When Rushdie writes, the World sits up and takes notice. The release of Luka And The Fire Of Life (LATFOL) however, has been comparatively subdued as this is a book supposedly meant for children.
That children derive an impish delight in contorting names, is known to all of us. But often we might take time realising that much of our perception of the Universe and life forms therein, is a function of the stories and the characters that we have heard/fantasized about as a child. So time is but little more than a door between reality and fantasy. And the ease with which you can walk through the door is purely a matter of belief and conviction. This is the basic tenet on which the tale of LATFOL is built.
’Kahani’ is the name of the city and ’Alifbay’, the land where Rushdie weaves his fairy tale. And true to his style, the characters also have interesting names and quirks. The book basically picks up from where Haroun & Sea of Stories left us. Haroun has grown up and has in turn been ’succeeded’ by Luka, his brother who is born 18 years after him. Luka has two pets, a bear named Dog and a dog named Bear. He is a ’modern’ child and completely at home with video games. So much so that he can even see a life-counter in the top left-hand corner of his vision and has his own abbreviations (P2C2E stands for Processes Too Complicated To Explain). While passing a circus, Luka gets agitated at the sight of the suffering animals that he ends up cursing Captain Aag, the circus Ringmaster "May your animals stop obeying your commands and your rings of fire burn up your stupid tent". The words prove prophetic when the animals unite to rebel against the Ringmaster and refuse to obey his commands. Later in the night, the circus tent catches fire and is destroyed. The Ringmaster has his revenge by casting a spell on Rashid, Luka’s father, sending him in coma. When Rashid goes into coma, Soraya is ’inconsolable’, a word which, much to our surprise, Luka knows, in reality has nothing to do with games. Luka must now travel to the World of Magic and steal the "Fire of Life" to bring back his father to life. The World of Magic is familiar territory to Luka who can identify most of the landmarks, places and characters, courtesy the stories his father told him. Most of the characters are like alter egos to those in the real world. The spirit of Rashid is shown deriving his name in this trademark Rushdie sequence :-
’Nobody is going to take my father away, ’ Luka cried. ’Not even you, Mr - whatever your name is - with your scary tales.’
’Nobody, ’ said the see-through Rashid. ’Yes, you can call me that. That’s who I am. Nobody is going to take your father away: that is exactly right, and I am the Nobody in
question. I am your, you might say, Nobodaddy.’
’That’s nonsense, ’ said Luka.
’No, no, ’ the see-through Rashid corrected him. ’I’m afraid that Nonsense is not involved. You will discover that I am a no-Nonsense kind of guy.’
With characters like Nobodaddy, Batcheat (the talkative Princess of Gup, both Baatcheet and Gup being popular hindi lingo) and the Insultana of Ott, the queen of insults with her ’We expectorate on the Respectorate!’ , there arent too many dull moments. So when Rats in the Restau-Rat sing this in chorus, we know who is being taken a potshot at :-
’I, I, sir, I, I, sir, We all say I, I, I.
There’s no need to argue, no need to sussspect,
No need to think when you’ve got Ressspect,
We all say I, I, I.’
Rushdie’s obsession with bosoms (remember the Mumani Jaan episode in Midnight’s Children) has really stood the test of times :-P If anything it gets even more humourous with ".... she gave him too many sweets to eat and pulled his face towards her so that he was lost between her bosoms like a traveller in an unknown valley that smelled of cheap perfume...."
Twisting names to witty, if at all derogatory effect - like "Dull Lake" or "Ratshit" or "Insultana of Ott", is a wonderful ruse cause it means Rushdie can take a potshot at any name and he’d be forgiven for it. But wordplay is a tricky game. And sometimes it can work against the best of wordsmiths. For instance, the opening sentence of this review could have easily been modified to read "when Rushdie writes, the whole world shits up and takes no notice." - which is how many of his detractors/critics are perhaps paying him in his own coin. Thankfully he seems to have realised this and as if to compensate, he doesnt hesitate to take a potshot at himself (the character Rashid) with "The Shah of Blah, now he’s the Sleeping Beauty, only not so beautiful."
The book’s biggest draw is that having been meant for children, Rushdie has tamed much of his bombastic style to make way for accessible reading. Not only does this make it an easier read but also takes away many of the moot points that his critics use against him. But old habits will die hard and occasionally you’ll find him returning to his verbose ways as in "Were you so vain, so foolish, feeble pint-sized maledictor, that you thought you were the only witch in town? .... O incompetent pygmy hexer"
The book has its pitfalls. If you are into hard core gaming and more than good at NewGen games (read God of War, Crysis or even Half life), you’d probably be disappointed at Rushdie’s attempt at borrowing from the virtual world. The backdrop might feel like a low resolution, pixellated and out of date game that has lived its life. But then thats not the point. If you wanted uptodate virtual backdrops, you wouldnt be reading a book, you’d be playing the game, probably in 3D. But for children who like to read their fairy tales that they can yet identify with, even if the basic plot remains the same, the book is a welcome read.
The book isnt meant only for children, its meant for children of all ages - 8 to 80. Luka And The Fire Of Life has Rushdie doing what he does best - regale us with puns & witticisms in an Indianised English & contextualised settings that had made him the leading author of his era.