My Father's Garden

Book excerpt: Spanning half a life, My Father's Garden tells the story of a young doctor--the unnamed narrator--as he negotiates love and sexuality, his need for companionship, and the burdens of memory and familial expectation. The opening section, 'Lover', finds him studying medicine in Jamshedpur. At college, he discovers an all-consuming passion for Samir, a junior, who possesses his body, mind and heart. Yet, on their last morning together, when he asks Samir to kiss him goodbye, his lover tells him, 'A kiss is only for someone special.' In 'Friend', the young doctor, escaping heartbreak, finds relief in Pakur where he strikes up an unusual friendship with Bada Babu, the head clerk of the hospital where he is posted. In Bada Babu's house, they indulge a shared love for drink, delicious food and convivial company. But when government bulldozers arrive to tear down the neighbourhood, and Bada Babu's house, the young doctor uncovers a sordid tale of apathy and exploitation--and a side to his new friend that leaves him disillusioned. And in 'Father', unable, ultimately, to flee the pain, the young doctor takes refuge in his parents' home in Ghatsila. As he heals, he reflects on his father--once a vital man who had phenomenal success at work and in Adivasi politics, then an equally precipitous downfall--and wonders if his obsessive gardening has anything to do with the choices his son has made. Written with deep empathy and searing emotional intensity, and in the clear, unaffected prose that is the hallmark of Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar's style, My Father's Garden marks a major talent of Indian fiction writing at the top of his form.