Ladies and gentlemen 

Thank you for this opportunity to speak with the members of Writer’s Forum and Family of the Heart in joint session this afternoon. It is a ceremonious occasion of releasing maiden novel of Farzana Hassan, “Echoes from the Abyss”. This novel is written in the perspective of slavery and prostitution and child prostitution in particular. This novel is a fictionalized version of a grim reality. In this novel, the writer is trying to point out a colossal tragedy and evil nature of human that is not limited by geographical boundaries. I shall come to literary aspects of this novel somewhat later but I better note here that the subject matter discussed in this novel indicates that Farzana is out to take on tragic oppression and injustice that can befall upon children as a result of poverty and misfortune.

The main character of this novel is a little girl Meena who is obliviously enjoying her innocence in the foothills of the Himalayas where serenity spreads its wings like a butterfly. She is sold to grinding horrors of brothels of Bombay. The story is gut-wrenching and is narrated in first person. The novel carries the reader away to witness nauseating ugliness. This novel is neither an entertaining story nor it is intended to be a lull before going to bed. It creates a strong repulsion in the mind of the reader. The skill of Farzana as a writer is that she is able to capture the ugliness of reality. 

While in construction of this novel, I find some redundancy of verbiage and thematics but interludes philosophizing unfortunate circumstances that poor girls are caught in with no way to escape, are rather refreshing. At a certain point one of the characters Pooja starts to talk about the numerical data on prostitution; as true as it is, it appears to be a rare situation where mind of a social worker has taken over the spirits of the fiction writer. But it can be easily justified due to the passion with which the novel is written. It also alludes to Freudian defense mechanism called ‘intellectualization’ but I shall discuss more about it somewhat later. There is utmost sensitivity in narration of tragedy. When the reader feels that the story has reached the climax, the tragedy unfolds again and again to new depressing lows. This is a very crafty writing.

This novel with exclusive sensitivities is set in classic stylistics. What I am saying may raise some eyebrows because one may question as to why the novel is classical in style while it is written in this newest millennium. Why not modern? I am personally not a big enthusiast of classification along time or geographical lines. I think movements of literary thought overlap in time. To my understanding there is not a lot of justification in classifying literature along linguistic and cultural boundaries despite the fact that it is almost impossible to capture thought without cultural and linguistic considerations. With some trepidation, I think it would be possible to apply principles of western criticism on an Indian story being told in this novel.

I think there is a sense of finite and a concrete picture of life from Nepal to the windowless four walls of brothel house where strict order is the law of the day. The order is also upheld on inherent untouchability of a Harijan girl where all other norms of social morality have broken down. However, this principle is put aside when it stands in the way of heavy business demands on some nights. The fact that everybody is made to follow a certain order, of course with brutality, suggests that classic construction technique is used in this novel. Therefore, I think time frame of writing a novel may not matter much while trying to determine its literary placement. There are many other examples like calling older girls ‘Didi’ and even at the end when Meena is reunited with the family; her refusal to accept the person who she has fallen in love with, which is continuation of surreal joke that life has played on her, are conventions of classicism. 

There are times when tragic heroin of the novel is confronted with absurdity of her circumstances. She clings to the idea of ‘karma’. Her accident of birth, abduction, horrifying experiences and belief in God are all hierarchical constructs that are strictly adhered to in this novel are standard pillars of classical approach in literature. 

The precept of Karma that is a solace and ray of hope in the midst of misfortune is very telling in Farzana’s dexterous writing. She has also deftly exploited her keen observations on behaviors from beginning to the end of this novel. Let me come back to the point that I had deferred earlier. I talked about ego defense mechanism. Let me point out a few more examples. Here is rationalization:“Anyway it hurts much less when strangers let you down”.

I had already noted intellectualization earlier. The same defense mechanism is illustrated yet again in two examples:

“I was just beginning to realize the extent of man’s brutality towards his own kind” and, “Besides, at times women are the biggest oppressors of women”.  

It appears that almost all young girls in the novel are displaying dissociation to the extent of apathy. It is also interesting to note that in the opening chapter, the novel is full of picturesque details of nature. In the middle part of novel there is absolutely no mention of weather or climate. There is just a repulsive sense of dusk giving way to darkness and mechanical counting of weeks and years in disgusting life style. It is pathetic!! Almost all abnormal defense mechanisms are described in this novel. With that said, there is hardly any mature ego defense mechanism is used in this book, which is a reflection of utterly sick life of all characters.  

It is agonizing to know that the novel’s heroin goes through self deprecating traumatic experiences like a Zombie. However, it is obvious that emotions as a quality of life did not die in her. At one point, Meena gives birth to a baby all alone. It is a daughter. She names her daughter Pooja that means ‘worship’. She chooses this name partly after her friend and partly due to inspirational value of meanings of this name. In her awful situation name ‘Pooja’ becomes a sign of hope and a sense of connectedness, which she has been deprived of. Novel reaches a new climax when she murders her daughter probably within an hour or so after birth, to save her from the life that she herself is trapped in. It makes the reader feel diabolically vindicated; murder as an act of revolt against compulsion, piety in sin and a sense of salvation in death. 

I should briefly note that Meena’s anguish does not come to an end after rescue. She tries very hard to normalize her life. But her life pattern seems to be perfectly going along Eriksonian paradigm of life stages. For the fact that Meena has been on unconstructive side of earlier stages of life, she seems to be on the downbeat end again even when she is free. Her behavior towards her proposed in-laws is not that of “intimacy”. It is that of “Erikson’s Isolation”. It remains a question how tragedy would end and where. It is abundantly clear though that out of intense cruelty of circumstances, consciousness seems to be taking refuge on the edges of insanity. 

So, this was the story of the novel that is written with passion. I have also discovered a budding novelist. Her name is Farzana. I think she has a style, depth and a lot of talent. She has vividly displayed these qualities in her first novel. It is up to her to take her talent to new heights. With gods speed, the sky is the limit. Farzana! Congratulations.

Nov. 06, 2005