Tales from Firozsha Baag, though a lesser known work by Rohinton Mistry, still captures with vividity, the rich and complex patterns of life of lower middle class families inhabiting an apartment in Bombay. The book is a collection of eleven interrelated stories that are as touching as they are humourous.
Characterisation is Mistry’s forte and you get a glimpse of his imagination as he sketches Jaakaylee, an ayah and the Baag’s ghost seer! The simplicity of her feelings are brought out through a compelling illustration of her day to day activities...the way she gets teased by kids of the baag for seeing a bhoot....the way her confession stops her periodic troubles with the bhoot.
’The collectors’ portray the feelings of an adoloscent who gets addicted to stamp collection and gets carried away! It also portrays how events hurt...how interests fade. I did appreciate the ending of the story where after getting a boxful of precious stamps from Dr. Mody, Jehangir lets it rot...and is unaffected and unrepentent!
’Condolence visit’ is a story of a widow whose calmness soothe...whose scoff at traditions is touching....whose love for her beloved, who is no more, is pure and untainted.
One of the best stories of the book is ’Of White Hairs and Cricket’. Itz the story of a father and a son subtly told! Nothing dramatic happens in the story...but the way it captures the relationship shared by the father and the son is touching...the plucking of gray hairs, the visits to the cricket ground, the pigeons, the bicycles and dreams...and the fear of losing them all!
The story of Sarosh’s incomplete Canadianisation though humourous fails to impress. The feeling for the characters that Mistry created before seemed missing in this story in which he focusses on attempts by Sarosh to get rid of his squatting position on a WC! That’s probably the least significant of effort necesseary for any westernisation!
However, ’Lend me your light’ more than compensates for the drabness of the previous one! This story is about Kersi ( who I’d prefer to think as Mistry himself) who leaves India for Canada for better opportunities, about Percy, his idealistic brother who believes in uplifting the rural poor and about his friend, Jamshed...who migrates to America and scoffs at everything Indian. Caught between two extremes, Kersi, reconciles himself to a life in Canada....inspite of the light he saw in his brother...inspite of his confusion...inspite of the unsolved riddles and puzzles.
The last story ’Swimming Lessons’, of Kersi adapting himself to a western lifestyle...yet living with memories that are refreshed through writing, of his childhood at the Ferozsha Baag gives a grand finale to an extremely readable work! I do look forward to reading more of his works - especially ’Such a Long Journey’ and ’A fine balance’ which have political issues as a background.