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Review: The Middle - A Story of Love, Life and Laughter by Nayana Goradia
A collection of the author’s articles from the 1960s that reveal a world in flux where the colonial hangover endured even as the nouveau riche began to make their presence felt
An evocative collection of reflections first published as “middles” – those once ubiquitous “light” pieces nestled at the centre of the editorial page to provide relief from the political opinions -- in the newspapers of 1960s India, Nayana Goradia’s The Middle - A Story of Love, Life and Laughter sketches a far more genteel era than the present. The over 100 middles written at a time when social capital and credentials were overtly acknowledged also outline a world in flux where the colonial hangover endured even as the nouveau riche began to make their presence felt.
Through witty commentary and insights, the author charts her memories and experiences – her impressions of an early childhood in a princely state in Saurashtra, Gujarat, her time at a snobbish school in an idyllic neighbourhood in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), her life in cosmopolitan Mumbai, and her student years.
The author’s elegant prose tells of days spent wandering down “long aimless corridors” in Jamnagar, her wonder years in a sanitised convent, studying in the US, and moving to a Calcutta with Palladian mansions and exclusive clubs with paintings showing “hunting scenes of young men on a pig-sticking spree”. The late Sixties were still halcyon days for the “company wives” whose husbands worked with British corporations in the city. Back then, a stylish flat in a swish locality made up for having to deal with outdated protocol. Goradia found herself being pulled towards the story of controversial Viceroy George Nathaniel Curzon, who partitioned Bengal in 1905 and became the harbinger of the larger Partition of India in 1947. Her great interest led to a doctorate in the subject and to a book on Curzon.
Though these pieces deal with varied subjects – they include a quirky take on the Indian traveller, a personal account of her marriage, notes on the partition of Bengal, and an article on Rasputin – Goradia’s engaging voice acts as the unifying thread. Other catchy middles titled A Wedding to Order and Guests on Hire comment on contemporary society as does one that mulls over the “pursuit of culture” where the acquisition of an objet d’art becomes a status symbol. Wordplay, an effortless turn of phrase and a rich vocabulary makes the writing come alive: Calcutta is “decadent, rheumatic and esoteric”, the airlines of the era “enter some sort of aeronautical Olympics vying with one another to lure clients”, Jaipuri sandals with “sinuous toes” curl up “to an alarming height”. Literary allusions abound with “Twainian innocence” and “Kafkaesque shadows”. Then there’s her humorous take on the clash and comingling of cultures with “Rosogollas in New York” and “Aurangzeb in Alaska”. Clearly, Goradia has a sharp eye and a subtle pen.
The author states that her book is “a requiem to an era in my own life”. Indeed, the book reads like an exciting tapestry woven out of dreamlike silk and earthy khadi, its warp and weft of emotions and facts suffused with nostalgia. This is a delightful read.
Swati Rai is a communication skills trainer and freelance writer.
