McCluskieganj
Page 25
Kitty Memsahib with her daughters Iwan and Linda
A long time has gone by and now Mrs Thripthorpe and her daughter Judy are no longer there. Very loving people, I still think of them. Chatti Nadi and Konka Pahadi still fascinate me and their very thought takes me down the Ganj lane.
A view of McCluskieganj
MG: What does the Anglo-Indian community mean to you as a novelist?
VKJ: It is a community that to begin with was full of contradictions and rejections. So, it is a community that has suffered and, for some reason, I could relate to their angst. Yet, they never accepted defeat. Due to the untiring efforts of some of its leading members, India gave them recognition. It is the only community that has two representatives in the Lok Sabha, and every state assembly has provision for one MLA to be nominated. This makes me very proud and also that, despite some drawbacks, the Anglo-Indian community is synonymous with school education in India. Because of their efforts, our school-going children are able to compete at various levels in the international field of education.
McCluskieganj has several schools to date that impart value-based education and turn out well-groomed and well-aware students.
Mr H. Mendez
MG: What support did you receive from your family, friends and well-wishers while writing this novel?
VKJ: For a creative writer, family support is of paramount importance, because though thoughts may receive impetus even while being surrounded by people, writing has to be done in total solitude. My children went from school to college and I didn’t even know, so quietly did the years pass away as I was left undisturbed to do my work. What more could I ask for? People in my village feel connected with McCluskieganj because I have written it. My family, my people have all actively been supportive and a part of this magical journey. They gave me all the freedom I wanted towards this novel. They lived my journey as well, and shared my passion for this village. They have been regular visitors to the village as well.
A party in McCluskieganj
I am very grateful to you, my teacher from my college days. How lovingly and carefully you translated this book, embodying its spirit entirely. I would also like to add here that this novel in its original form is over 500 pages long and that it is with your help that I was able to condense the novel to arrive at this translation, which I hope very much will appeal to the English readership. I am also grateful to your daughter Dr Maitrayee Narayan who, despite her busy schedule, typed the script flawlessly.
Late D.R. Cameron of Highland Guest House
Kitty Memsahib
Kitty Memsahib
MG: What’s next?
VKJ: The completion of McCluskieganj left a big void in my life. For several years, I was at a loss as to what I should write next, but, as I have said before, it is the theme that chooses me. I am often amazed that after writing about a village in Jharkhand, I went straight to a village situated in a rainforest in Karnataka, Agumbe, in the district of Shimoga. The serial on R.K. Narayan’s Malgudi Days directed by Shankar Nag was shot in this village. Agumbe and Malgudi have become synonymous. It has the world’s most famous habitat for the king cobra. The village boasts of an almost 100 per cent joint family tradition. It is a very happy village, and in my current novel, Varsha Van Kee Roopkatha, I have tried to invoke the spirit of nature’s joyous presence. Like McCluskieganj, this theme too, though localized, is global in its embrace—the immortal in the transient. I am also working on a couple of more books and updating one of my earlier books. I am travelling into realities and these realities are becoming my dream.
A grotto in McCluskieganj
About the Author
Vikas Kumar Jha (b. 1961) is a journalist by profession and has worked for magazines like Maya and Outlook, and is currently devoted to full-time writing. His first novel was titled Bhog, and his collection of Hindi poems, Is Baarish Mein. He has also written two critically acclaimed plays in Maithili, namely, Jamputra and Sonmachhariya, and a non-fiction narrative on the criminalization of politics in Bihar.
McCluskieganj received the Katha UK Award in the House of Commons in 2011.
Mahasweta Ghosh was Vikas Kumar Jha’s teacher of English in his college days. She has recently retired as University Professor and Head of the Department of English, Patna College, Patna University. This is her first work of translation.
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First published in English in 2015 by Harper Perennial
An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
First published in Hindi in 2011 by Rajkamal Prakashan
Copyright for the original text in Hindi © Vikas Kumar Jha
Translation copyright © Mahasweta Ghosh
P.S. photo copyright © Brijesh Patel and Vikas Kumar Jha
P-ISBN: 978-93-5136-572-3
Epub Edition © July 2015 ISBN: 978-93-5136-573-0
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Vikas Kumar Jha asserts the moral right
to be identified as the author of this work.
This is a work of fiction and all characters and incidents described in this book are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under The Copyright Act, 1957. By Payment of the
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Cover design © HarperCollins Publishers India
Cover and inside images Brijesh Patel
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