Tales from the city

Amrao Jung Bahadur is a jolly good fellow. In the prime of his youth, he cycled from Patiala to Bahadurgarh to escape the admonitions and censures of his elders for not faring well in studies. Who knew that this ugly duckling would turn into a beautiful swan one day who would defend international frontiers of India on the sea, and write tales with wit, humor, uncommon sense and sensuality for Indians on the land?

'Off the Cuff' is a collection of 35 tales appropriated to seven crisp headings. Amusingly, these fanciful yearns are written on the cuff of the author — Amrao Jung Bahadur. He is fortunate that at the dawn of his writing career, he has come to know the subtle difference between 'poetry' and 'rhymes'. He also had the fortune to meet Sardar Khushwant Singh who saw promising signs of a writer in him and asked him to write novels instead of write-ups in The Statesman. But the naval officer could not afford to don the hats of novelist and commander at the same time. He contended to what he was. Now, the prodigy has retired to the solitude of Mohali to hone his linguistic proficiency of Punjabi for the rest of his life.

'Off the Cuff', indeed, depicts the colorful years of decades of his labor of love. His 15 memorable years, spent at the Garden Reach Ship Builders and Engineers in Kolkata, has paid him rich dividends which he has deposited in the literary coffer of "Oh! Calcutta". The cupid of Kolkata has not hit his heart alone. Even Mirza Ghalib who lived in the city in 1828 fell in love with her. He, too, has cried like Jung Bahadur Singh:

Kalkatte Ka Jo Zikr Keya Tu Ne Ham Nashin,

Ek Tir Mere Seneh Mein Mara Ke Hai Hai!

(My Companion you spoke of Calcutta and thus it touched the chord of my heart!)

There are three graphic accounts of the city life of Kolkata in 'Oh! Calcutta' — 'From Crook Lane to Bride Bazar'; 'Meet the Master Cop' and last but not the least 'Journey through a Calcutta Night'. The writer has passed through all the narrow and congested arteries of the city to hear the throbbing systole and diastole of the mighty heart called Kolkata.

Interestingly, he has given the historical, physical and social sides of roads, lanes and by lanes of the city in his book. The Bride Bazar duped him with no display of brides in the bridal chamber but consoled him with the shops making furniture of their dowry. If he had visited Bow Bazar (The Bride Bazar) at night, certainly he could have seen with his bulging eyes the tawaifs of Faizabad, Agra and Benaras performing mujra in the kothas. Like the concert of Begum Akhtar, he has also irrevocably missed the song and dance of seductive baijis!

Amrao Jung Bahadur Singh has a heart of gold. He speaks high of the traffic police and the doctor of Kolkata. He is full of praises for multiple tasks undertaken by the friendly cop and believes that nowhere under the sun, a cop guides the people, helps the young and old to cross the road and is always 'on the receiving end' from the violators and offenders of traffic. Once the commander faced the grin of an ordinary cop who ridiculed him by saying: 'Salt Lake ka Driver!' His empathy for the doctor at NRS Hospital serving humanity without a piping hot cup of coffee from dusk to dawn is, indeed, commendable. The plight of the poor and the needy street-dwellers of the city also attracted his humane attention. He has brought the darker side of the city-life to the full gaze of his readers who live in extravagance and indifference.

All the 35 stories of 'Off the Cuff' are written in a light vein but some where they also convey the bitter realities of life that resonate with the poignant words of Shelley!

Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thoughts!

Views expressed are personal