Sumedha Raikar-Mhatre: The Sindhi you don't know

Writer and critic Mohan Deep at the Purshottam Lalsai Dham Sindhi temple in Andheri Deeps latest collection of short stories Gul Sundri and Other Stories set in the Partition era enjoys the backdrop of a Sindhi shrine durbar transported from Larkana to a residential flat in Mumbai PicsSatej ShindeMohan Deeps love saga originates in Pakistans Sindh province and culminates on Marve beach in Mumbais western suburb of Malad Etching nonconformist Sindhi characters like that of Gulab Shivdasani and Sundri Kataria is his way of countering Bollywoods vadi sai Sindhi stereotypeIn the 70th year of Indias Independence and its Partition the abouttoturn 70yearold writer and critic dedicates his latest anthology to the Sindhi community Gul Sundri and Other Short Stories from Sindh Quest Mercury Intermedia Limited is a cluster of 16 stories written at various points in his life some as far back as 1975 when India was in a state of Emergency others written and published for reputed Sindhi weeklies like Hindvasi Deep says although his characters belong to a socioethnic group originating from a province that sits in presentday Pakistan they will speak to any reader who can relate to the dilemma of suffering and surviving the loss of a homelandThe writer himself lives with defining memories of his familys social transition caused by the Partition when his parents arrived from Karachi to Mumbai by ship He was born Mohan Kishinchand Chandiramani in 1948 Agra and raised in a calmer Mumbai Its not so much history but the presence of books at his Irani Wadi chawl home in Kandivli ranging from Maxim Gorky to VS Khandekar that impacted his early years What stayed with me was the fact that despite the panic in which mom and dad had left their birthplace they were alert enough to have brought books back with them rich Sindhi translations of Marathi Bengali even Russian literature he saysDeep wrote his first Sindhi poem at 11 which was published in Hindvasi a weekly that has now turned bilingual and has completed a century In fact way before he became an English language film critic credited with titles like Eurekha ndash An Unauthorized biography of Rekha Simply Scandalous Meena Kumari he was a short story writer and novelist He now holds a body of 200 Sindhi short stories two novels and a collection of poems named Munhje Paachhe Jo Hik Hisso A Part of My ShadowDeep attributes his success as a bilingual writer to Mumbai a city thats home to myriad languages The knowledge of various bhaashas brought him closer to the cultural mosaic that would have otherwise missed him he believes Gul Sundri his lead story from the collection stands testimony to this approach of using language as an entry point into culture Gul and Sundri have been sculpted in the tradition of Sindhi love legends like Mumal Rano Umar Maruee Sohni Mehar and Leela Chanesar As is the case with these mythical romantic pairs they take on colourful lives as per the narrators orientation In Deeps fictional world Gul and Sundri fall for each other in conservative Larkana during a politically charged time when Hindu Sindhi families felt defenseless in the newlyformed Muslimdominated PakistanThe pair cannot marry Gul is a rich high caste landowning Sindhi who moves to Bombay and struggles to make a life out of his Kandivli kholi Sundri the daughter of a hotheaded trustee of a Sufi shrine and a Bhagnari Sindhi by caste is likely to be killed if she marries outside the fold It is another story that the lead pair meets a violent end after they unite in faroff Marve amid support from Koli fisher folk who risk their lives to save two strangersWhile the sequence of events is imaginary Gul Sundri is premised around a reallife middleofthenight stealthy transportation of a shrine durbar from Larkana to a residential flat in a western suburb of this city Deeps is a credible take on an outrageous theft committed by supposedly peaceloving durbar controllers believers of Sufi philosophy who didnt flinch at stealing jewellery from a holy precinctSundris father doesnt hesitate before stuffing precious gems into semifried bhajias and parathas to be cooked again and packed in large tiffin boxes This speaks of human behaviour in times of political chaos Deep believes He has changed the name of the shrine because his intent is not to expose the high and mighty after a long passage of time but to focus on human compulsions He tried connecting with the trustees of the original shrine in Pakistan and ironically they were less guarded than those in Mumbai who declined to talk states the epilogueThe story trashes the stereotypical Sindhi who Deep hates to encounter in Bollywood and on Johnny Lever shows His characters deviate from the norm mdash whether its the writer who doesnt buckle under pressure in Zip or the struggling middleclass man who decides to waive a personal loan in On The Death of a FriendThe writer feels that the flashiness and excessive securityconsciousness evident in stereotypes is a sideeffect of financial struggle success and competition that the community has seen Sindhi plays and poetry and other literature speak for the strength of the intelligentsia from the communitySumedha RaikarMhatre is a culture columnist in search of the subtext You can reach her at sumedharaikargmailcom