A blend of myth, folktales, the mystical and supernatural, and laced with the power of modern science, is how “Aandho Sarpako Khoji” – The Search for a Blind Snake – treats the natural world.[break]
And what a diverse world it encompasses! The eleven tales collected here talk of commonplace creatures like the owl and tortoise before moving farther up the rarity quotient to include musk deer, snow leopards, and even the Abominable Snowman called the Yeti. But the author’s favorite creature is obviously the snake, on which he has based four of his stories. One of the stories is almost entirely on medicinal herbs, while another one is on genetics. And it’s not as though these elements of biodiversity are thrust in to add décor or charm to the text. No, they are indeed the protagonists of the stories, around which tales are woven.
It’s heartening to come across a body of tales which places the ecosystem in its centrality. And what’s more, the author tries very hard not to let his anthropomorphic views seep in the stories. There’s a lot on preservation, conservation, and maintaining harmony in biodiversity. Even the protagonists are environment-friendly people who like nothing better than to lose themselves in nature. One such example is “Ulluko Gharma Latokosheroko Baas” where the benevolent protagonist and his wife tenderly attend to an injured owl, not paying heed to superstitious people who claim that it’ll bring bad luck.
Or take the example of “Aandho Sarpako Khoji” where researchers hope to capture a special variety of snakes and breed them. In this story, the protagonist even cautions the villagers about how snakes are essential to maintain a balanced ecosystem and must be treated with respect. “Ghodaghodi Taalko Pachas Feet Lamo Ajingar” tells the tale of a clever cobra that outwits greedy villagers while “Shikari ra Samrakshan” is a relatively emotional story of an elderly hunter who begins to see his son reflected in a fawn, and refuses to capture its parents as he has been instructed to. In many places in the other stories as well, the writer, in the guise of the narrator, repeatedly instructs humans not to encroach the animal territory. In these days of environmental awareness and conservation, the stories provide a direct message.
Then there are other stories that lean back on mystery and suspense. The first story of the collection, “Kanjirobako Rahasyamaya Mithe” showcases the adventures of a team that intends to research the elusive Yeti, but the climax leaves readers with an alluring whiff of the supernatural and the mystical. Even more highly unbelievable, and yet the most beautiful story of the lot is “Euta Sabbuko Mansarovar Yatra” where a skilled shaman is trapped in the body of a leopard. Another story with a surprising ending is “Adhuro Anusandhan”, where a student of genetics is left reeling by the revelation of his research. The themes sound interesting, and so they are. The stories create a miniature universe of their own, a microcosm where snakes fight to maintain their territory, and fawns follow their mothers everywhere. There are possibilities in the plot, too – the author has a habit of putting in a slight twist at the climax, which is much relished. While it may not be a firecracker ending and one does begin to guess the end after he provides the hints, the climaxes are still above average.
The fault, then, lies in the style. While Shah is obviously well-informed about the natural world and talks of it with authority, he is no storyteller. Or let us put it this way: he seems to be blissfully ignorant of the finer techniques of narration. He relies heavily on description, sometimes sharing his knowledge of a particular plant or animal for tedious lengths. In “Euta Sabbuko Mansarovar Yatra”, he devotes three paragraphs to enlighten readers on the process of using poison for hunting and its aftermaths; another one to talk about the poisonous herb, and still another to describe the counter herb. And of course, the intricacies of the snow leopard are explained in the next paragraph. The reader is left puzzled as to whether this is a work of fiction or a report. And then, in “Chamatkarlai Namaskar”, readers are again treated to exhaustive images of the same poisonous herb and the antidote, complete to the altitude where they are found. This is a tedious intrusion in the story.
All the stories contain such examples. In the midst of the story, there are reports about the types of snakes, their characteristics, the process of removing a snake’s poison glands or a deer’s musk, and different forms of hunting. A little background for uninitiated readers would have been fine, but the author simply gets carried away by his expertise and forgets that this is a work of fiction, where readers can enjoy the tale without exact technical and scientific terms and clarifications. The story that best exemplifies this fact, and is thus the most boring, is “Tathyako Awasan” where the author has no other intention than to advise readers not to misinterpret the duel between two snakes.
Another drawback of the descriptive style is that, sometimes, there are no dialogues or interactions between characters for whole pages. There is only the monotonous presentation of the thoughts of the protagonist. Even the little dialogue that exists is very ordinary and lacks sparkle. The stories resemble facts jotted down for a personal diary. At times, they even seem like dreary, self-centered travelogues; and at other places, they are pages extracted from a scientific journal. Similarly, there is also no reason for all the protagonists and narrators of the stories to be researchers, hunters or students, for this gives the stories a homogeneous feel.
The author has also exposed his superiority in the portrayal of snake charmers or even villagers, whom he has portrayed as uniformly ignorant, greedy, foolish, backward and cowardly; but they are sometimes allowed to have a change of heart in the end and indulge in even more idealistic sentimentalism. It is as if only the geeky researchers are knowledgeable and not the locals, who have been living in harmony with nature since primitive times.
While the collective theme and intention of the tales is laudable, Shah needs to work extensively on his narration skills. The tales will be of great value to students, researchers, or those who care for ecology, but Shah needs to sharpen the dialogues and cut down on the never-ending descriptions to produce a crisp outcome which is a balance of information and entertainment.
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