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Kiran
Khalap makes music with words. The first time novelist, with years
of advertising experience behind him, is clearly at home in the
world of words, caressing them, patting them into the perfection
of a phrase, tossing them delicately yet casually into sentences
and watching the ripples of meaning they create within the pages
of Halfway Up the Mountain.
It
isn't only the language that grips once the book gets into your
hands though, it's the ease with which Khalap slips into the skin
of a young girl, born and brought up in coastal Konkan, recreates
little nuances of rural life as a woman and manages to convey feminine
feelings and longings with poignance.
 It
is also the sensitivity with which he narrates the story of Maya
as she flowers into womanhood in her village, marries into a millworker's
family in the industrial heart of Mumbai, struggles for an identity,
love and acceptance and is still struggling for inner peace a decade
later when she finds her niche as a warden in a Mahabaleshwar boarding
school.
The
Atma Shatakam, the eighth century shloka penned by Shankaracharya,
forms the current that flows as a subtext throughout the narration.
Even for the child Maya, for whom the chant 'means as little to
you as the half tables (at school), though you like the shiny copper
texture of this sound more than the black and white marble texture
of the tables.'
It
is Khalap's ability to think like a child, a woman, a wife and a
mother and weave a story of the experiences that puts this debut
novel in a class by itself, conquering any rough corners it may
have otherwise. Sentences like 'You return home like a traditional
couple, he ahead, you a mere afterthought in a patriarchial society',
make you pause and ponder not just the beauty of the phrases he
strings but the meanings and feelings that flow underneath.
Maya
in her quest to find meaning in life and relationships, keeps attempting
to free herself of the tangled web of relationships foisted on her
by a tradition bound society, but is not always rewarded with success.
Khalap's attempt to ponder if bliss can also be accessible to ordinary
human beings, via Maya, forces the reader to stop and think awhile,
a long while even after the book has ended.
It
should be interesting to see what this ad man has in store for readers
in his next novel.
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