Shubhangi Swarup’s debut Novel ‘Latitudes
of Longing’ can be considered
as one of the most ambitious novels by an Indian English Author. Events are
drawn from the edge between life and death, between untamed-islands and
urbanized civilization, between abstinence and promiscuity. Built over such
varied landscapes, the novel is sort of a testament to possibilities – good and
bad. These aren’t linear tales whose equation can be derived, and outcomes can
be determined at the outset. Instead, they are more like irregular curves which
have no set pattern but each node, be it maxima or minima, is worth pondering
over, they show that “anything is possible because everything is.”
The story
is split into four parts that intersect with one another at times but largely
maintain their independence. Just like hypothesis testing in Data
science, The Author provides a null hypothesis at the beginning of every
section and it is followed by enough data that the readers can come up with
their own alternate hypothesis and can either accept or reject the Author’s
null hypothesis. Also, the story is so layered that it’s not certain that every
individual has the same test result.
ISLANDS
The first section, Islands, is set in the Andaman in the two decades post India’s
freedom from British rule. Girija Prasad Varma is a botanist and a
scholar who is tasked by the then Prime Minister with setting up the National
Forestry Service. Posted to the Andamans, Girija studies plants, their origins,
and uses. A bride is arranged for him from the mainland. The co-protagonist of
the story, Chanda Devi and Girija are brought together by their contradictory as
well as complimentary thoughts – drawing knowledge from each other.
While Mr.
Varma strives to solve botanical mysteries about the origin and habitat of
plants, Chanda Devi’s time passes with the ghosts on the islands, in
premonitions. In time, Both, Girija and Chanda, arrive at the conclusion that
on this island “neither can make it alone.” On Chanda’s insistence, Girija agrees
to take in a woman called Mary from the Karen community of Burma who has been
left widowed after eloping and her child sent back to Rangoon because she has
no way of caring for him.
FAULTLINE
In the second section, the
story reaches Burma to Mary’s son, Plato, who has been imprisoned. After
23 years, Plato’s friend, Thapa, arrives to collect Mary from the Andamans.
This second section called Faultline also highlights on
Burma’s troubled history in the ’70s as protests against high inflation and
food shortage is violently suppressed by the government.
VALLEY
A character is introduced, in each section,
whose story carries into the next. In Valley, Thapa is older now
and invested emotionally in a much younger woman called Bebo. He journeys to
India where he meets the elderly patriarch of his village called Apo.
SNOW DESERT
In Snow Desert, the focus
turns to Apo’s romance with a Kashmiri woman named Ghazala in his final years. The author has vividly captured the nuances of it and has been very successful in
it.
This is
a novel with many thematic as well as tonal shifts. It is not driven by
characters so much as it is by their relationships to the external environment –
ghosts, the natural world, storytelling, governments, others. After reading
this book, readers can take home a layered understanding of relationships
rather than individuals. Author’s interest in how people are transformed by one
another is noticeable. Protagonist invests a lifetime of silence in matters of
affection, another character invests a lifetime in forgetting certain kinds of
emotions. But when coupled, they are surprised to find those defenses weakening
and those habits challenged.
One cannot fail to notice in Swarup’s
“Latitudes...” is a vivid description of silence. The novel
opens with the line, “Silence on a tropical island is the relentless sound of
water.” Throughout the book, different kinds of silence are noted. There is
“larval silence” before dawn, the silence that precedes separation and follows
childbirth, the silence in which “lies...resignation”. There are meditative
silences, purposeful silences to postpone conversations, and disciplined
internal silences which protect against madness. For Girija, the silence of
swimming in the Andamans’ clear waters is like a prayer.
Latitudes can
be better described as a series of interconnected short stories. Starting with
expansive landscapes that gradually move into narrower straits – which can
leave you feeling like the stakes of the novel are lower at the end than the
start. Some of the strengths displayed in the Islands do not carry
forward into the rest of the book, which is bit strange. But there is no doubt
Swarup’s debut is very interesting. When taken apart, the novel is a series of
well-sculpted sentences and one-liners, that tell convincing stories. It’s
certain that Latitudes will be able to establish Swarup as an
Indian writer to pay attention to.
