Review of Marathi novellas ‘My Last Autobiography’ and ‘The Woman Who Wore a Hat’

With love and humour, these works examine the question of the purpose of life. | There is the irritability of the children who are unable to understand the whims of the old man. There are friends who are so old as well that they cannot drop by to meet each other. There is the slowing down of the body that once used to go on treks, now unable to climb stairs. There is the dependence on caretakers. And yet, this novella is far from a sad story. Filled with humour and descriptive fineness, Banahatti delivers a literary coup.My Last Autobiography comes alive through translator Jerry Pinto’s admirable capture of the irreverent tenor and repetitive rhythm of a nonagenarian. At 94, the protagonist is writing his third autobiography, musing on whether death has somehow forgotten him.The narrator is an engineer, whose name he thinks is perhaps still etched on the side of a bridge in Satara. He loves perfumes and pungent food. He fears dogs, darkness, climbing trees and swimming. His analysis of his children’s traits is filled with love for the quirks of human nature.He says of his youngest son Bandu, who he unregretfully forced to become a doctor, that he is morose, secretive and introverted: “Some people are like that. They are perennially lost, irritated, angry. However successful they may be, they are always dissatisfied.” And there is the anguished self-reflection that sees through the fragility of his assumptions: “Was my nagging making him irritable? Had he become like this because I had lived so long?”Banahatti’s narrative style is astonishing: while everything is from the viewpoint of the first-person, the reader catches the unsaid counter-point. Even while the old man insists that his son does not understand him, you do get to see the care and concern of that son. Even as the old man insists that just because one appears to be closer to death, one need not be philosophical or spiritual, one gets to see both these aspects in his attitude to life. The obliquely shared glimpses into guilt, fear and sorrow are all wrapped in love, humour and the ludicrousness of the purposelessness of an ordinary life.In Kamal Desai’s worldKamal Desai’s 1975 novella The Woman Who Wore a Hat is usually read as a feminist piece — written as it is by a woman, about societal perceptions around the role of women. However, if this work, translated here by Shanta Gokhale, can be allowed to escape its limited feminist trappings, its philosophical examination of the purpose of life can be profitably foregrounded.Five old men meet every evening in a house that has an octagonal-shaped drawing room. Each of them carries a tale of loss, separation, grief and low self-esteem. Each individual life has scars — a lost child, a broken marriage, insecurity, dependence. All leading to the big picture of helplessness. The octagonal drawing room is like a giant octopus arm that can devour; where even flowers are destined to wilt.Excitement enters their lives in the form of a nameless young woman who wears a hat. Men and women alike are triggered by the presence of this mysterious person who has no memory of her past. Her absence or loss of identity does not bother her as it does those around her. She is driven only by the passion to make a film — to replicate, if possible, a Disneyland in Maharashtra. And for the sake of this passion, she is willing to let her female body be used by people who can see nothing more than the body.Just as in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, where the author imagines Shakespeare’s equally gifted sister running away from home in search of a theatre where her talent can be showcased, we have here a woman who chases a single dream. While the world is preoccupied with knowing who she belongs to, she is wholly absorbed in her creative pursuits.The Marathi cadenceDesai was