Tale of two women

Zen by Shabnam Minwalla. Published in 2023 by Duckbill Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House India Pvt Ltd, 4th Floor, Capital Tower 1, M. G. Road, Gurgaon 122001. Pp: 602. Price : Rs 499.

Shabnam Minwalla’s (pictured) latest novel Zen is a gripping and absorbing book. Apart from her non-fiction book, Colaba: The Diamond at the Tip of Mumbai (see "Colabawalla or Old Womankar,” Books, Parsiana, January 21-February 6, 2021) most, if not all her novels, have so far been written for the "young adult.”

In Zen, we see another facet of Minwalla as an author. Born to a Parsi father and Muslim mother, she is well able to understand and project the Muslim psyche.

The novel is set in two time periods: in 1935 we have Zainab Essaji in Bombay, feisty and wanting more than she can have as a woman living at that time; in the current period, around 2019, we have her great-granddaughter Zainab Currimji, or Zen as she is called, also living in Bombay who, though much more liberated than her great-grandmother, still tries hard to fight against the age in which she lives.

Both the protagonists are very politically inclined. Zainab has just turned 19 in 1935. She has received a diary as a birthday gift from her brother Faizullah in which she expresses her innermost thoughts and feelings. She is broad-minded and tries to be independent, very reluctantly going along with the marriage arranged for her. Minwalla uses the first person to capture her frame of mind very effectively and convincingly. Zainab enjoys going to the cinema and listening to music at the Yacht Club — simple joys she is being denied. It is little wonder that she feels that her life in Bombay is so insignificant and small that it would fit into a silver thimble; and "to be a respectable young Bohra woman in Bombay is a drab, suffocating thing.” In her diary, she reports that Italy has attacked Abyssinia and, a few days later, adds that the fighting has escalated. She notes that there is great distress and disturbance with Babasaheb Ambedkar’s statement that the Harijans will abandon Hinduism and choose another religion. She and Faizullah are both, to the anguish of the father, anti-British and resent the high-handed manner in which the country is being run.

When we first meet Zen in 2019 she is busy preparing a poster which depicts a tomb. This is criticized by her friend Meneka who says that it looks like a "muddy pool” or a "fungal infection.” The poster is meant for their school debate on "Are We Killing Our Constitution?” The girls are being aided and abetted by two fellow students, Indranil and Murad, while their opponent is the vicious and supercilious Yuvraj. He will go to any lengths, fair or foul, to destroy his opponent Meneka to become the school captain. A casual dinner table conversation where Zen’s parents — her mother is Hindu and her father Muslim — lament the fact that Muslims were being treated like second class citizens and did not feel very welcome in India, lights a spark in Zen and results in her political awakening. She struggles with the Citizen Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens, acronyms to which she had paid little attention earlier. She dwells on the plight of their driver Jayant and of Tabriz, the family tailor, who had stitched her nappies and realizes the unfairness of the situation.

The bias is further enforced when Minwalla introduces us to Ruksana, Tabriz’s daughter, who has been disqualified from a job probably because she is a Muslim, in favor of her friend Kritika who was appointed despite her poorer academic record and inadequacy in spoken English,

Minwalla draws parallels between Zainab and Zen: both have elder sisters who are more beauteous and socially adept. There is a love story in both the sections — Zainab with the mysterious Mr K, a lodger with her neighbors who works for a dye company, and Zen’s relationship with Yash Desai, fresh from America. Music also links the two sections. Zainab listens to and enjoys the melodies of a band practicing on the floor above and Zen is part of a rock band called Vada Pow Wow.

But it is Zen’s relationship with her relative Yash which forms the basic spine of the plot. The novel begins with Yash in a cab heading for the Yacht Club. He has come for the wedding of Priyanka with his cousin who is also related to Zen. His prejudice against Muslims is evident in the first chapter where Yash, while making his way to the Club is quite lost and uncomfortable when he notices the bearded cabbie’s "white skull cap and the green prayer beads hanging from the rear view mirror.”

After a disastrous first meeting, Zen and Yash are thrown together as Yash has to do some research on the history of Bombay and Zen seems well versed in the subject. The beginning of their relationship is reminiscent of the meeting between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitziwlliam Darcy in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Both have their rough edges: Zen is very cautious about letting new things into her life and Yash is a conventional American with a relatively inflated ego; he loves five star hotels and "fawning receptionists;” he does not want to be removed from his comfort zone. He loves pancakes at breakfast. Minwalla does an excellent job describing the highs and the lows of their relationship and the anguish they feel during the separation caused by their petty arguments.

Minwalla has an astonishing repertoire of music. Chapters are prefaced by songs from Bollywood, Hollywood, musicals and the popular songs of the ’60s, especially Blue Moon, written in the ’30s which acts like a leitmotif in the novel, recurring frequently. There are several chats on cell phones between characters as well as group chats which amuse the reader and give the novel an added contemporary flavor. Minwalla makes no concessions to the non-Indian reader as expressions and words in Hindi are never translated or explained. There are several black pages written as if by a person now dead; equally mysterious are all the chapter headings which have something to do with color like "Sodium Yellow” or "Vitriol Violet.” The purpose of both literary devices becomes clear as the novel progresses.

There is so much more to this novel. Readers may believe that apparently it is a quick and easy read but Minwalla tackles several serious problems. The writing is effervescent and Bombay comes alive, the Colaba of both the 1930s and of the current day. The book is entertaining and yet, like all good novels, it leaves the reader several issues to ponder. One hopes that Minwalla will continue to write for her "adult” audiences. FIRDAUS GANDAVIA

Gandavia holds a doctorate in English literature and is a retired chartered accountant. He is a compulsive reader of fiction.