Ancient Promises – by Jaishree Mishra is a heart touching page turner. The novel, its characters and situations will linger our thoughts even after we finish reading it for the walk we took together, for the prayers we rendered and for the extra brilliant observations about life.
Read any stories written by college students, you will feel freshness in it. Ancient Promises is one such writing which will simply transport you to your college days and float you in the romance river, breaking anything and everything comes against it. The book is also narrates the story from the view point of a girl (who refuse to grow up) in the typical ‘girlish’ style. Which woman doesn’t like to engage in those small talks and which man don’t like to spy on them?
Thakazhi Sivashankarappillai (Thakazhi) is my favorite writer in Malayalam, who had won Jnanapeeth Puraskar. Jaishree Mishra is grand niece of Thakazhi. On my search, I was hooked by one observation made by Thakazhi about Jaishree’s first story published when she was 13. In Jaishree’s on words, “He picked out one of my descriptions to particularly praise – that of a small girl whose only clean part was the thumb that emerged from her mouth – leaving me with an early, very important lesson in how small observations can serve to present a wealth of information.” Read ancient promises and you will enjoy many and many of such close observations by the author.
We, people from Kerala have a special habit. i.e. we are more than curious to know about other people than ourselves. We tend to participate in their joy and sorrows too. ‘Ancient promises’ is a semi autobiographical novel and no wonder the ‘Keralite’ in me like the journey. In another thought, unlike the author’s view, this curiosity is ‘universal’ in nature.
Delhi – Kerala – UK. The novel often travels between these places, especially between Delhi & Kerala. Janaki (Janu) is the daughter of an Airforce officer whose roots are in Kerala, but he lives in Delhi as his appointment is there. Janu studied in Delhi schools and she visit Kerala in her holidays. She likes these visits until she falls in love with Arjun. While roaming as free birds, the news reached the conservative parents about the girl’s affair and she is now under parental surveillance. Arjun got admission in a London college and has to leave. Janu is sent back to Kerala where she gets married to ‘Suresh’, a rich guy from big Marar family. Each day in Janu’s marriage life adds unhappiness and her worries are increased. To worsen the situation, she gives birth to a mentally ill baby girl, ‘Ria’. The author considers that the pressures she had to undergo are due from her previous births. On the other hand, she believes that she had given a promise to Arjun as well. Read the book – I am sure you will enjoy reading it.
As I mentioned earlier, the writing style of the author is amazing. Beautiful observations about small things – it is a pleasure to read the novel. Another major plus of the novel is the fun the author manages to attach to these observations. This is a difficult combination to achieve - to make people laugh while they are crying without diluting the effect, but increasing it. I am sure the author must have dropped a lot of tears while writing those gems.
The book is entertaining on 3 accounts. Firstly it had a soul and the soul was in the hands of person who know how to express it with the help of a story. Secondly, the novel is brilliantly written with a lot of poetry. The author who seems impressed by Kahlil Gibran gives same versatility in creating metaphors from day to day objects to small incidents. Thirdly, the author paints a beautiful picture of the situation with very few words, so that the reading is an experience of watching the incidents and people.
The story however loses its ground on two important turning points. That is right. As the author herself says, it is a diluted truth. Then, in the dilution missed are the real reasons. The novel was first wrote (in author’s words): “it was a memoir being written a bit like a long explanatory note to Dicky, my husband, who I felt had never completely understood some of the decisions I had made as a teenager that had affected his life too.” After reading the novel, I think the readers will endorse ‘Dicky’s’ observation. There had no compulsion on Janu to say ‘Yes’ to ‘Suresh’. I think the character in the novel have a habit of coming to early conclusions before maturing it in time. This has to read together with the author’s style of telling the suspense in advance. In any case, the author could have added some thoughts/situations to make the decision as compelling.
Equally ambiguous is the decision to divorce. I am sure that the author ‘diluted’ too much of truth and the character lost a reason there. Also, the author it seems tried to justify the ‘villain’ than creating situations for the reason. The protagonist could only justify it with an ‘ancient promise’, otherwise it would have demanded a ‘future promise’ left for another life.
For future Janus:
The Janu in the novel didn’t have any ‘real’ friends, let it be Delhi, Kerala or London. A future Janu may keep some healthy friendship. Avoid friendships with ‘Leenas and the longing hands. Remember, all boys are not Arjuns or are they?
Don’t criticize a small runway and don’t remain pessimistic saying that it will never happen. The new Cochin Airport will witness for my cause.
3. Don’t jump into a well fearing a snake, before making sure that there is no tiger in it.
Read the book, ‘Don’t Say yes, when you want to say No’. Saying no is not bad. Don’t blame all ‘don’ts’. Some ‘don’ts’ are for our good.
Don’t surrender your game before it starts. Even if it starts and you are sure of failing it, don’t commit it before giving a fight, where the fight in itself will justify your cause.
Despite few justifications missing for the protagonist, ‘Ancient Promises’ is a great novel in itself and the writing style of the author gives A lot of promises. By the way, I am wondering why the author only gives ‘A’ names to her books. Ancient Promises, Accidents like Love and marriage, Afterwards ….even her first published short story did start with the alphabet A… ? (Oh no…her new book is named as Rani) Let me conclude the review with a STRONG recommendation for the book with an A+.
My rating: 4.25 stars