Rebirth by Jahnavi Barua

Rebirth is the second book by Jahnavi Barua that I am reviewing. I had read her collection of short stories called Next Door about two years back and was totally bowled over. You can read that review here.  I had the privilege of reading the early draft of this novel - see the advantage of having Jahnavi as a friend!Jahnavi started writing as a full time writer in 2004. Initially it was short stories that were published in various anthologies and even wrote a children’s book called, The Boy Who Lost His Voice. This doctor won the Short Fiction contest hosted by British Council in ’05 and then the second prize in the Children’s Fiction category of the same prize. She was awarded the Charles Wallace Trust Fellowship to study Creative Writing in the UK in 2006. She is a "writer by profession, a doctor by education and a birder and gardener by passion".  The landscape of Assam features prominently in her prose. I saw that in her short stories and the same can be said for Rebirth. The protagonist Kaberi now married to an unloving husband in Bangalore speaks to the unborn child she is carrying and tells us about life back in Assam.

"We would all pile into Bipul Moha's black Ambassador, the men in front, the women and children at the back, and drive away, usually on a cold winter morning. The boot would be crammed tight with battered suitcases, cloth bags stuffed with packets of biscuits and larus and home made cake, in case they ran out of food at the old Forest Lodge where we stayed.Bipl Moha's stately speed of forty kilometres an hour coupled with the fact that we stopped every half an hour for either Ma or Bina Mahi to buy vegetables or fish from village folks squatting patiently by the highway meant that it was late afternoon by the time we arrived at Kaziranga."

Jahnavi's style of narration is unhurried and yet the speed of storytelling never seems to drop. The little details of the variety of trees, flowers and birds that show up in her stories create a unique flavor of writing that is very enjoyable. As the protagonist's mood changes so does the landscape. From the urban landscape and life of an apartment in Bangalore to the house built by Joya's husband Bidyut on the banks of the Brahmaputra river, she describes it all with the skill of a gemcutter. The pace of the story in the first 150 odd pages is absolutely gripping. The resonance in the life of her mother and the parallels with Kaberi's creates a much larger impact because it is unsaid and unspoken.I personally struggle while closing a story in a novel. Life after all does not end in 203 pages. There is so much more that is happening and sometimes that is a trick that the authors have to master. The novel does not end with the same flourish as I expected. It is like having a fabulous meal and ending up with a slightly syrupy or not-so-sweet dessert.Nevertheless the main course was fabulous and demands a second helping!!---------------------You can order Jahnavi's novels from Flipkart by clicking here