The story begins in pre-Independent India, with Lal Singh’s sons Virpal and Dhanpal. Ever ambitious, Virpal runs away from home, Lalbanga, a village east of Ajmer, laying the foundation of the family’s urbanisation. His brother Dhanpal, a broken man, returns to the village after serving in the British army, and spends the rest of his life embittered and in a shell of his former self. When Virpal’s only child, Kishen Singh, dies in an accident, Dhanpal does what he knows he must.
He offers his own first born, Himmat, as family must do. And from here comes Himmat’s meteoric rise, as he goes from student politics to becoming the chief minister of Rajasthan.
He helps his younger brother Mangal to get out of the village, and then helps him first with a cement dealership, then a cement factory and finally a petrol pump. He even helps arrange his marriage with the beautiful, well-educated Tapti.
But the younger brother always feels dissatisfied with what his brother gives, and unmanned by his city-bred, intelligent wife.
Kapur does well to set her epic in Rajasthan.
The dry, barren state is the perfect backdrop to a tale that holds so little hope. Interestingly, in her insights into the motivations of lesser characters she offers much more than she does about her main characters.
About Gaur Sahib, a clerk in the British Railway Offices who makes a fleeting appearance, she says, referring to his views on Gandhi, “He finds this man disturbing. At the moment he is in prison, having broken British salt laws.
Gaur Sahib sees this as an implicit criticism of his own service to the imperial master. Of course the poor suffer because of the salt tax, but in marching to the sea so publicly, this man draws attention to everyone’s moral frailties.”
However, as the book picks up pace and Himmat Singh rises in the political sphere, one gets to understand even less of him or even his perpetually angry wife, Sonia. One is left to infer his reasons through his actions, with considerably less authorial intervention than the other characters are treated with. Or even his own character was given in the beginning.
Punctuated by real life historical events and references, the story gathers pace while giving one a realistic sketch of a certain section of society.
Men who have never seen their wives’ faces in the daylight, purdah, the necessity of a male heir, the importance of family giving each other a leg up, and so on.
Aspiration, treachery, lust, misery, Kapur touches upon all of these, but with a deft hand that leaves them understated, giving us yet another winner.