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| 13/04/2002 |
| A SINGULAR HOSTAGE (Part 2) |
[Part 2] Speech at the Book launch of Thalassa Ali's book THE SINGULAR HOSTAGE, Lahore, 31 April 2002.
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| Thalassa’s work falls under the category of Faction – a cocktail of Fiction mixed with Fact. Alex Haley had made such a genre popular with his epic Roots. Long before him, over a century earlier, Henry Lawrence, who had lived through those times, had used this device in his novel The Adventures of an Officer in the service of Runjeet Singh, published in 1845. As the Resident at Lahore after the First Sikh war in 1846, Lawrence had been an eyewitness to the historic events following Ranjit Singh’s death in June 1839. Lawrence used his experiences at the Sikh Court as the cat’s-cradle of his narrative, and included perceptive thumbnail sketches of people at the court, notables such as Raja Dina Nath, Diwan Ayodha Prasad, and the Fakir brothers Azizuddin and Nuruddin (my own lineal ancestor). |
| A more recent foray into this period has been the novel Flashman and the Mountain of Light – one of the series written by George Fraser using his peripatetic adventurer Harry Flashman. In this novel, George Fraser transposed his hero into the post-Ranjit Singh court, a rather licentious bunch of highly-sexed Sikhs and even more hyper-active women, presided over by the irrepressible Rani Jindan. |
| If you want to read a novel that is racy, saucy and free-wheeling, a sort of Punjabi Barbara Cartland, try this one. I was riveted not simply by its pace but by its gymnastic ingenuity. On page 93, for example, Fraser, through the voice of Flashman, describes an orgy. ‘They writhed against each other while the onlookers shrieked with delights and the music beat ever faster, and then he retreated from her slowly, sweat pouring down his body – and burn me if the [Kohinoor] stone wasn’t in his navel now!’ |
| A wonderful image – transferring the Kohinoor diamond from one navel to another – except that the Kohinoor was in fact set between two large diamonds in an armband or bazuband, and in its uncut state the Kohinoor weighed over 170 carats and was the size of a small orange. It is silly inaccuracies like this that make you appreciate the meticulous research that Thalassa has put into her own novel A Singular Hostage. |
| If I was to identify two qualities about her book, I would identify first its authenticity. Every detail she has woven into her narrative rings true. The image of the seed pearls embroidered on Azizuddin’s gown visible under the hem of his coarse outer gown. Or Emily Eden surreptitiously pouring into the carpet Ranjit Singh’s fiery araq that only he could drink. Or the brilliant description of the encounter between Lord Auckland and Maharaja Ranjit Singh when their elephants run amok and meet at a speed the riding dignitaries had never intended and the mahouts could not control. |
| The second quality of Thalassa’s book is its relevance. Her story is not simply a narrative. It is a gripping tale at different levels – historical, social, inter-cultural, and inter-faith. Historically, for it recreates a significant turning point in the history of the Punjab, just before it was invaded not from the traditional west but from the east. Social, because it discusses a society layered into upper and lower strata – not much different from what we see today. Inter-cultural, when it deals with the differing attitudes between the British and the Punjabis. And inter-faith, for at no time in Punjab’s history was there such a fine balance maintained, as it was during Ranjit Singh’s reign, between the various faiths – Sikh, Muslim, Hindu and in time Christian. Thalassa’s book is above all a celebration of our past. |
| Thalassa, there will always be a few purists who may be tempted to find mistakes in your book. Let me console you with an anecdote about Fakir Azizuddin. A Britisher once asked him which one of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s eyes was blind. The canny Fakir replied: ‘The radiance of his face was such that I could not discern which of his eyes was defective.’ Thalassa, if your book has any defects or mistakes, I didn’t find any. But then, I didn’t want to look for any, for one should never look gift-novels in the face. |
| Thalassa, you said that this, your first novel is your gift to Pakistan. Through it, you have captured me, and made me, as I am sure you will every one of your future readers, your willing, voluntary and singular hostage. |
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| 13 April 2002 |
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| All Speeches |
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