MAARAN MANTRA

After the cunning and devious manipulations of time, the turbulent life of Banaras needed a storyteller who possessed the ability to deal with time with equal brazenness and ruthlessness. Vimal Chandra Pandey fulfills this need. Just one sentence from his story Zindadil suffices: Their homes lacked money, but they lacked life. This short, Banarasi-inspired tale directly juxtaposes the branded shoes of the upper class with the duplicate shoes of the lower class. Vimals stories are rooted in their typical locale, yet their eyes look around. These stories possess a remarkable audacity and a fearless boyishness, but their characters are not lecherous. Despite all their weaknesses and mischiefs, they possess a sharp and sensational class consciousness, blazing emotions, and a burning depth that makes a story like Maran Mantra possible. Its poignancy is as destructive as it is suicidal. This lethal blend of love, mystery, grotesque Tantric practices, and sexuality is further poisoned by the complexities of caste and class distinctions. The hordes of destitute, penniless, and marijuana-and-alcohol-drinking addicts in these stories need to gauge the temperature of the ground upon which they stand. If these scattered and distraught individuals dont receive the stability and respect they deserve, our entire social structures could crumble. Manoj Roopda