Book Review | Absolute Whimsy of a Nomadic Heart
This graphic novel is a heady mix of love, life, history, tourism, and more. It grabs the hearts of cities across the world just like it will probably grab yours
As this graphic novel begins, the laid-back protagonist Brighu confesses that he’s addicted to walking, and lists multiple reasons why people walk. There’s a wide range from health reasons and random popping out to shops, to walking out of parliament or marriages. Brighu’s reason for his walkaholism is clear—he’s a restless person, period.
This however is not the only walking Brighu does—he literally walks us through this novel, through cities he’s visited across the world, and through eventful and equally uneventful parts of his life. That’s because Brighu is a huge fan of aimlessness too, so you’re treated to pages of delicious pointlessness smattered across a meaty story (like haggling with autodrivers), many of which make you smile.
The heart of the novel is this: Brighu meets Mahrukh, a talented Pakistani artist from Chicago who is in India on a project. Both are members of the literati, and have even more in common, so friendship and love blossom in New Delhi. They continue to meet even after Mahrukh returns to Chicago, either in India or Karachi with great difficulty (lots of paperwork), and eventually they marry in the UK because an Indo-Pak marriage ceremony is only easy when performed in a neutral country. The Imam of Richmond (called Maulana Rouge behind his back because of his hennaed beard) officiates at the ceremony.
Back in India as a married couple, the trials and tribulations of their Indo-Pak marriage begin. Bilateral relations determine the course of their marriage in India, and the relief of peace initiatives like Aman ki Asha and the launch of the Samjhauta Express is thwarted by Kargil, Godhra, and the Bombay attacks. As a sympathetic official at the ministry of external affairs tells them, “But an Indo-Pak marriage is like an auto-immune disease… a lifelong problem.”
They move to Germany when Mahrukh gets a prestigious residency there, and life slowly changes. For the better at first, (because this is a neutral country), and then for the worse. Yet Brighu maintains his equanimity and continues his walks. The hardest walks ever, he declares, have been the ones he took to drop his son Jafar to school. “Especially during winter mornings.”
Towards the end, Brighu experiences “heimat”— a German concept that covers the longing for a sense of belonging and emotional connections. Perhaps it begins when his son finds Brighu’s bedtime stories of the “wild east” more and more unrelatable. Will Brighu’s longings be met? Read on to find out.
This graphic novel is a heady mix of love, life, history, tourism, and more. It grabs the hearts of cities across the world just like it will probably grab yours.
Absolute Jafar
By Sarnath Banerjee
HarperCollins
pp. 256; Rs 799/-