A first novel after a collection of short stories, anecdotes and “musings and amusings” delightfully titled Fool’s Paradise, Roswitha Joshi’s Indian Dreams takes the reader back to a phase in the slow and often painful process of transformation in India-the 1970s.
Those were the times when private transport and telephones were owned only by a fraction of those today, and television sets were owned by even lesser. While New Delhi and few other cities had begun to attract more low-budget foreigners, particularly of the hippie/backpacker category, tourism for the conservative foreign tourist was only confined to very few locations where suitable accommodation came at the cost of many more dollars or pounds or whatever other currency.
While romance for Indians in India was fairly expensive activity, it certainly did not stop many out of those who were fortunate to travel to wondrous lands across the seas from indulging in the same, particularly for the males, whose fascination for the fairer sex with the fairer skin has never waned.
And somewhat so it was for Akash, who landed up in erstwhile West Germany on an assignment and met Norma.
About two years after her scholarly Indian lover, Akash, had vanished from her life and shortly after her separation from her husband, Peter, Norma returns with her infant son to her parental home in rural Bavaria to rebuild her life as single mother in a loving and secure environment. Yet, that is not to be.
For, on the very first morning of her stay, the ring of a long-distance call awakens her. The voice at the other end belongs to Akash who, keen to erase past misunderstandings, begs her to reunite with him. Torn between the familiar and the dreams she once harboured, Norma opts for the more exotic route. It leads her to Delhi, the deserts of Rajasthan and jungles of Madhya Pradesh.
It also leads to personal and professional encounters, where passion unites and attitude divides, where skeletons tumble out of cupboards and frisky spirits, robed or cloaked in plain to pompous garbs, have a field day.
Set in the India of the 1970s, when socialist leanings shaped policies, when the craving to possess what one professed not to want spawned hypocrisy, and when rajas stooped to become hoteliers, this story makes you frown, laugh and wonder about some human aspects of our earthly existence. It also emphasizes the importance of inner and outer journeys to gain insights into novel ways of thinking, acting and reacting.
The author’s portrayal of life and times of the 1970s in both Germany and India is insightful. Norma is beset by dilemmas in her Bavarian home and professional life in Germany as well as in India, where, while passionate romance with long-elusive Akash is revived, but not without some small shadows of doubt caused by his not being able to be as publicly expressive about his love and feelings for her as she is used to in her Western world.
Some aspects of how World War II affected the lives of the generation of Norma’s parents are subtly reflected in her interaction with her mother, whose views and advice to Norma to pursue her aspirations comes as a pleasant surprise. Crazy India, with its great contrasts of urban and rural, rich and poor and so much more, has Norma quite flummoxed. Her forays into the palaces of Rajasthan and exotic locations of Madhya Pradesh and her interactions with the characters in Joshi’s story are to say the least, entertaining.
The author, like in her earlier works, brings out the agonies, and if not ecstasies, at least humour, surprises and profoundness of matters Indian through Norma’s experiences and also conveys how India, with all its contradictions has a way of growing on its visitors. A couple of characters who add spice to the story are Devraj, the privy purse-deprived scion trying to revive his fortune by resurrecting his palace and his paramour Tamanna, aka Tammy, whose quotable sales-pitch is: “You will love it here. Tribes and cubs, forts and huts, brains and nuts. This is just the place for you and your globe-trotting tribe!”
Towards the end of the story, the reader may even tend to get drawn into Norma’s plans of extending her German company’s operations to India, and almost wishing that the venture succeeds so that she can return to India with her young son and be with Akash.
Indian Dreams is also more than a bit of a reminder to at the least the well-heeled in India, quite used to criticising or lamenting about its negatives and simply taking for granted some of its positives, which many in the West have appreciated time again.
Anil Bhat, a retired Army officer, is a defence and security analyst based in New Delhi