This book by a lawyer aims to revive stories of the Parsee community

JB Vachha High School (the protagonist sent her girls here). Pic Courtesy/JB Vachha high School

mid-day: Your story switches between different timelines, which is fascinating. What prompted you to take this route?
Armin Wandrewala: Right from the start of writing this novel, I knew it would not evolve in a linear narrative, but that I would switch timelines, and perhaps bring it to a circuitous close, which did happen. I did not initially plan to end where I began but that happened naturally. I suppose I wanted to introduce the main characters right at the beginning: hence the novel begins with Alamai, then immediately introduces Almitra and Aabad, then goes back and forth, over the next hundred years. It's why the chapters are ‘dated', rather than ‘numbered'. I thought this would make for interesting reading, containing an element of mystery, rather than a linear unfolding. Maintaining a track of timelines wasn't easy; my legal training helped in that context. I started with the beginning and teased myself to think up the end; the middle filled itself out.

A statue of Mancherji Joshi in Dadar Parsee Colony (the area close to the family home ‘Meherabad'). Pics Courtesy/Wikimedia Commons

The novel traces the Readymoney family's journey across locations: Navsari in Gujarat and Bombay (now Mumbai), and the fictional, Lanskui. How does a location shape your writing?
AW: Location is very important. I have personal experience of Navsari, so I was able to write about it easily. Surat, Bharuch, and Bilimora were also strongholds of the Parsee community in Gujarat. Then there was a shift from Navsari to Bombay for employment. I've written about the evolution of the Dadar Parsee Colony - these were the pockets with a large population of the community. Initially, many Parsees even resided in Fort; the Dadar Parsee Colony was supposed to be for the middle class. It's one of the most charming enclaves, largely thanks to the vision of Mancherji Joshi. In fact, Parsee baugs - to the best of my knowledge - are not to be found in any city other than Bombay. I was keen to explore the atmosphere of the Bombay of those times: more laidback, lazy, and beautiful.
Lanskui, however, is totally a fictional creation, and is based on the stories of ‘gaam', the agrarian villages, which my mother used to tell me and my brother. Her father had a farm in a village. The lives in these locations were different, with distinct characteristics. These locations became characters for me; each clothed with their unique personality.

Rustom Framna Parsee Agiary in Dadar

Through which character's voice did the idea for the novel emerge and when?
AW: Two such characters: Ala Ardeshir Readymoney and Almitra de Vitre. Alamai is the matriarch - the ‘Banyan' is the metaphor for her. In Almitra, I created a counterpoint perhaps, a younger version of Alamai. In her youth, it's Ala; she later matures into Alamai. The novel unfolds largely through both their eyes.
I started thinking about the novel long before I started writing it. At some stage, it lay dormant before I took it up again. While writing this novel, I was approached to write the commemorative book for the JB Vachha High School, which I completed in two months. I carried out extensive research on the history of the Parsee colonies and trust deeds for that. The dwindling numbers of Parsee/Irani Zoroastrians sparked the idea of writing this novel. I thought it would be a tragedy if our unique stories were also lost to time. It was keen to document them, but in a fun, interesting, fictional form.

Armin Wandrewala

Why a multigenerational narrative?
AW: To give shape to changing customs, different ways of thinking, changing mores, even among Parsee Zoroastrians. Also, hardly any of the younger generation - even within the timeline of the novel - would have sufficient knowledge of life in the agrarian villages, even Navsari. There had to be multiple generations to give voice to all those stories.

On Today, 5 pm (book reading and discussion)
At Jehangir Memorial Hall, JB Vachha High School, Dadar East.

The Guide's Review

Lawyer and author Armin Wandrewala's new novel The Moment of the Banyan (Vakils, Feffer & Simons) explores the lives of the Readymoneys, a Parsee family from Navsari in Gujarat. The story begins with the grandmother and matriarch of the house, Ala Ardeshir Readymoney, and journeys its way into the life of her granddaughter, Almitra de Vitre.

When the family moves to Bombay (now Mumbai) in the 1930s, after a death in the family, we observe a slowly evolving city over the next few decades. Wandrewala takes us inside the Dadar Parsee Colony, where a large number of Parsees reside, and familiarises us with old spots that the family members visited, some of which - such as the Rustom Framna Agiary and JB Vachha School - continue to exist.

Although the author frequently switches between timelines and perspectives at the beginning, alternating between the stories of the grandmother and the granddaughter, the non-linearity of the novel becomes its strength. It reiterates that memories don't arrive chronologically. There's clarity in Wandrewala's characterisation; therefore, such a structure works.

She also strengthens readers' experience of watching the family from close quarters by writing about specific ceremonies, from first birthdays to funerals, in detail. We are introduced to the typical Parsee food that is served at these - dhan dar patio with fish and pickle on birthdays, fried boi fish and lagan nu custer, among others, at the wedding. We also get to witness how rituals are observed by the community.

While doing so, Wandrewala does not shy away from opening conversations about the problems of austerity within the faith. She explores how the matriarch deals with an outsider, a non-Parsee, who becomes a part of her life. The speech of the family members is often peppered with Parsee Gujarati phrases and the stories of the agrarian lifestyle in the gaams (villages) make the book readable.

Cost: Rs 700
Available At: leading bookstores & e-stores