Sunday 30 June 2019

'When autumn strikes, we need to be prepared for the winter, the storms, the floods and the dark clouds – the season of mist. Our life goes through seasons too!'


'Surviving the Storm' | On Chaaru's Winter

Well, here goes my little take on Chaaru’s Winter: Survive the Storm and Withstand the Cold.

In fact, the subtitle in itself has oodles of incentives on offer for the reader, to launch oneself into the book full throttle.

I was equally intrigued when I chanced upon this lovely phrase on the subtitle, which reads, ‘Survive the Storm!’

Indeed, the word ‘storm’ brings to one's mind a battery of associations and significations that could connote anything from trauma, to violence, to agony, to physical violations, to terrorism, to war, to emotional upheavals, and to psychological troubles, etc.

Toni Cade Bambara’s experimental and maiden novel The Salt Eaters is a case in point. The story is about a bevy of seven sisters who are women of colour, drawn from diverse backgrounds, and are journeying towards the fictional town of Claybourne in Georgia, for an annual festival hosted by a community school there. 

The seven sisters have such vibrancy to their spirit and such dynamism to their souls that, they are so passionate and so alike in their dreams! A dream to change the world and to transform their society! And this they do, in their own little ways, by loving one another, helping one another, caring for one another, and supporting one another in their times of distress! As such, they also double up as both therapeutic healers and amazing artists touching lives and changing societies on the go!

The novel begins with Minnie Ransom, the famed, ‘fabled healer’ of the district, asking Velma, who has attempted suicide,

Are you sure, sweetheart, that you want to be well?

Velma Henry turned stiffly on the stool, the gown ties tight across her back, the knots hard. So taut for so long, she could not swivel. Neck, back, hip joints dry, stiff. Face frozen. She could not glower, suck her teeth, roll her eyes, do any of the Velma-things by way of answering Minnie Ransom.

In fact, the ‘well’ here could connote to mean the wellness of Velma, and of her entire community as well, which is bound to happen only if they could survive and come safe and secure, from the ‘storms’ they face in their lives – both literal and figurative ones!

Deep into the novel, now, Campbell could sense a storm brewing – this time a literal storm!

He wondered what effect the storm would have on the Brotherhood’s pageant, on the Academy’s procession, on the police’s program, on the vigilantes’ plans, and on his future. Something more than storm was up, he figured, rejecting the idea that ordinary lightning, thunder and rain could elicit so profound a response from everyone!

[In fact, the book has around fifteen ruminations and descriptions on storm in general, and through each of the ‘storms’ Bambara is subtly conveying a beautiful message to the reader, that, the storms in the lives of the people are a result of some personal hurt or trauma that they’ve been through.]

And hence, if there should be wellness in their hearts and minds, they ought to survive the storms, by all means! No spoilers though! This 1980 book is up for grabs on e-stores as well! So that’s the byline: Surviving the storms!

Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe would be our second case in point, in our discussion on ‘surviving the storm’!


The narrator, Crusoe himself, tell us, how, he had courageously withstood many storms, and mutinies on the violent sea decades back in time. However, the real test of his life had befallen him only in the year 1659 when a deadly storm had played havoc on sea and wrecked his ship. Crusoe finally finds himself marooned on the shore of a strange island! In this wretched, uninhabitable place, Crusoe had to think of various means of survival, and finally, after he had braved and survived both the literal storm at sea, and the metaphoric storm of survival in the desert land, he managed to return to England, fully well, after 28 long years.

Placing Chaaru’s Winter in this context of ‘surviving one’s storms,’ would sure make the reading more interesting, I bet!


And this claim is authenticated well enough with the epigraph to Chaaru’s book, that states, ‘The greater the tempest, the stronger you come out!’

In her authorial note that begins the book, Chaaru starts off on a conversational tone, saying,

We live in the ‘Age of Anxiety;! We have so many things to worry about and being mentally healthy is a blessing in today’s age amidst the ‘hazards of modern life’ – anxiety, depression, panic attacks and insomnia’

Later on, she has a note for the reader, when she asks,

Have you thought about getting out of the storm, stronger and smarter?

Then this book is for you!

When autumn strikes, we need to be prepared for the winter, the storms, the floods and the dark clouds – the season of mist. Our life goes through seasons too!

Chaaru ends her prefatory on a positive high, by quipping,

Let’s grow art out of all the holes left in our hearts.

On an added note, Chaaru has another interesting tagline to her profile – A caffeine addict! And well, this pure love for coffee seems to adorn quite a few of her 63 wonderful poems as well! Be it a passing reference to a coffee cup, a coffee shop, or just a cuppa coffee! It’s there, 'splashed' all across the pages! 

Chaaru’s lines have an amazing air of reality – a philosophical reality, that acts the trigger for finer ruminations and intense contemplations!


An 'air of reality' that takes you by your hand and makes you see the worlds you haven’t seen as yet, but you’d still have an intuitive incline deep within that you’ve seen it somewhere! Therein lies the success of Winter, in which ‘perpetual worlds of possibilities’ are laid bare with such descriptive felicity and intensity in the lucid lines of Chaaru.

I’d strongly recommend this book for readers of all hues of all ages, who want to just go ahead and handle their storms, their loss, and grow art from all the holes left in their hearts!

An engaging read that gives you nuanced nuggets on how to ‘dance in the fiery December storms!’

Just go ahead, pick your copy and do the dance!

Bonne lecture to ya!

images: goodreadsdotcom, bbcdotcodotuk

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