It is not difficult to classify Mahashweta Devi’s writing—a large chunk of her over 100 works have a distinct radical tone and talk about issues that ail the marginalised. Truth/Untruth, translated to English from Bangla by Anjum Katyal, stays true to this. But the book’s categorisation as crime thriller is what differentiates it from her other writing. The high-paced narrative and suspenseful storytelling, complemented with the author’s evocative voice, successfully holds on to the reader’s attention till the end.
The protagonist of the nearly 150-page tale is Jamuna, a househelp in a posh colony in Kolkata’s Khidirpur area. It all begins when she is found dead under mysterious circumstances. After dropping the death bomb right at the beginning, Devi, in her inimitable style, gives us background to Jamuna’s life. The setting is the 1980s, and she is among the many domestic workers who toil from dusk to dawn in affluent highrises to make ends meet. In Jamuna’s case, it was the Barnamala, a new skyscraper in the region. She works at the house of Arjun Babu, who lives with his wife. The couple finally conceives after a decade of trying. Just when everything seems to be going well, we learn that Jamuna too is pregnant with Arjun’s child, unfolding an entirely new dimension to the tale. Arjun Babu had raped Jamuna.
Even as he tries his best to keep it a secret, Jamuna suffers in silence. Unable to report the crime because of the stigma around it, she is forced to seek the help of a quack doctor for an abortion. Through Jamuna, Devi gives readers a peek into the dark underbelly of metropolises that push those already suffering to the extreme periphery of society.
The poor, particularly women, have no choice. The stark difference between the haves and have-nots, which has been Devi’s core area of interest, is palpable even in what has been largely marketed as a murder mystery.
She deploys dry humour to play up the obvious yet ignored ironies. Jamuna survived off the pitiful pay given to her by Arjun and his wife. Through Jamuna, Devi exemplifies the woes of the underpaid staff at Barnamala, who are compelled to pilfer whatever they can to either resell or take it home for their family, thus urging readers to also deliberate on the correlation between poverty and crime.
As a murder mystery, Truth/Untruth is an engaging and thrilling read, as one expects a book in the genre to be. As a literary work by Devi, it doesn’t disappoint either with its thought-provoking theme. This is a book that will diversify any collection, even one that has almost all works by the author.
Truth/Untruth
By: Mahashweta Devi
Translated by Anjum Katyal
Publisher: Seagull
Pages: 144
Price: Rs 599