The last couple of years, the meaning of loss has drastically changed, or perhaps just more people have become familiar with it, which is why it seems that there would’ve probably been no better moment than a post-pandemic world to read Keki N Daruwalla’s 'Going: Stories of Kinship'. The little red book of short stories dealing with the notion of loss, particularly that of a family member, evokes a deep ache that all of us are now way too familiar with.
Daruwalla, however, has broadened the scope of loss in this collection. He makes the reader question–– when it is that one truly loses a loved one? Is death always, and the solitary reason why that happens?
In this book, there is a story of a couple losing their son (and finding him after years) after one day he goes missing; and another couple who lose their daughter despite the fact that she lives with them in the same house, but only in her physical presence. It is the element of novelty that each story provides to the idea of losing a loved one that is most intriguing about this collection.
How many ways are there to lose someone? One wonders. The stories almost compel the readers to introspect and take a deep dive into their own relationships, and resolve to set things right. Daruwalla, being the fine storyteller that he is, manages to give us, amidst what seems like a grim subject, mystery, thrill, hope, heartbreak, and tear-jerker moments, all in 130 pages that are filled with lucid writing that is engaging till the very last page.
But, what particularly stands out in this collection is the visual imagery that brings the places––real and imagined, and across different timelines––where the stories are set, to life. For instance, in ‘Bird Island’, he writes, “All of a sudden, they saw the whole island rise up in front of them, as if some bird god had summoned the entire waterfowl kingdom to the skies... Many of the birds were wet. Light shimmered as it alighted on their backs only to slip off, as if it had glanced off shards of galvanised steel.
All three of them were stunned by the scene, this vast latticework of wings moving ahead to the accompaniment of the cacophony of bird cries.” In ‘Going’, he writes, “The moment the rains cleared the estate seemed to burst into bird song. We even heard the peafowl, their sharp, short, full throated cries rising in ascending notes... the babblers regained their voice and started their furtive pecking once again, and a cool mist rose from the ground, thin and vapoury, yet tangible as silver foil.”
The only thing that doesn’t seem to work for this book, at times, is the language, which sometimes takes too philosophical a route like in ‘The Long Night of the Bhikshu’ and ‘Daughter’, but, the heart of this little red book of short stories is right where it should be––humans’ primal need to hold on to relations that they hold dear until the very end.
Going: Stories of Kinship
By: Keki N Daruwalla
Publisher: Speaking Tiger
Pages: 130
Price: Rs 499