Another Naipaul in literature

Chaguanas-born writer Balkrishna Naipaul was recently honoured with a Sahitya Mani from the Shikshayatan Institute of America.

(Will Chaguanas recognise its literary heritage?)

When I meet a fellow Trini in some remote place in another country, there is an immediate connection. To connect through shared places and events, mourn over long-time days, moan over West Indies cricket, complain about politicians and radios not giving airtime to local culture and, in recent times, bemoan the traffic surrounding Port-of-Spain are all bonding rituals.

In the same way, receiving news about a Trini who is doing good somewhere in the world always registers a nice feeling.

But when the person is recognised for outstanding achievement, one wants to share the story. Better yet, when a person from one’s neighbourhood is celebrated for his achievement, you’d forgive me that I have to tell the story right away.

Recently, a Chaguanas boy received the Sahitya Mani from Shikshayatan Institute of America. The institute is dedicated to Indian writings in English. The award was conferred in a grand literary evening in New York. The celebrated person originally lived a stone’s throw away from my residence in the vicinity of the Chaguanas flyover is Balkrishna Naipaul. Yes, he is related—a first cousin of Sir Vidia Naipaul.

Baal, as we call him, has been living in Canada but is regularly in T&T. At first glance he seems to have walked off the Bollywood screen, but he is just too reclusive for the filmi duniya. Baal, in fact, looks like the diplomat he was while serving the UN for 18 years.

I have always found him too preoccupied with observing to want to be seen, too absorbed in listening to say too much, too busy trying to understand to want to explain. But if you get him going, he embraces you with a gentle voice, a charming smile, laughing eyes and a surprising world.

I had met Baal after many years when he came to T&T with his friends Kalicharan, Ravi Dev and Sudhaa to interest the Caribbean in the second international NRI conference in Manhattan. This led to the formation of Gopio.

Baal again dropped out of sight for a while. Suddenly he surfaced with his first book Arc of the Horizon in 2001. This was soon followed by Legends of the Emperor’s Ring in 2003. Recently he completed the trilogy with Yoga of Love.

A review of his work suggests that the trilogy is all about Baal’s theory of love. This theory of love, which is trashed out in the full spectrum of the novel, has a lot to do with how we know and requires a knowledge of not just whom we are in this life, but a thorough understanding of our past lives and our relationship with the planet and the cosmos.

Baal holds, “Open your heart to its spirit being and listen with the skin of your mind; open your pores to its poignancy, to the rustle of its leaves.”

About knowing, he suggests that it has more to do with the twilight, that area of consciousness where everything is transparent and where the mind is linked with the universe: the chit aspect of being. Indeed, the twilight which you now carry in your head is only the beginning; it is the entry point to the invisible centre from where we make contact with the soul, our own soul and the soul of others.

Purnima Desai, president of Shikshayatan Institute, said in her address at the award ceremony, Balkrishna Naipaul’s writing is such that not only does it lift the image of Indians to that of a nobler and gentler civilisation, but it makes everyone feel so good about themselves to the extent that there is the inclination to embrace the world with its urgent sense of oneness and compassion.

Indian writers in the English language have been increasingly creeping across the world. Indian women in particular have been contributing both in volume and quality. In recent years, Vikram Seth, as an unknown, has stormed the world of literature. Our own Sir Vidia Naipaul is a pioneer in world literature and is considered a veritable guru. He has recently announced he will no longer write novels.

Vidia may be willing to take his leave (I doubt it, though) but he leaves in train a lengthening list of relatives in the field of literature: the latest, Balkrishna Naipaul, cousin Vahni Capildeo and cousin Neil Bisoondial.

At the recent award event in New York, Baal received, among other things, the writers gold cup. That will look nice on his shelf, but I prefer him to continue to drink from the rich rivers of memories he received from the simple folks when he walked barefooted as a child in Montrose.