Publishers : Eka Publishers
Vinod Kumar Shukla is a modern Hindi writer known for his style that often borders on magic-realism. His works include the novels Naukar ki Kameez (which has been made into the film of the same name by Mani Kaul) and Deewar Mein Ek Khirkee Rahati Thi (A Window lived in a Wall), which won the Sahitya Akademi Award for the best Hindi work in 1999. His novel Khilega Toh Dekhenge (Once It Flowers, 1996) is considered one of the most iconic novels of Hindi literature.
A Window Lived in the Wall delicately peels back the many layers of Raghuvar and Sonsi’s beautiful marriage. Their possessions are meagre, their one-room rental barely accommodates a bed and some kitchen utensils. But beyond the window of their one room is a magical place that sustains Raghuvar Prasad and Sonsi’s spirit.
A work of deceptive simplicity from one of the finest writers of our times.
Sometimes you go into a book not knowing what to expect, but it ends up being exactly what you need at the moment. A Window Lived in the Wall by Vinod Kumar Shukla turned out to be one such read for me – a calm, kind oasis full of love at a time when the world outside was devolving into chaos, faced with yet another wave of the pandemic and making even the most dedicated homebody like myself feel claustrophobic within the four walls of home.
In A Window Lived in the Wall, Raghuvar Prasad teaches Mathematics at a mofussil college and lives in a one room house in a cluster of houses, some distance away. One day instead of taking the jitney to college like he normally does, he lets a sadhu with an elephant give him a lift. Sonsi, Raghuvar Prasad’s new bride, Sonsi, sees him come home on the elephant, and is very impressed. The introduction of the elephant into the lives of Raghuvar Prasad and Sonsi is the narrative thread that connects the idyllic vignettes that make up the book. At the end of it, the reader is left with some images akin to the nostalgic memory of a mango enjoyed on a lazy summer afternoon. The neighbourhood children perch on a pile of bricks to peep into Raghuvar Prasad’s house for a little chat, flowers grow in repurposed battery cases outside their door, a family of four work out the complex equations of propriety as newly weds sleep alongside parents in a one roomed house. Raghuvar Prasad and Sonsi climb out of the small window in their small house into a magical world with clear ponds, tall trees and babbling brooks.
At the heart of these vignettes is the beautiful relationship between the husband and the wife – two people making their own place in the other’s life with lots of love for each other, and a bottomless wonder for the world. They are secure in their oasis of love, and enough kindness to spare for the rest of the world. Their lives have plenty room for other lovably eccentric characters – the department head at Raghuvar Prasad’s college, the boy who lives in the tree, Raghuvar Prasad’s parents and younger brother.
Vinod Kumar Shukla is a well-respected name in Hindi literature, and his prose is exquisite. The whimsical dreaminess of it shines through in the English translation – credit for which goes to translator Satti Khanna. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the author’s works. If escaping into the languorous pace of a kinder world sounds at all appealing to you, you should at least pick this one up.