Book Review | ‘Khela’ essentially portrays childhood of every Indian amid growing capitalism and communalism

The colour of crude oil is not the same as the colour of the oil. Perhaps it is the mixed darkness of oil-laden business, religion, greed, violence, and politics that pushes it towards the dark world. Neelakshi Singh’s second novel, Khela, deals with the ink of this world. But it is also that oil is a material born with the destiny of floating on the surface. In the same way, the effect of the crude oil world is definitely visible in the background of the novel, but the inner layers of the novel are woven from the threads of human life and struggle in different milieus and periods. We can feel a powerful message emerging from this narrative structure.

The chapters in the novel are given the names of the games that practically every Indian youngster plays. The novel has two main themes: one is the idea of capitalism, and the other is the misrepresentation of religion as a tool for resistance. On the one hand, the so-called industrialiSed countries went on to become surveillance states, while the third world became unstable and the large population there was compelled to migrate. There are indications in the novel that the dominant attitude of the developed countries proved fatal for them.

In the story, while the global market players are engaged in a check and mate campaign using their own strategies, common folks have also established grounds for themselves, where they constantly interact with the opponents, their loved ones, and with themselves. Neelakshi paints a vivid picture of the diverse global world, in her novel.

Vara Kulkarni is the novel’s main character. She works in a stock trading firm providing investors with information on the trends of crude oil-related stocks. In the novel, she confronts the horrors of capitalism, the dehumanization of religion, and the blindness of resistance. The protagonist Vara is a straightforward young woman with a burning desire to learn more about the world. We find Vara is a girl with a special kind of adventure for relationships. Interestingly, she does not like easy and spontaneous relationships. Why is she like this – is a pointless inquiry.  You get a shocker when you read that Vara Kulkarni abruptly deserts her lover Afroz in the story, for no apparent reason. However, Afroz is never seen under the shadow of Vara Kulkarni’s emotional decision, despite the fact that Vara Kulkarni is often observed expressing it through her action. On the contrary, Afroz, exists in his world, with the same tenacity.  A new aspect of the text is revealed by decoding Afroz’s presence in the book.

Identities are constructed by complex overlapping memories and stories. The stories and events described are deeply human; the innocence of childhood, the process of growing up, love, youthful idealism, painful violence, internal struggles over identity, the voyeurism of everyday life, and forgiveness. Traditions, memories, and history are in a dynamic interplay with each other and by exploring the way in which this happens for one individual, Neelakshi eloquently paints a picture of the heterogeneous global world in this Khela.

Mrs Gomes is the only character from the other country. The novel does not specify if Mrs Gomes, who has had four husbands, has wrinkles on her face, but as you read her story, the author’s vivid imagination and wide range of experiences come to the fore. It also seems to us that the ruler does not have a fixed face and character when we think about the Soviet Union and Hungary. How brutal the nation was to the nations they ruled while hoisting the red flag as the symbol of equality over the globe! There is no justification to tell the story further, but it is necessary to say that this novel affects your heart and mind like a missing injury.

Vara Kulkarni arrives in Budapest at the same time Paris is attacked in the novel. As a consequence, not only Paris but also other nations experience both internal and external shifts, and Europeans begin to view migrants with suspicion. In this context, Vara Kulkarni meets Tim, a man whose identity changes with every meeting. Vara Kulkarni, Mrs. Gomes, and Tim form a complex and uneasy triangle, and their camaraderie develops to the backdrop of the third world-lead by Syria, manoeuvring between developed countries. For author Neelakshi Singh, the world is intimately connected and our memories both shape and are shaped by the interactions with that world. Cultures, nations, and identities are not bounded entities but are formed through global processes of interaction between differently situated individuals. The novel Khela must also be read for its proven narrative art and rare creative language.

A different possibility opens in the last part of the novel when four or five women who have crossed their different battlefields come into one frame. Their mutual symphony brings together very different shades of feminine conscience, creating a new kind of lesson that stands on the ground of struggle, labour, and hope. The plot repeatedly switches between past and present, reality and fiction, right and wrong.

The distinctiveness of language craft is the highlighting aspect, the symbolism and imagery are brilliantly used throughout the novel. This is an important novel to unfold the compassionate human destiny in the global vicious circle of economics and religion. Today’s time and society are different and affected by each other whether they want to or not. Neelakshi Singh has made this bold expression possible in this novel.

The novel, ‘Khela’, by Neelakshi Singh is published by Setu Prakashan Samuh.

The author is a Bangalore-based management professional, literary critic, and co-director with Kalinga Literary Festival. Views expressed are personal

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