Tuesday, 06 October 2020 | Jaskiran Chopra | Dehradun
Of late, one has been reading a lot of non-fiction .However, a work of fiction that I finally read and was impressed greatly by is A River on the Wall, a finely tuned presentation of complex human emotions made delicately by author Story Hazarika who has been a well known educator in the region.
Carol Hugh (as Stormy is formally known_} has been a teacher of English at the prestigious St.George’s College , Mussoorie, for the past several years.She is now the head of the English Department there. Her students are spread all over the world. Most people know her by her unique name “Stormy”.
A River on the Wall is her first novel although when one reads through it, it is difficult to believe that .The language has great power and the plot has been woven intricately and grippingly. The reader is often taken aback at the twists and turns in the story which plays on a panorama of strong human emotions like love, hatred, jealousy, regret, repentance,guilt and nostalgia. The main protagonist is RyeedLahan who is married to a painter named Suchitra and has a son called Tejas. His wife commits suicide and the son blames him for it.After this incident, this professor of English at Delhi University faces manymore shocks in life including the fact that Tejas walks out on him
The love story that becomes his after this is the central action of the novel which t hen brings us to the green-eyed young woman called Nikita.
Mussoorie, Delhi, Kolkata and Ranikhet feature in the novel .Besides the plot ,what fascinates the reader is the unique imagery and symbolism used by the author .Her strong background of English literature and language emerges effectively and lends to her work a very special touch. The river on the wall is a symbol of life, of love, of happiness-all that is elusive and not easily accessible. When one tries to touch the water in this river, it is almost impossible. Suchitra who is a painter tries to explain it to Ryeed “ You look all your life ,searching for it.But its intangible …something out of reach .An impossibility .Like, say ,a river on a wall”
Nikita and her daughter, both green-eyed beauties, brighten up the book with their unique personalities.At many points in the novel, readers should remain prepared for goosebumps-excitement, suspense and a thrill borne out of the complex situations the characters find themselves in!When Nikita meets Ryeed after thirteen years, the author writes “ For ten thousand dark suns, Time waited .Then she rode away in the chariot of memory ,decorated with the iridescence of happiness.Once more ,he was the man of her dreams .Once more they were soaring into the clouds and drifting there, happy birds with hours of golden sunlight and whispers of warm darkness”.
Whether the characters succeed in touching the river on the wall ,whether they are even able to try to do so-the reader has to wait till the eventful climax to know the answer to this.It is the manner in which the plot unfolds which creates the unexpected situations that take the readers by surprise just as they take the characters by surprise. Romance, shock, hatred and passion criss-cross each other often in this enchanting narrative which focusses on the inner action more than the outer happenings.Charactenrisation and creation of plot are the strengths of Stormy just as her command over the language is .
The author’s love for words is beautifully evident in her descriptions of delicate emotions. The sudden turns that the novel takes are narrated deftly by Stormy. Lost love is a prominent theme .The quest for an ideal love is another. Longing for youth is also a strain in the novel.Things and emotions that become elusive for us are all like a river on the wall. Indeed, a powerful work of fiction is this novel by this renowned teacher of Mussoorie.
