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| Rahul Bhattacharya |
The Sly Company of People who Care by Rahul Bhattacharya is a novel
detailing an Indian journalist's travels through Guyana. Rahul
Bhattacharya was recently awarded the Ondaatje Prize for this book. He has previously authored Pundits from Pakistan, a
book on the Indian cricket team's tour of Pakistan in 2004.
Congratulations
on the Ondaatje Prize. Tell us a little bit about it.
Thank you.
It is an award of the Royal Society of Literature in Britain, set up by
Christopher Ondaatje, philanthropist and elder brother of Michael Ondaatje. It
is awarded to a book that evokes the spirit of a place. Novels, travelogues,
poems are all eligible for the Ondaatje Prize.
What
does it mean to evoke the spirit of a place?
First you
have to understand the place. Once that is done, you have to find the technique
to render it and commit yourself to the craftsmanship of conveying this
understanding. There are no rules. Some people have a project in mind, in my
case it was a book of discovery.
Most
people hear of Guyana only in the context of cricket. Is that what interested
you in the place? Guyana?
Cricket was
my gateway to Guyana. Like most other kids, I knew it as the place where
Chanderpaul, Kanhai and Kallicharan come from. When I was a cricket reporter,
the first country I landed in was Guyana. And a whole world opened up to me.
And it was a part of the world that I knew so little of. And I was curious
about its historical processes. That's why I wanted to go back at some point.
With
respect to colonialism, how were the historical processes in Guyana different
from those in India?
They're
completely different. India is an ancient society that has seen wave after wave
of colonisation. The effects of British rule are felt most profoundly because
it's the most immediate. Guyana and the West Indies were very scantily
populated areas. The indigenous tribes were not found in great numbers. So when
the colonisers landed, it was a virgin territory to them. And they used it as
an offshore factory. So people were enslaved from Africa, India and China to
make sugar. And, eventually, it became a society almost created by colonialism.
In Guyana, more than 90 per cent of the population was displaced as a result —
Africans who had Africa beaten out of them, Indians who had no memory of India.
India wasn't a colonial creation, whereas the West Indies almost was.
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| Guyana; foto Marina Caf |
One of
the chief delights of the book is its dialogue that almost wants to be read out
aloud. Would you ever consider writing a play?
I don't
think so. I have had such a bad experience of watching drama in Bombay during
my college days that I don't have a feeling for drama anymore. But I do like
dialogue.
Which of
your books are you closer to?
It takes a
while to look at a book with detached affection. I feel more affectionate
towards Pundits… right now because I don't think about it much now. I can
take it for granted. Sly Company… is slightly raw right now, but hopefully in
a few years I'll have the same detachment from it.
