Rajkamal Choudhary called himself a member of the “hungry generation” of writers of the 1960s who questioned the then prevailing political and social values. A prolific writer in his native Maithili and Hindi, Choudhary died in 1967 when he was only 38, leaving behind a massive body of work ranging from hundreds of short stories to plays, poems, essays and novels. One of his most talked-about works was the Hindi novel, Machhali Mari Hui, which kicked up a storm in literary circles when it was published in the early sixties.
Machhali Mari Hui explored sexuality and freedom of expression of the body. The novel evoked instant rebuke and controversy. The work, which literary scholars today term as “daring” and “experimental”, dealt with the private lives of individuals who were merely carrying on with their choice and expression. More than half-a-century later, Machhali Mari Hui is now available in English translation, making it accessible to readers at home and abroad.
Bizarre Calcutta Narrative
Set in the then Calcutta (now Kolkata), The Dead Fish—the English title of the novel—exudes a rare brevity of characters. For the most of its early part, three individuals drive the narrative that appears to branch out in different directions. It soon emerges that their past may be inextricably linked with the other. Choudhary sets up a bizarre beginning to The Dead Fish. Dr Raghuvansh, an eminent surgeon in the city, is surprised one day when his teenage daughter Priya runs to him frightened by the late night arrival of a visitor, Nirmal Padmavat, at their home. Padmavat, a prominent city industrialist, owns its tallest building, a 30-storey housing complex named Kalyani Mansion. Kalyani, incidentally, is also the name of Priya’s mother, who had passed away more than a decade before.
The lives of Dr Raghuvansh, Priya, Padmavat and Kalyani lapse into the past to reveal their links with each other. The novel charts another strange meeting, as bizarre as its beginning, to achieve the curious throwback. In this case, the meeting is between Padmavat and Kalyani in a distant city in America. Kalyani’s appearance as a failed Indian model and actor in the United States infuses a raw energy and hope into the narrative. A sex worker, she embodies a spirit that paves the way for the rest of her own journey and that of the novel and its other characters.
Kalyani, Priya and Padmavat’s wife Shirin, a late entrant to the plot, represent a beaming human desire and confidence to make their own choices. The choices relate to the body and its resolute and unswerving yearning for freedom. Kalyani’s profession as a sex worker before her marriage with Dr Raghuvansh, and Priya and Shirin’s same-sex love float above the manipulations of the novel’s another male character, Vishwajeet Mehta, an industrialist and former husband of Shirin.
Reclaiming the Body
Choudhury juxtaposes his style and prose with morality and business ethics, lending a lasting effect to the novel’s rollercoaster narrative. The novel’s translator Mahua Sen, an award-winning writer and poet, calls The Dead Fish “one of the finest portrayals of post-independence Indian society, a time when the personal, in terms of choices, began to break free from the collective and the traditionally established narratives”.
“It paints an era of cultural renaissance and reclaiming individual agency,” adds Sen. “Whether it is sexuality, gender roles or ethical dilemmas of the characters, Machhali Mari Hui’s treatment of homosexuality, in particular, is handled with sensitivity, neutrality and empathy that was both rare and revolutionary for its time.”
The Dead Fish reprints an author’s note from the original Hindi novel, which mentions an incident in 1962, five years before his death, which provides an insight into the creative force behind the work. It reads: “In the year 1962 (June-July), two women from a friend’s family were taken to the hospital together on account of mental health issues.” Choudhary doesn’t offer more in the note, but his novel certainly does.