The Alchemy of a Novel

(This review of "The Alchemy of Desire" by Tarun Tejpal is dedicated to my friend and colleague Prerna who lend me the novel and thus introduced me to this wonderful piece of fiction by Mr. Tejpal. It's only due to her generosity and big heart that I was able to read the novel, which would have costed me other wise Rs. 500. Though money is not an issue and the novel worth is that much.

Thanks a lot Prerna - a vivacious girl and great dancer.)

The title of the novel suggests that, perhaps, Tarun Tejpal has got its inspiration from "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho or "The Alchemy of Growth" by Merhdad Baghai, Stephen Coley and David White. But the novel suggests that it is definitely an original and perhaps a bit autobiographical work from one of the torchbearers of journalism in India.

"The Alchemy of Desire" tells a story, which is not very commonplace in India but even then it is a part of mainstream. Talking of plot, the chief protagonist is a former journalist and aspiring writer whose life revolves around his wife and his writing. He aspires to write a magnum opus, which will immortalize him in the annals of literature. He tries and fails. But the story takes the real twist when the couple purchases a house in the hills of Kumaon. There an ordinary event takes place, which wreaks extraordinary havoc on the lives of the two young people. Then, the story travels to the last years of the 19th century and traverses other continents. Ultimately all this culminates into the protagonist starting his masterpiece novel once again.

But "The Alchemy of Desire" is not just simple narrative of these two persons' passion & problems. It spans a very big space. Not only Tarun portrays the life in urban India in the last years of 20th century perfectly, he also speaks insightfully of issues like partition, nawabs, terrorism in Punjab, journalism in India, masturbation and many other often neglected but instant aspects of socio-politico-religious landscape of this country.

And this is where, one of the main strength of the novel lies. It is not one of those novels, which are high on publicity quotient but low on quality quotient thus having a shelf life of 15-30 days. It is not a dry account of human beings and their lives. It is in fact a commentary on the whos, whats, whys, whens, wheres & hows of modern day India. It is free of any ism, genre, any classification.

The second major triumph of Tarun is the manner in which he has handled the delicate and sensitive matter of desire (read lust.) The protagonist (whose name we don’t know as the novel is first person's narrative) and his wife Fizza are madly in love with each other and basically their lives are centered on the pleasure they derive out of each other's bodies. In fact, the lust and its satiation is the chief anchor of his life. But this is not the end of his desires. His second and major desire is that novel. But primarily sex is the main driver of his daily life (like that of most of the males.)

And this is the precise point, where we meet Tarun Tejpal the writer. When writing the close encounters of the two, Tarun has shown extreme and rare maturity of which it is difficult to find parallels in Indian writing in English (that hallowed IWE.) As a substantial part of the novel is the lovemaking of the protagonists and other characters, there was a danger of the novel falling into the class of soft porno or cheap erotica, but for Tarun. His mastery of words turns an everyday plot, surprisingly, into one of the most riveting tales of our times.

On the philosophical level, this novel establishes the fact that desire, and not that only of sex, is what moves the lives of all us mortals. It may be the desire of anything, from sex to spirituality & from power to piece of mind. Desire is the root cause of all of our actions, sufferings and salvation.

When one completes the reading of the novel, s/he gets confused that whether Mr. Tejpal is a better journo or writer.