“Perfectly balanced” in “The Circle of Life”
(TW: Violence)
Thanos yearned for the perfect balance, “as all things should be”. In fact, we all do. All of us yearn for the equal figures in the divine balance sheet being drafted by the Almighty on the topmost floor of human faith. However, we often end up complaining about the things we never get, wishing that we could have more; whether it is money, time, opportunities, confidence, trust, and the list goes on. And in this quest to seek equilibrium in terms of debits and credits in life’s transactions, we complete a full circle by coming back to where we are. This circle might be fulfilled in the same room, or the same city, or in the same situation that we found ourselves before. It is this existential angst, the persistence of agony and hopelessness that creates the basis for Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance.
Trust me, this is not the kind of book that you would want to read when you have two weeks left for your end-semester examinations, and you are already burdened with a not-so-glorious purpose. Okay, okay, enough of #mcu references.
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 1996, this novel is a close study of the socio-cultural circumstances in India before, during, and after the Emergency of 1975–77. As Mistry documents the political turmoil of a newly independent nation, A Fine Balance simultaneously perseveres to show that certain things that existed in the Indian society prior to 15th August 1947, still prevailed 30 years later. Whether it is caste violence, atrocities over the lower classes, or even communalism for that matter, the nation has completed a full circle and found itself in the midst of yet another communal riot. As the Sikh driver reports to Maneck about the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, “Today it is Sikhs. Last year it was Muslims; before that, Harijans. One day, your sudra and kusti might not be enough to protect you.” Similarly, caste violence does not cease in independent India. Whether it is being poured molten lead in your ears or being stoned to death, the ruthlessness of the upper caste continues to thrive.
However, the mass sterilisation campaigns organised by the government to cope with population explosion becomes a weapon for the upper class to terrorise the lower rungs of society. For people like Thakur Dharamsi, unsterilised medical instruments eventually turn into alternatives to seek revenge for Omprakash’s misdirected spittle. The fact that the fate of a Dalit rests almost entirely in the hands of the upper caste makes the reality bleaker and more horrifying than anticipated.
If you are willing to give it a try, you might as well love the Dickensian interfuse within the Eliotesque in Mistry’s magnum opus.
