Portrait of an artist as a boy

Which is the most paying profession? Engineering, IT, Commerce? The answer may change from generation to generation but what doesn’t change is the en masse pursuit of the paying profession whether one has aptitude for it or not. Or one has to willy nilly bend to the father’s profession. In The Sergeant’s Son, Ashim Choudhury paints an affectionate portrait of the childhood of a budding artist who survives the vagaries of a lower middle class upbringing and a tyrant father to discover his skills. Unwillingly, he is forced to join as an airman in Indian Air Force, his father’s profession.

The novel ends with this touching observation: “All the boy had asked for in life was a pen or a paintbrush. Instead, thrust upon him was a rifle and a bayonet. With his heavy leather boots he plodded along.”

What happens to Kaalu after he joined as airman is perhaps subject for a sequel. But this novel is about his childhood as an airman’s son inside the military camp at Kalina in Bombay and as an adolescent in Allahabad, where his father is transferred. In this debut novel, largely autobiographical, Ashim displays a gift for lyrical description of childhood sights and sounds, little joys and fears and how the kids cook up tales for each other. Despite living in a city, the four siblings grow up in the lap of nature, playing and growing up among the trees. The crossing of a Christian neighborhood while going to school is an adventure. Ordinary happenings are lighted up with loving attention. Even the scene at the dry latrine is described without inhibition.

The feeling of inferiority never leaves the family. His father is never promoted. The reason: “In the Air Force, as in the other forces too, one’s promotion depended less on competence and more on the ability to keep one’s superiors in good humor,” which Kaalu’s father was singularly incapable of.

In addition, Kaalu is deeply conscious of his dark complexion which once led a neighboring lady to mistake him for a servant. But there are joys in life like being encouraged to paint by some acquaintances and winning praise for his essay in school.

The novel throws up several interesting characters but the most compelling is Borda (meaning elder brother). The eldest of the siblings keeps being expelled from school and is beaten up regularly and mercilessly by the father but no beatings or failures can shake his unconventional approach to life.

Eldest siblings are usually serious and more responsible but this one steals his mother’s earrings, picks even Kaalu’s pocket, cheats his way with neighbors and lives a life of luxury with his rich friends to the admiration of his brothers and other children in the neighborhood. He even shocks the conservative family once by bringing a girl friend home. According to Ashim, he remained incorrigible even in later life.
Ashim Choudhury has had a chequered career having been an airman himself, a journalist, cartoonist and a UN official. But his first love remains painting. With this novel he has shown that he can paint even with the pen.

Outside India the book will be available on www.uread.com More about the book on http://ashimch13.blogspot.in/
The Sergeant’s Son
Publisher: Rupa,
Pages 256,
Indian Price Rs 250

Vinod Dhawan 
India Post News Service