figure when statistics relating to women’s issues are presented. But if I haven’t whetted your appetites already, what Biswas has to say, certainly will!

A conversation

Q- The names in your new novel are very intriguing, Agnirekha and Agnishiksha . A name is often the beginning and a difficult one, so tell me why these names and do they have any particular significance?

A- You’re right regarding the names; it’s worse than finding a name for a new born isn’t it?  Regarding these two names, well they are significant to and part of the whole narrative. I broke a rule here by giving my protagonists near identical ones. It’s risky, but seriously I had little choice. The two women Agnirekha and Agnishikha are from very different backgrounds and appear to be dissimilar. They are in fact opposite sides of the same coin; somewhere in the book the narrator calls them daughters of fire.

Q – Tell us where the book is set and why the place has any significance for you still?

A- Culling Mynahs and Crows is primarily set in West Bengal, during the late 1980s. Agnirekha travels from what was then known as Calcutta to Bisrampur, a small mill town in Murshidabad district. Of course no such town exists in reality. The narrative follows her movements from Calcutta to Bisrampur to Bombay and then finally Georgia in the USA. The other main character, Agnishikha moves from Bisrampur to Calcutta, where her life changes drastically, thanks to many unsavoury elements including Agnirekha and her newspaper articles. The place’s significance for me lies in the despair of Bengalis and Bengal’s decline. Bisrampur is almost a metaphor for it, and Naresh, another character, is its most eloquent testimony.

Q- You say that writing any piece or even this book has been a journey.  What kind of a journey has it been for you?

A – Well, it was engrossing in its own way; literally meeting new people, and sometimes in places I haven’t visited or that don’t exist. There were times when it was exasperating. I disliked Agnirekha, and didn’t quite understand why. I wanted her punished for all the mean things she did/was doing. Then one day, as I pondered I realised why she was that way. I cut out a few portions where she had been especially nasty, and added some, including a very important cameo character – Sally. Understanding one of my most important characters and finally having empathy for her are the twists and turns that I faced. The journey hasn’t yet ended. Now I want to explore Sally’s friendship with Agnirekha, their life in USA.

Q -This novel about a woman, how different is it all from writing a poem since you are a poet as well?

A-  This book is similar to my feminist poems, if I may call them that, though I never thought of them as such before. You may have noticed from some of the poems you’ve read that I write different subjects differently, in poetry. There are many burlesque poems and there are angry ranting ones and then there are those nature poems. The book has all those moods. But the book is a lot more about anger and despair, they come in different shapes and colours. I guess its main difference lies in the fact that it’s not the capturing of one mood within a short span, the flow had to pan out and travel a longer distance.

Q – I am fascinated despite the little I’ve read of Agnirekha, by the ‘dark’ shades she seems to have. Was she fascinating to you as well, in this regard?

A- She was a puzzle at first. And as I’ve stated earlier, I didn’t like her much – that’s a funny thing to say about one’s own creation I know. She was also not my focus. I was more concerned with “Pagla- Khooni” the mad serial killer with a philosophy. As I wrote, or took this journey, I got to know and understand her better. She also helped me understand how hard it is to cope when you have to deny your identity even to yourself; Indian society of the ’80s was far more narrow-minded. Getting inside Agnirekha’s skin was difficult for me.

Q – Okay a bit more about the novel; I would dare to think that it follows in some ways the writings by prominent writers in Bengali like Naboneeta Dev Sen, Ashapurna Debi Who have been the authors you read, and who do you admire?

A – Ack! Anu, I am virtually illiterate in Bengali. I am ashamed to say this. English is my primary language and Hindi was my second language in school. I did learn the Bengali alphabets from my Grandfather and it was my third language from class five to eight; that’s not enough to read big books. But you know how it is, Bengali/Bengal/Bengaliness runs in my veins, it wells up from somewhere deep within me. I have read a little of Ashapurna Devi, and other writers in translation (I know, I know, this is embarrassing). I haven’t read Nabanita Dev Sen at all. I admire them, am in awe of them, all of them. The authors that I have read wrote in English or were translated –the Russian writers, Spanish and Latin American. But it was mostly writers from England, America and some from Australia. The list is very long, and they are all the names that you and I and those who came before us and after, have grown up with. I admire and have been affected by Dickens, Hardy, Hemingway, Maugham, Marquez, Chekov, Maupassant….And also Anita Desai and Kiran Desai, Shashi Deshpande. Also Roy, for God of Small Things.

Q – Tell me about labels now, how would you react to say being called a ‘woman writer’?

A – I’d hate it. Does RK Biswas sound like a woman? I love the genderless-ness of RK. That’s the kind of writer I see myself as.

Q – okay trick question, and a writer always finds it difficult to market his/her own writing, so why would a general reader pick up your book as opposed to the Amish Tripathis he or she might see on a shelf? Are you looking for a certain kind of reader?

A – Oops. Now you’ve got me pinned. I seriously don’t know. I just hope that I am read. And feedback, good and bad alike, is important, frightening, but important.

Q – A writer’s work is inherently isolating, and yet these literary festivals seem such a necessary distraction. What would you think? And yet despite their very profusion, readership, we are told, is declining?

A – Yes, everybody keeps saying that. But I see a lot of young people reading. Local lending libraries are flourishing even now. I haven’t attended too many lit fests, two I think so far, so I can’t comment on their usefulness. But I guess it’s good for writers to meet folks from their industry. I don’t agree that reading has declined.

Q – And what next? Is there a sequel? I can sniff it from the blurb.

A – I don’t know about a sequel, but since I finished the book, the Georgia episode, which is a mere two chapters and has this interesting woman Sally in it, and keeps larking around my head. I would like to explore their relationship…

Anu Kumar’s most recent novel for older readers,  ’It Takes a Murder’ ( http://www.hachetteindia.com/TitleDetails.aspx?titleId=32055) releases this month and is published by Hachette India.  More details of this book and her other books and writings are at anukumar.org