Tomb of Sand
Written by Geetanjali Shree in Hindi ( Ret Samadhi)
Translated by Daisy Rockwell
A North Indian upper class family
An octogenarian mother (Ma)
A conventional elder son ( Bade)
A Bohemian daughter (Beti)
A typical daughter in law ( Bahu)
A happy go lucky elder grandson ( Sid)
An ambitious younger grandson ( foreign beta)
And A hijra friend of Ma (Rosie)
Ma had turned her back literally and figuratively on her family. She had lain down in bed facing the wall for long.
"She had gone tired of breathing for them, feeling their feelings, bearing their desires, carrying their animosities."
Then one day Ma absconded. When she was found after a day, Beti took charge of her care, switching roles, Beti taking the role of mother.
In the freedom of Beti's home and under her care Ma shed layers of rusty societal coatings along with some dead cells and dirt from the body. She decided to dig out her past from the Tomb of Sand across the border.
Only Rosie knew about the plan. Unfortunately Rosie was found dead in her apartment before the plan took off. Ma was so determined that she couldn't forgo her desire and took Beti along for her dangerous pursuit.
Ma together with Beti crossed the border to Pakistan. Ma's insistent impulses landed them in a jail in treacherous Khyber Pakhthunva. But Ma was Ma. She did manage to meet her former husband and lost love, and was shot dead on the way back. Beti was sent back to India.
Altogether Beti was the hardest hit by Ma's schemes. First, she lost the calmness of her home, from where she worked as a freelance columnist. Once Ma was there, visitors thronged her place, be it relatives or neighbours. She found herself doing things she never wanted to do, playing the role of a homemaker. And she had to undergo many hardships and emotional turmoil across the border.
It was true that Bade loved Ma not just for her signatures in cheques. He was dismayed to see Ma wearing gowns at Beti's home. He had adored the way she had worn expensive beautiful sarees for parties. He loved the way she pampered him by serving hot pakoras and attended to his sulking and tantrums He wished Ma to come back to his home, and take her rightful place, just the way he got all the stuff from his official residence to his post retirement home.
The most hilarious part was the plight of Bade's younger son who was well placed in Australia. He was ambitious and hardworking but somewhere along lost the ability to smile . The harder he tried to strech his lips in the pretext of a smile, the stranger it seemed to others, even to his mother, Bahu. Smiling needed coordination of a number of facial muscles which was simply not happening for poor Foreign Beta.
Narrative is light-hearted and translation in Angrezi ( Indianised English) goes well with it. It is not an easy read, with around 700 pages and touching upon so many things. As the Translator's Note says Tomb of Sand is a tale woven of many threads.
I felt the book dragged a way too much at times. But, once finished one would have a lot to ponder.
Preetha Raj
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