Agatha Christie in “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” said that “Instinct” is a marvelous thing which neither can be explained nor ignored. Sudip Banik is essentially an instinctive writer inspired and lead by his inquisitive mind. Although his maiden venture, however doesn’t cease the reader in acquiring an instant liking for the thrill he offers in the “Hindsight 2020”- and there’s a reason Sudip cautions the reader that it is not a political sattire.
We all are existing in an iambic world trapped in the senile vanguard of our lives admist the global pandemic. This global crisis has fetched us many uncanny introspection almost about everything, of which, the current political hindsight is not an unlikely habit to pursue in this lockdown!
When our honorable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi said, “India is in a state of war against coronavirus”, he also meant that we are in a state of war against our own inertia and indefiniteness of the times ahead.
The Hindsight 2020 is not a political satire because it is a collection of excerpts closely picked up from our own lives, from the life of a regular man and a woman, an employer, an employee; the beautiful “middle-class” existing with communalism, nationalism, secularism, equality in inequality in lockdown.
There is an innate quality of “restlessness of a child” that instigates Sudip into trying to find answers to many over-laying issues we usually don’t feel the intend to explore. For instance, the tint of depression that crosses over Eishu and Ansh, the protagonists of the first plot. It is not just their battle but can be easily sip into our own lives.
Our very own adjustments with marriage, money and the mental!
“Ansh‘s blood-stained clothes narrated a horrid tale. His painful cry got lost somewhere in the siren of the ambulance. Eishu was dead silent, the only motion was her uneven heartbeat, which went slower with every passing minute…”
The consistent back and forth of Junaid reminiscence of how communal hatred is dispensed with history to the modern India we live in today, Sudip actually throws a question at us through the second story of Junaid,
“the history of all previous societies has been the history of class struggles. The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point was, however, is to change it.”
So, did we managed to do it? to bring the “change” we talk about all the time? Are we actually trying? Does it even matter?
The Varna System in it’s nonchalant nature resumes in particular sections of our society and no matter how crazy a breed, society tends to be, you have your own struggles to care much!
“The Reserved ones were harassed lot. Though Birju had come one merit, his score far better the most of the upper caste students, he still found himself in a pace where everyone seems to have already decided what his capabilities could be.”
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” Desperation is not good for desires. Days turned to months, and months to years. Change is the only constant, but in Birju‘s case the only change that he noticed was age, rest all remained constant, including his fate.”
When a daily wager awaits for a change, and an academically brilliant student cannot even manage to get himself a place in the institution, when a father struggles for his family’s daily roti, where is the wind of change, may be flowing the West side!
“The Bhumihars struggled for their daily roti, while the Dalit children went to the best of the private schools and coaching institutes. The lower caste students received half the marks compared to their counterparts, yet edged out the Upper Castes in IIT JEE exams on the basis of reservation.”
This class struggle is not new, also not new is caste migration in search of acceptance.
The Circumstantial Karma is an ode to fate, coincidence and compassion.
“Coincidences exist. Confidences are real…challenging the statement forces us to make of it’s ambiguity and explore our potential involvement…
…with a wave of a mental hand, dismiss most coincidences as not worth further attention.”
We Indians, are a bunch of very hopeful creed of people. We never leave hope, be in both comfort and it’s criticism.
Sudip Banik is a dear friend who easily had put me into a dilemma of my existence and made me so unequipped a human being, incapable of the change we owe to nature and India.
Indians are unique.
Beautifully boastful of voices against power, privileges, plight on social media, at times on roads and now in lockdown, we are at home with our voices, peaked at best!
As the country rolls into the next phase of this lockdown,
I have most placidly picked up the newspaper to wine about the crashing GDP, asking myself, will justice prevail for an “Outsider” and what will be the tally in Congress and BJP, my quick bets on the actors/singers to join the either party…
I am an above average middle class woman with my own problems.
Meanwhile, a migrant worker walks on a thousand miles, barefoot, to reach Home!
