After reading one short story collection by Intizar Husain, I decided to read another one by him. This one is called ‘A Chronicle of the Peacocks‘.
This collection has 15 stories. Some of them are about Partition, some of them are about the Bangladeshi war, and some of them are inspired by Hindu and Buddhist mythology. The subtitle of the book says, ‘Stories of Partition, Exile and Lost Memories’, but that is really a restrictive description, because the range of the themes that the book explores is wide.
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The first story in the book, ‘An Unwritten Epic‘ (‘Ek Bin-likhi Razmiya‘) was one of my favourite stories in the book. It is about Partition and about one particular character called Pichwa, who is a fearless fighter and what happens to him. I loved this particular passage from that story.
“No one doubted Pichwa’s courage, which had been tested and proved many a time. However, they explained the source of his strength and its effects in different ways. Pichwa always found some excuse to fight so that he could practise his skills and display them. He always fought fearlessly, without worrying about the outcome. And he never allowed a selfish thought to sully his temper. He fought without reason or purpose; he fought for the sake of fighting. That is why when the storm of communal violence swept across the country, he didn’t stop to ask uncomfortable questions. The riots gave him the chance to display his expertise with the lathi without any restraint.”
‘Tortoise‘ (‘Kachuwe‘) is inspired by Jataka tales and Buddhist legends, and is about monks who find it hard to let go off desire.
‘Leaves‘ (‘Patey‘) is a similar kind of story. I liked it even more. I loved this passage from it.
“Sanjaya went on a long journey again. He wandered aimlessly through many forests. Days passed, years went by, flowers blossomed and seasons changed. Each season brought with it its own splendour, its own delight, and then vanished. Each season caused Sanjaya pain. Each season stirred the river of memories and left traces of sorrow. The fields of yellow mustard flowers, the air trembling with music, the sweet smell of mangoes, the swift wings of butterflies, the hum of the slow bee over honeyed flowers, the call of the koel heavy with grief, the fragrance of the champak tree, the sad jingle of bells on a dancer’s feet. Every moment reminded him of the world he had left behind. And the image of that beautiful woman stood before him always.
Sanjaya began to wonder if every path, in every wild forest, led back to her door. He thought about it for a long time and concluded that the seasons were in secret league with the guardians of the five senses, and that the five senses invited suffering. He also concluded that a man could get trapped in the nets of desire in a number of ways. When he touched a soft petal or heard a gentle tune, when he was carried away on the wings of some delicate fragrance or was enraptured by a gorgeous colour. The truth was that every thing in the world could cause sorrow. When Sanjaya realized this, he was very sad. In his grief he said, ‘There are lanes in a town and seasons in a forest. How can I escape the net of desire?'”
‘Platform‘ is about a group of people who get stuck in a railway station platform when their train gets cancelled and they can’t go forward (there seems to be war or a riot) and they can’t go back and the world seems to have abandoned them. It is a very poignant story.
‘A Chronicle of the Peacocks‘ (‘Morenama‘) is about the aftermath of the time when India exploded the atom bomb in the late ’90s. How Intizar Husain interweaves this with the story of Ashwatthama from the Mahabharatha is very fascinating to read.
‘The Boat‘ (‘Kishti‘) is a story in which Intizar Husain weaves in the legend of the great flood from different traditions. So we find the story of Noah, coming together with the story of Gilgamesh, and the story of Manu, alongwith other stories I couldn’t recognize.
‘The Story of the Parrot and the Mynah‘ (‘Totay-Mynay Key Kahani‘) is about what happens when these two birds discuss about human beings in the forest and what happens when the other birds join in. There is an owl character who comes in this story, who is so cool and treats everyone with contempt and I loved him That owl was one of my favourite characters in the book. I laughed when I read this particular scene featuring our famous owl 😄
“The Owl was visibly upset when he realized that the problem was about human beings. He said angrily, ‘O sweet-singing birds, why have you brought an argument about those creatures to me? You want to know who is better – man or woman?…Both are of the same kind, both belong to the same species. The sight of a human being is always inauspicious, though they claim that it is I who am inauspicious. Human beings are responsible for all the destruction, yet they think that I am the cause of the evil things that happen to them. Indeed, it is this belief of theirs that has made me lose heart. I hate the very sight of human beings and prefer dark and silent nights. Unfortunately, those vile creatures are determined to cause more mischief and violate the sanctity of the night. Not satisfied with the noise they make during the day, they have invented machines to destroy the silence of the night. They have also discovered electricity so that they can dispel darkness. Where can we, seekers of darkness and solitude, now hide? Those evil-minded creatures have invaded every corner of this earth.
Only the other day, a swarm of half-dead ducks came here in search of refuge. They were exhausted and trembling with fear. Wondering why they had come so far away from home to find shelter in our forest, I asked – Dear friends, what calamity has befallen you? Why have you left the cool comfort of your lakes and come to this ruin to seek shelter? Here you will be uncomfortable and miserable.
They sighed – What lakes? Our lakes are covered with oil. Human beings, in their greed, have even bored deep into ocean floors. They have poisoned all the waters of the earth.
I was stunned when I learnt that those wretched creatures had not only polluted the air, but had also poisoned the waters. In despair, I looked up towards heaven. They had covered the sky with smoke, choking the birds flying through it.’
The Owl’s speech stunned the birds that had gone to see him. After some time the Poodna asked, ‘O wise one, what you have told us about human beings is depressing. Will their actions destroy us? Why do they hate us?’
‘Human beings hate themselves too. They have also sown the seeds of their own destruction.’
‘They should at least think about what they are doing,’ the Poodna exclaimed.
The Chakva said, ‘How can they? They don’t have any intelligence.’
The Owl nodded in agreement and added sadly, ‘Those bloody fools have intelligence, but they don’t have wisdom.'”
There are more stories in the book, including a surreal one, which is vintage Intizar Husain, but I’ll stop here.
The book has a beautiful long interview of Intizar Husain by the translator Alok Bhalla. It stretches to more than 40 pages and it is very fascinating. In the interview, Intizar Husain talks about his childhood, his family, the inspiration behind his stories, and other things. I loved that interview. It was more a conversation rather than an interview, because sometimes the interviewer Alok Bhalla talks more. Sometimes I could hear my mind voice saying, “Please stop talking, Man. Please ask the question. I want to hear the author’s thoughts, not yours.” 😄
The book also has an interesting introduction by the translator, which is best read after reading the book. The introduction veers towards the academic side, and so parts of it might be hard reading for the general reader, but on a whole it will be loved by a literature student, I think.
I loved ‘A Chronicle of the Peacocks’. I’m glad I read it. There are only two translations of Intizar Husain’s short stories in English. Now I’ve read them both. Wish there were more. I also wish the publishers take all his short stories and translate them and put them out together as one or two volumes so that fans of his work like me, can get to read all of them.
Have you read ‘A Chronicle of the Peacocks’? What do you think about it?
Sounds like an excellent book, Vishy – those quotes are lovely!
It is a wonderful book, Kaggsy 😊 So glad I read it!