The Moment of the Banyan by Armin Wandrewala. Published in 2025 by Vakils, Feffer and Simons Pvt Ltd, Industry Manor, 2nd floor, A. Marathe Marg, Prabhadevi, Bombay 400025; email: info@vakilspublications.com; website: www.vakilspublications.com. Pp: 504. Price: Rs 700.
The narrative begins with the central protagonist Alamai Ardeshir Readymoney’s thoughts on January 21, 1995, a day before her 100th birthday. She ruminates over her long life as a daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother while dwelling on myriad events — the vicissitudes of her existence, moments of joy and sorrow, struggles and victories. She is metaphorically the banyan tree of the title, retaining her steadfast unity but "throwing out new offshoots, many aerial roots which had in turn rooted and proliferated, including some unexpected ones.”
Armin Wandrewala: complex and competent
Author ArminWandrewala uses the banyan tree as the central motif of her novel. It was planted by Darabsha Readymoney to commemorate the birth of his first grandson, Ardeshir, who later marries the chief character of the novel, Alamai Dastoor.
Wandrewala is a lawyer and an author. Her previous fiction, The Turning, is a crime novel set against the backdrop of a socio-legal issue, which may probably have been influenced by her legal career. The Moment of the Banyan is quite different; it is a multi-generational story with a well-integrated plot, strongly delineated characters, a complex time scheme, sensitively portrayed locations and establishes Wandrewala’s skill as a very competent novelist.
The Moment of the Banyan alternates between Bombay and Gujarat, both urban and rural, and the time span stretches from December 1915 to February 1995. The novel is not divided into chapters but each section is marked with dates to enable the reader to keep track of the time line. At the beginning, the narrative tends to move more rapidly between years but later settles down to a more traditional time scheme. The movement is circular; towards the end of the novel we almost return to the date at which it started.
Alamai is an extremely well portrayed character. She is as firm and unshakable as the banyan tree, holding the branches of the family together throughout her life. She has her own crosses to bear. She loses her son, Ardaviraf, when he is 18 months old. Her youngest daughter, Binaifer, is born a year later on the same day. Wandrewala effectively conveys the grief at the loss of a child which still haunts the mother as well as her steely grit in unquestioningly facing the challenge: "Binaifer had to be fed at her breast, and the luxury of grief was denied to her.”
At a tender age, Alamai had to come to terms with the death of her father who was attacked by bandits, her mother’s struggle to bring up the children and the humiliations from her father’s family. But she is a strong character who skillfully, tactfully and single-mindedly makes her way, unfalteringly, through life. She does not crumble when she suspects her husband of having an extra-marital affair and courageously faces the consequences, taking difficult decisions she is compelled to at the end of her life.
Almost at the very beginning the novel jumps 40 years from Alamai’s to her granddaughter, Almitra’s point of view. In this manner, Wandrewala juxtaposes these two strong women as the narrative, to a very large extent, swings from grandmother to granddaughter, the most compelling characters in the novel. Two-and-a-half years after Almitra’s birth, her newly born brother, Kayomarz, dies and as Doongerwadi is no place for a young girl, Almitra is placed in the charge of her grandmother. This cements a strong bond between them, one that lasts a lifetime. Almitra seems to be a younger version of Alamai, a person the reader has never really met. She is precocious, intelligent, but has a great deal of empathy for the poor and the underprivileged. She is extremely distressed when her friend and cousin, Dilnavaz, who has lost her mother and is being taken care of by her aunt, mentions that Rati fui’s (paternal aunt) children were fed wheat chapattis while she, the poor relative, was given chapattis made of jowar. However, as she grows up, Almitra comes into her own, becomes a journalist, novelist and poet and manages to find an equal balance between empathy and common sense.
It is not true that Wandrewala can only create female flesh and blood characters. Almitra marries Abaad Turell and both he and his father Ratan, once a Commissioner of Police, are credible and very well etched characters. Abaad is a practicing criminal lawyer, "a rising counsel, one of the shining bright stars of the Bombay High Court.” He is the perfect match for Almitra and ensures that her overzealous spirit is reined in. Though their relationship has a rocky start, Wandrewala portrays a very well balanced union, happy and positive for the most part but with occasional ups and downs. Abaad’s father, being very fond of his daughter-in-law, becomes a vital part of the family.
There are several other characters whom Wandrewala portrays, some with a great deal of sympathy, while others like Binaifer and especially her husband, Gustasp and their daughter Khursheed, are given short shrift. When Binaifer agrees to marry Ervad Gustasp Dadachanji, his mother insists on pulling rank over the Readymoney family and (being from "the boy’s side”) crudely and blatant asserts that the expenses of the wedding should be shared, which Alamai had always deemed the normal practice. In Gustasp, Wandrewala creates the typical conservative, subservient, orthodox priest who, unimaginably, unquestioningly and thoughtlessly sticks to tradition.
Wandrewala has a unique eye for describing locations. So convincingly does she write about the places where the action takes place that the reader feels part of the locale. Her portrayal of Navsari with its old-world charm and slow pace of life, the depiction of the Dadar Parsi Colony of bygone days when life even in this busy metropolis was unhurried and undemanding, and the fictional town of Lanskui, based on her mother’s "own stories and memories of life in the villages of Gujarat,” are convincing and charmingly etched.
Where the novel falters is in its detailed description of rites, rituals, customs and traditions which Wandrewala is trying so hard to revive. Much time is spent in narrating these, with the result that the thread of the main plot, which is quite gripping, tends to get diluted. Though the dialog is lively and never rings false, there is a bit too much of spoken Gujarati which once again tends to break the continuity of the novel as it needs to be translated into English. What is remarkable is that Wandrewala always manages to convey the meaning of the Gujarati words in the text itself and does not encumber the narrative with footnotes or a glossary. Nor does she let us forget she is a lawyer by profession; intertwined with the narrative are references to the Beaman-Davar judgment and especially the Cmdr Kavas Nanavati case, which could have been avoided. These are minor digressions but they interfere with the plot which is quite elaborate, spanning several generations.
What Wandrewala has done is written two novels: one of the Readymoney family and the second of the rites and rituals of the community and the way of life in the villages, all of which certainly need to be documented. But to successfully combine both in a single work, however skilled the author, would be a herculean task.
FIRDAUS GANDAVIA
Gandavia holds a doctorate in English literature and is a retired chartered accountant. He is a compulsive reader of fiction.