The City of Joy

The City of Joy

Author: Dominique Lapierre

Publisher: Arrow Books

Pages: 511

Dedication: To Tatou, Gaston, Pierre, Francois, James and to ‘the lights of the world’ of the City of Joy

Lapierre’s book describes life in a Calcutta slum named Anand Nagar (The City of Joy). He narrates in gaudy detail the story of life as it unfolds in Calcutta and many other parts of India. Hasari Pal and his family had to flee to Calcutta to escape the drought of his native village. He finds work as rickshaw puller and contracts TB. He dies after several years, on the day of his daughter’s marriage. Stephan Kovalski, a Polish evangelist who adopts Anand Nagar as his home in the service of the poor, Max Loeb, a Jewish American doctor who spent some years in the slum are the other main characters in this fiction (as claimed by Lapierre). He had established a foundation for the upliftment of Indian poor from the proceedings of the sale of this book. It lists almost all of the vices in India and ends with a mocking commentary of the celebration in the slums on the nuclear explosion conducted by India.

One cannot help wonder at the utter contempt and mocking disregard for every Indian ritual or custom. He conveniently addresses Indians by their religions and not by their names. The tea shop owner invariably becomes Surya, the Hindu, like wise. The only thing an impassionate reader of the book learns is that Indians are incompetent, inefficient, leaderless and still require white masters to show them their way around. All the positive aspects of Indian culture and tradition are eclipsed and minor aberrations conveniently amplified to show the world that India still lives in medieval times and not able to comprehend modern technology. Lapierre considers it blasphemy, the testing of the atomic bomb. It seems that the motivation behind writing this book is the seething rage the French mind cultivates against nuclear India. Remember Shakti 1998! France was the most vociferous opponent in denouncing India globally, while they were notorious for their under sea nuclear explosions conducted in the South Pacific, far away from their pompous home land. Of course, one should not judge the native country of an author from his work, but these are some of the thoughts naturally coming to one’s mind.

The factual errors in the book is amazing. According to him, all Indian marriages take place at mid night, millions of people die from snake bites every year etc are only a few. The hilarious part is that he establishes these blunders with authority. He is often in error, but never in doubt! Lapierre’s condescending attitude is irritating and verges on the unbearable at times. This attitude is what he cultivates because ample evidence can be cited from the ‘Freedom at Midnight’ also. The docile way in which Nehru and Patel submits to the diktats of Lord Mountbatten whom they made the Governor General is a clear pointer.

Lapierre might be a friend of India, because of the foundation and the charitable work they do. But from what he writes, this is not the impression he conveys.