किताब: द गोल्डेन सन: अ नॉवेल (पेपरबैक) ऑथर: शिल्पी सोमाया गौड़ा भाषा: अंग्रेजीपन्ने: 408 प्रकाशक: हार्पर कॉलिन्स-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- गुजरात के एक गांव में एक बहुत बड़ा परिवार है. परिवार का सबसे बड़ा लड़का है अनिल.परिवार में जरा भी चिल्ल-पों होती है तो सब अनिल के पास जाते हैं. उसकी नसीहतों सेसबकुछ ठीक हो जाता है. सब उसकी इज्जत करते हैं. अनिल की सबसे अच्छी दोस्त है लीना,अपने गांव के ऊसरों की तरह मजबूत और निडर. लेकिन समय बीतता है और अनिल देश छोड़ करचला जाता है. डॉक्टर बनता है. हजारों मील दूर टेक्सस में सेटल हो जाता है. अनिल काजीवन बदल जाता है. अनिल वो सब करता है जो अपने गांव में नहीं कर पाता. अपनी सारीहसरतें पूरी करता है. और अपने इसी जीवन में खो जाता है. फिर अनिल के जीवन में बुरासमय आता है. और बुरे समय में वो फिर घर की ओर भागता है. गांव में उसे फिर से लीनामिलती है. लेकिन लीना की अब शादी हो चुकी है. अनिल और लीना अब पहले जैसे नहीं हैं.उन्हें एक दूसरे में अपने पुराने दोस्त तलाशने होंगे. लेकिन उसके पहले भुगतना होगाउन गलतियों का नतीजा जो वो कर चुके हैं.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'द गोल्डेन सन' को लिखने वाली शिल्पी कैनेडा के टोरोंटो शहर में पली-बढीं. लेकिनइंडिया में ढेर सारा समय बिताना पसंद करती हैं. इसीलिए इनकी किताब का हीरो रहता तोटेक्सस में है. पर दिल का एक टुकड़ा भारत में छोड़ आया है. शिल्पी का ये दूसरा नॉवेलहै. पहला था 'सीक्रेट डॉटर' जो देश विदेश में इतना पढ़ा गया कि 10 लाख से भी ज्यादाप्रतियां बिकीं. कुल 24 भाषाओं में इसका अनुवाद हुआ. और अब उसपर फिल्म बनने की कीभी बात हो रही है. न्यू यॉर्क टाइम्स ने इन्हें 'बेस्ट सेलिंग' ऑथर बताया. शिल्पीकैलिफोर्निया में रहती हैं, पति और बच्चों के साथ.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- अब पढ़िए 'द गोल्डेन सन' का एक टुकड़ा. अंग्रेजी में. *** Before she got married,Leena’s mother warned her the first year would be the hardest. Leena kept thisin mind when her new life was not what she expected: the dilapidated house, theuntended lands, the ceaseless toil. She worked hard in the hope that thingswould get better. Yet, no matter how quickly or carefully she worked, hersister-in-law and mother-in-law were always displeased. They always found somecorner unswept or some shirt stain uncleaned. Even as Leena’s cooking improvedand she overheard the men around the table complimenting her dishes, Rekha grewmore spiteful. Girish acknowledged her only when he wanted something; otherwise,it was as if she didn’t exist. If he didn’t like the way she folded his clothesor something she said, or if he had too much to drink, he pushed her up againstthe wall. Leena learned to tilt her chin down right before he did this, so theback of her head did not get slammed against the concrete. If he wanted to gether attention as she walked by, he grabbed her wrist so tightly she could seethe impression of his fingers on her skin afterward. At night, in bed, he didthe same thing, clamping her hands above her head while he moved on top of her.His eyes were often closed but Leena kept hers open. She wanted him to know,when he opened his eyes, that she was still there, she was watching. Leenacouldn’t understand why he would want to be close to her if he despised her so.Perhaps it was like the way he oversweetened his chai, using too much sugarbecause he couldn’t tolerate the natural bitterness of the tea leaves. When hewas finished with her, he turned away and told her to get out. Leena would go tothe washroom and clean herself quietly with cold water. Only when she heard hissnoring did she return to the bedroom. She was terrified of becoming pregnantand kept a careful count of her cycles, as her mother had taught her to dobefore the wedding, telling Girish it was her womanly time of the month when sheneeded to keep him away. One evening, Leena was returning the clean, foldedclothes to her in-laws’ bedroom when she noticed something had fallen underneaththe cupboard. She bent down to pick it up: a white handkerchief embroidered witha beautiful peacock in tiny, even stitches she immediately recognized as hermother’s. It was dusty from the floor but held its perfect square creases. Leenaclutched the kerchief and ran to find her husband. She was hungry for news ofher parents. She had not seen them since the wedding and had had only a fewshort phone conversations under the watchful eye of her mother-in-law. She foundGirish in the parlor, playing cards with his brothers and two other men.Normally, she would not have disturbed their game, knowing how easily he wasangered, but this time she could not help herself. She rushed in, waving thehandkerchief. “Where did this come from?” she asked. “Did you see her, mymother?” The men’s laughter and conversation halted, and their eyes turned toGirish. Slowly, her husband looked up at her, his face darkening. He stared ather for a moment, jerked his head in the direction of the door, and turned backto his cards. Leena stood there, wanting an answer. Wanting her mother. “Tellme,” she pleaded so softly she could barely hear her own voice. Without glancingher way, Girish waved her out of the room. “Deal the cards,” he snapped at oneof his friends. Amid the noise of the men resuming their game, Leena backed outof the room and closed the door behind her. She returned to their crampedbedroom and crawled onto the bed, clutching the handkerchief to her face,breathing in the sandalwood scent that reminded her of her mother. She