17 Aug / The Sound of Water by Sanjay Bahadur
Based on actual tragic event in a remote Indian coalmine in 2001, Badahur – an ex-director in the Indian Ministry of Coal until 2006 – makes his literary debut with a scathing insider’s look at the tainted coal industry.
Badahur recounts the multifaceted layers of the mining disaster using three principal rotating voices: Raimoti, an aging, drug-addicted miner who knows from his miner-father and grandfather that the sound of water deep in the earth’s bowels can only signal grave danger; Bibhash, a lonely mining engineer who lives in near exile with only his growing pornography collection for company, whose lonely life is suddenly interrupted by the fate of six trapped miners; and Dolly, Raimoti’s youngest brother’s wife, a greedily manipulative woman who eagerly awaits news of her trapped brother-in-law because of the potential compensation his confirmed death might provide. Badahur unflinchingly captures the disparate lives of the haves and the have-nots, revealing the multiple layers of corruption and exploitation buried deep within all the characters.
This is not a happy book by any stretch of the imagination. And not a single character seems to have a shred of integrity, save for the a low-ranking bureaucrat who eventually commits suicide [could the message be that the honest can’t survive?]. But that’s not to say that this isn’t a worthy book … think of it as an illuminating exercise in Schadenfreude.
Readers: Adult
Published: 2009
Pardon for saying this but this is not a very useful review. The story is not happy, granted but what other qualities aside from the author being from Asia does the book actually have? Tell me of the language of the structure, tell me more.
I read this book on the flight back from Latin America where our family had spent a week helping to build two houses in a remote village. The conditions were incredibly bleak (although we have also seen far worse in various travels, sad to say). That we were able to affect a small amount of change was truly a privilege for us.
In spite of such extreme poverty, we also saw some of the happiest, most welcoming faces. That sharp contrast between their often joyous attitudes and their challenging conditions was so different from the experiences of the some of the characters in Badahur’s novel. When I read the book, the content struck me most, so that’s what I ended up writing about. Context of how and when I read a book has much to do with my reactions …
Thanks, as always, for visiting the site. You are definitely one of my very very best supporters. And thanks, too, for ALL your comments!
Dear reviewer
Your write up convinces me that there are sensitive / empathetic people all over the world who connect with human beings in other – distant corners of our planet. You have caught the very essence of my novel in such few words.
Thank you for your appreciation.
Regards
Sanjay Bahadur
HOLY MOLY! How fabulous to get found by you, the author! Thanks so much for your kind words indeed! And for finding my blog even, too! Come visit again soon!