Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s latest novel for young adults, “The Conch Bearer,” once again demonstrates her story-telling prowess and versatility in writing. The book is a confection of Indian fantasy that children will love. Unlike J.K. Rowlings’ Harry Potter books, Divakaruni’s “The Conch Bearer” is not adult fare, though this reviewer confesses that she personally found it a page-turner.

Her previous young adult novel, “Neela,” features a simple girl protagonist in rustic surroundings who goes to Kolkata in search of her father during pre-independent India. “The Conch Bearer” has a contemporary boy protagonist, Anand, whose mission takes him from Kolkata to an isolated Himalayan valley. Both books feature missing fathers. In the second novel the family’s life changes drastically. Though Neela is an appealing heroine, Anand is possibly one of the most successful of Divakaruni’s characters. In the beginning of the story, there is a Dickensian pathos attached to Anand that stirs up our sympathy as it did for David Copperfield or Oliver Twist. (Fortunately, the sensitive child reader will soon encounter adventures that will lighten his mood.) Anand’s father, who has gone to Dubai for work, suddenly stops writing and sending money. His family has no idea what happened to him. They are forced to give up their one-room flat with its tub of roses in the balcony for a shack in a slum. The mother tries to make ends meet by working as a cook for a rich family. She has to take the children out of school because she can’t afford the money for their education. Another misfortune befalls them when Anand’s sister becomes mute after witnessing a murder.

Though he is upset about their missing father and their new circumstances, Anand tries to help his mother by working in a tea-stall. He is the type of individual whose sense of duty and love encompasses more than just his own family members. He believes in magic and wishes he could learn to use it to improve his life. At the tea-stall, Anand feels sorry for a strange old man. He seeks him out to give him tea and a few pooris. The old man is Abhaydatta, a member of a Brotherhood that used to possess a priceless treasure. That night, after Anand returns home, a knock sounds on the door. Abhaydatta explains that he came because he heard the boy calling for him in his head. The old man tells him the story about the treasure his Brotherhood guarded. It was a conch that was a gift from the physicians of the gods to their sons. After the conch was used to bring back dead warriors to life in the battle of Kuru Kshetra, the gods buried it in a Himalayan valley. Centuries later it was unearthed and kept by the Brotherhood in their meditation hall. Surabhanu, who once belonged to the Brotherhood, stole the conch. Abhaydatta managed to retrieve it but he asks Anand to help him take it back to the Silver Valley. When he sees the conch, the boy feels as if the sweetest music is playing and that the stars have descended around them.

Anand’s mother doesn’t give him permission to go to Abhaydatta who, she is convinced, is a quack. But after her daughter miraculously begins to talk, she changes her mind. When Anand searches for Abhaydatta, he encounters Surabhanu. He has to constantly battle black magic on the trip. Nisha, a girl whose parents lost her when she was young, becomes another assistant. The conch can read minds and talk to anyone it likes, but only deigns to converse with Anand and not anyone else in the Brotherhood.

No real protagonist of Anand’s stature is left untested. He disobeys Abhaydatta twice, once with severe consequences. Like Lakshmana tricked into leaving Sita when he hears a voice resembling Rama’s, Anand too is similarly tricked to get out of the cage he was guarding.

Apart from that incident, it is not the Ramayana or other stories from Indian mythology that come to our mind. Since Divakaruni is using the fantasy genre, we’re reminded of J.K. Rowlings and Tolkien. But in all fairness to her, she’s given us a genuine Indian tale while indulging in a plethora of fantasy elements.

One touch of Divakaruni’s that I appreciated and which her girl readers will too is that the rules of the Brotherhood change to admit Nisha into their community. At the end of the novel, Anand has to decide whether he wants to return to his family or live in the blissful Silver Valley as the Conch-Bearer. Young readers cannot but be impressed, if not inspired, by the protagonist. The choice that he makes is one that the reader will concur with as right for him.

|