didn’tknow what had happened, where or why or who had seen her parents, but she knewthis: her mother had sent her love. Lying in the shelter of her bedroom, Leenacould hear her brother-in-law in the next room yelling at Rekha—a string ofnames and meaningless insults she tried to block out. Leena slept in the sameposition all night long, and the next morning, she tucked the handkerchief intoher sari blouse and carried it with her all day, pulling it out periodically toinhale its fragrance. It gave her the strength she needed as the situation inher husband’s house grew worse. In the kitchen, Rekha swapped out the thinrolling pin for the thicker one and carried it with her at all times. If Leenadidn’t work quickly enough, she snapped the rolling pin against her forearm orshoulder. Leena began to wear a sweater over her sari, even on the warmest days,to cover up the bruises on her arms and to protect herself. As a distractionfrom the daily misery, Leena began to allow her mind to wander as she worked.She thought of her father working happily in the fields, her mother singing asshe busied herself in the kitchen. She pictured them taking a break from theirwork to share a simple meal of lentils and rice, garnished with fresh cilantroher father had brought from the garden. At times, she envisioned herself as ayounger girl, roaming the terrain outside their home. The daydreams first cameto her while she was performing mundane tasks like scrubbing clothes in thewashbasin or chopping vegetables. As she ate alone on the floor of the kitchen,she imagined that she was sharing meals with her parents, passing vegetables andyoghurt to them, smiling at companions who were not there. Soon, she wasescaping into the fantasies any chance she could, even when her husband mountedher in their bed at night. One day in the kitchen, Leena was remembering theHoli celebrations she enjoyed as a child, her father rousing her in the morningby calling through her window. When she ran outside to find him, he would bewaiting to douse her with handfuls of colored powder. Leena always squealed asclouds of turquoise and magenta engulfed her. Her father pretended to run awayas Leena and her mother chased him, but in the end he was also covered from headto toe in a rainbow of colors, and the arrival of spring had been properlygreeted. The crack of a rolling pin against Leena’s knuckles made her gasp.“Stupid girl!” Rekha snapped. “Don’t you smell that?” She yanked a pot off theopen fl ame. “Stupid, slow girl. Mind wandering to God knows where when the riceis burning right beside you.” She slid the lid off the pot and tilted the vesseltoward her. “Look at that!” “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Leena said as the scentof burned rice flooded her nostrils. “Sorry?” Rekha grabbed Leena’s wrist andtwisted it toward her. “You should be sorry!” she shouted. “Sahib is veryparticular about his rice. You can’t just scrape this off. You’ll have to startover, and now dinner will be late!” Rekha yanked Leena’s hand to the stove andheld it over the open fl ame. Leena felt the sear of the heat against her skinand tried to wrest her hand away, but Rekha’s grasp was fi rm. The sharp ache ofburn spread through Leena’s hand, and an involuntary moan escaped from her. WhenRekha fi nally let go, Leena cradled her hand against her chest and looked ather sister-in-law in disbelief. “Now that you know how it feels to be burned,maybe you’ll take greater care with the food.” Rekha glared at her. “Hurry up,clean this pot and make some new rice. I’ll have to go tell Sahib why dinner islate.” With tears streaming down her face, Leena fi lled a small steel pot withcold water and immersed her hand in it. After a few moments, she found a cleankitchen towel and, recalling how Anil had bandaged the injured bird’s leg,gently wrapped her hand, crisscrossing the ends of the towel to hold it in placeand tucking in the end at her wrist. For weeks afterward, there were blisters onthe palm of Leena’s hand. She could cope most of the time, except when she hadto roll chapatis and the pain was unbearable. She was vigilant about Rekha andher whereabouts, never turning her back when her sister-in-law was present.Leena’s mother-in-law was no better: the old woman was feeble and couldn’tstrike with as much force as Rekha, but her tongue was her sharpest weapon.Leena came to prefer Mother’s tepid slaps across the face or on the bottom tothe terrible names she called her. Stupid. Lazy. Ungrateful. One day, she calledLeena garbage, which quickly became her favorite pet name for herdaughter-in-law. Even after the bruises and blisters healed, those cutting wordsremained. Leena began to look forward to the days she was sent out to thefields. Picking cotton was difficult work, the nettles leaving her armsscratched and her fingers bloody, but at least she could escape the eviloccupying the house. What was she doing to arouse such anger? She remembered hermother’s counsel about being compliant to her new family. Leena didn’t know ifher experience was unusual or normal for a marriage. She had no older sisters toask, and she’d been the first of her friends to wed. Her parents had made greatsacrifices, having handed over their life savings for her dowry. Leena knew shehad to find a way to make the marriage work.
