Acid
Author - Sangeetha Sreenivasan
Publisher- Penguin, Rs 499
Sangeetha Sreenivasan’s Acid is powerful and almost corrosive in its use of natural imagery. Its unique style forces the reader to look at life from unusual points of view, writesJIGYASA HASIJA
An unpretentiously titled book, Acid, which is Sangeetha Sreenivasan’s translation of her 2016 novel, is direct and unapologetic from the word go. Originally written in Malayalam, the novel had won Sreenivasan the 2017 Thoppil Ravi award, and one can see why. The fact that it is going to talk about lysergic acid diethylamide (lSD) becomes clear within minutes of engagement with the book. The tone of the narrative is acerbic and spiteful in itself, almost like an overdose of vinegar. The word ‘acid’ has many connotations — it is hallucinatory, it is splenetic, it simmers like bile in the body, it disfigures features, emotions, and even events. It leaves obvious marks in its wake — scars which can never be healed. It is like a time bomb, which when dropped can erase all memory.
It is in this fuzzy sort of light which one experiences ‘under the influence’ that lives intertwine in this novel. Set in Bengaluru and rural Kerala in parts, the book follows a windy relationship between Kamala and Shaly. Kamala’s twins Shiva and Aadi and her ex-husband Madhavan are also pulled into the whirlwind that the controversial relationship causes. There are characters like Jaanu, James and Rita Mama who might not be privileged in terms of space in the narrative but still play significant roles in fashioning a psychedelic fabric, full of vivid and flamboyant colours. This fabric becomes a reflection of the extraordinariness and perplexity of the lives of these individuals in particular and of human beings in general. The author has fascinatingly sculpted these characters, going into great detail while describing how different yet similar each one is to the other. Even time and space become well-rounded characters in this book. Each character has trains of thoughts, travelling to and fro from one junction to another.
‘lucy’ comes to visit Kamala time and again with new tales about nirvana. And Kamala willingly travels ‘through the looking glass’ where possibilities become as endless as the sky, with glittering diamonds scattered all over. She takes ‘flights’, and travels to the reimagined past. But, her escape route is a mirage and her big dream soon turns into a nightmare.
In the initial part, drug-induced hallucinations are richly painted in the text. There’s a mention of listening to Pink Floyd for experiencing artificial bliss, seeing kaleidoscopic colours and confronting extreme emotions. The book says: “It designed the maps of convulsed ecstasy under Kamala’s tongue. Soon it would travel, numbing whatever it touched on the way until Kamala was numb to the world outside her eyes. Red kangaroos wearing lucky horseshoes would race up to her brain, making her forget her present, past and future in the haze of dust their hooves would raise.”
But soon, one is thrown into the darker side of drug abuse. The description of death in this narrative is probably the most corrosive part that the author has written. When a character dies, this is how it is described: “It seemed he had lived only to be photographed and framed, a shiny scalpel with a sharp edge” Then, there is a description of Amma’s dead body that talks about her limbs growing in length and inching towards Kamala.
The novel has a rather unique structure and Sreenivasan’s writing drifts like a river, sometimes a gurgling stream, sometimes a flood. The characters constantly oscillate between the past and the present and struggle with their demons.
This novel gives one of the most detailed and well-articulated descriptions of desire. In this portion, the author’s words flow on paper like a bubbly water stream, fresh and full of joy, scented and edible. It is so evocative that one can almost feel what the characters must be feeling. It is also nonchalant and effortless, and normalises their ‘unconventional’ relationship. The novel uses powerful imagery which is almost cinematic in its appeal. Kamala and Shaly are described as painting each other erotically, almost like Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings. Their bodies, minds and fates connect with the bamboo plant which is considered to be good luck. Somewhere in the middle of these descriptions, the reader is informed that Madhavan was actually Kamala’s first cousin. The author seems to have deliberately included it here — to give the reader a start and to make him/ her conscious that he/ she has internalised a rigid approach to what other people should do with their lives.
These events take place in the backdrop of Bengaluru, a city in a state of flux. The narrative matches the pace and frenzy of the city. The portrayal of life in the metropolitan often reads like what the description of Pandæmonium might have read like had John Milton written Paradise lost in modern English.
The characters have to brave through caustic changes. It is akin to the smelly snow which looks endearing, and appealing from afar but is toxic and repulsive in reality. Turning the traditional use of nature in novels on its head, Sreenivasan goes at length talking about the oily foam-like substance that is found in Varthur and Bellandur lakes. There is no space for a free flowing natural river or a picturesque waterfall in the book. Instead, it uses the milky white froth which is made up of grease, detergent, and other industrial waste, to give a sense of the characters’ emotional and mental state.
All in all, Acid is a see-saw of passionate emotions. Sreenivasan does not give it a definite conclusion; no loose ends are tied up at the end of the novel. And yet, it all fits and comes together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, each fragment contributing something to the aggregate. It reminds one of a song by The Moody Blues — “To lie in a meadow and hear the grass sing/To have all these things in our memories hoard”.
The reviewer is a research scholar at the Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia University
