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Amitav Ghosh's Wild Fictions is a heartfelt essay collection on how climate crises are shaping human activity

Amitav Ghosh's Wild Fictions is a heartfelt essay collection on how climate crises are shaping human activity

Indian Express14-06-2025
Amitav Ghosh's collection of essays, Wild Fictions, is an invitation to be part of the author's journey as he seeks ways for a more caring and humane world. They traverse Ghosh's arc as a writer who has cast a critical eye on the ways human societies relate to themselves and the environment. He questions certitudes on civilisation, progress and Eurocentric modernity and problematises the links of postcolonial societies with their colonial past. In his recent works, Ghosh has tried to join the dots between the world of the past three hundred years and perhaps the gravest challenge of our times — climate change. The world, as he puts it, quoting the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, is entering a 'time of monsters', when an old era is dying and a new one is struggling to be born. 'But the monsters that Gramsci had in mind were political creatures — fascists. What is distinctive about our time is that its monsters also consist of weather events that would have been considered improbable in Gramsci's time — supercharged storms, megadroughts, catastrophic rain bombs and the like'.
Ghosh is aware of the pitfalls of a cause-and-effect narrative. He was trained as an anthropologist, but it's well known that the writer is adept at looking at events through the eyes of a historian, environmentalist and climate scientist. Like his works of fiction, the essays showcase what Ghosh is best at — lending an attentive ear to migrants, sailors, soldiers, tribal communities, friends, neighbours. He isn't a passive interlocutor, but a seeker who scans archives, diaries and correspondences and reaches out to his respondents to draw out the complexities of their experiences. He is alert to the changes brought out by the developments in communication technology and, most importantly, does not shy away from showing that the ecological is political. As with his works of fiction, the reader is struck by the wealth of Ghosh's research. Those acquainted with his fiction will find familiar characters — Deeti from The Sea of Poppies (2008), the seafaring community Lascars from the Ibis trilogy, the legend of Bon Bibi from The Hungry Tide (2004).
At times, the writer lets the reader make connections. For instance, in one essay, he observes the tragedy of 9/11 through the eyes of friends — among them. architects of the Twin Towers — as one of them gives up his life trying to evacuate people from the crumbling skyscraper. In another essay at a different part of this collection, he gets a ringside view of the incident from his daughter who sees the buildings coming down from her classroom. The incident evokes memories of research he had conducted 20 years ago in Egypt as a doctoral student in Anthropology. The 'uncanny feeling' deepens when he learns that Mohammad Atta, the leader of the 9/11 attack teams, hailed from the same region where he had done field work — 'indeed his ancestral village was closely connected with the places I had worked'.
What makes people undertake arduous and expensive journeys across continents? Hope of a better life? Displacement? The force of ideology? Community memory? Ghosh's fiction abounds with such curiosity, and inevitably, the quest occupies a major part of this essay collection as well. Like in his novels, he eschews easy answers to underline that migrants — whether they are from the Indian Subcontinent, Africa, West Asia — could bear scars of the past and also enrich their host cultures with their ideas and enterprise.
A delightful essay — some of it, a reprise of a section in The Sea of Poppies — contemplates the etymology of the word 'banyan'. Ghosh scorns marketers who try to brand the garment as 'a sleeveless undershirt', 'singlet' or vest. Instead, he tries to find connections between the eponymous tree, the bania, the traveller, sailor and nawabs, and then locates the changing fortunes of the garment in the country's economic trajectory.
Wild Fictions is about migration, ecological crises and conversations of Ghosh with fellow writers and academics. It's also a travel book — about the journeys of communities, commodities and ideas. But if there's one thing that unites the essays, it's Ghosh's criticism of Eurocentric modernity. In an exchange with historian Dipesh Chakrabarty, he draws links with modernity, colonialism and racism. In other essays, he asserts that current crises — whether events such as 9/11, the discomfiture with migrants in some parts of the world, the climate and ecological challenges — have to do with power structures created by modernity. Ghosh isn't against modernity per se, but he does seem to believe that European hegemony has foreclosed alternative imaginations of progress. Ghosh doesn't engage much with the large corpus of scholarly engagement with modernity. But in many ways, the writer is like Manmohan Mitra, the protagonist of Satyajit Ray's trenchant critique of the modern civilisation, Agantuk (1991) – a seeker who amplifies the moral voice of some of his protagonists. He draws attention to myriad forms of inequalities — between humans and nature, between different worldviews, nations and peoples. And, he does so gently, without even a sentence in anger.
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A taste of Calcutta in London: The story behind Asma Khan's restaurant Darjeeling Express
A taste of Calcutta in London: The story behind Asma Khan's restaurant Darjeeling Express

Indian Express

time2 hours ago

  • Indian Express

A taste of Calcutta in London: The story behind Asma Khan's restaurant Darjeeling Express

The jam-packed streets of Soho in Westminster, London, reflect the city's vibrant diaspora and multiculturalism. From Chinese to Thai and Italian, the area offers a global gastronomic tour in just a few blocks. Among these flavours, tucked on the top floor of Kingly Court, is Darjeeling Express, a restaurant known for its Mughlai and Bengali cuisine Established in 2017, it is run by a team of all-women chefs and has a menu that remains proudly consistent. 'There are some restaurants that can change the menu and get away with it. We get people crying and screaming at us. We're quite trapped because we can't really change things,' says Asma Khan in an interview with Asma, an India-born British restaurateur, began her journey by hosting intimate 'supper clubs' at her home. Today, her restaurant, Darjeeling Express, stands tall among London's Michelin-starred dining spots. So how did a home cook open one of London's most popular Indian restaurants? Asma comes from a family with royal lineage. Her father, Farrukh Said Khan, was a Muslim Rajput, while her mother, Faizana Khan, was of mixed Bengali and Bihari heritage. 'My nana (maternal grandfather) was my father's landlord when he was posted to Calcutta working for General Electric Company (GEC),' says Asma, adding, 'he was quite a regal-looking man with his huge moustache, and my nana was impressed.' She explains that while the matrimonial alliance was formed, little was discussed about the practicalities of the marriage itself. 'My mother had never eaten roti in her life. She loved fish and rice. My father, interestingly, sees fish and gets scared. And he doesn't eat rice. There were also language and other differences. But they got married.' Asma was born in the family's Elliot Road home in 1969. 'I remember waking up with the sound of the trams,' she says. 'I must have been two and a half years old when a crow took my food while I was eating on the verandah; that's my first memory of food.' The family then moved to Hyderabad due to Farrukh Said Khan's transfer. 'My brother was born there. Then we went to Madras (present-day Chennai).' The Khans lived opposite former chief minister Jayalalithaa's house. 'At that time, she used to call us her Bengali neighbours. And we used to climb on the wall, and she used to give us sweets.' Asma reiterates that they always identified with Calcutta and being Bengali. 'Even though I am technically only a quarter Bengali.' Asma says that her maternal grandfather and two of his brothers married women from Bihar. Her grandmothers, with their entourage of cooks, ayahs, and drivers, all spoke in Hindi or Urdu. 'So sadly, the Bengali language kind of slipped off. But from a very young age, I identified strongly with Calcutta. This was home for me.' 1974 brought some good news for the Khans as Farrukh Said Khan was transferred to Calcutta. 'I remember my father's tears when he came in and said he had been transferred. Everyone was silent. I remember that emotion.' The family was both excited and relieved to return to Calcutta, she describes. 'A sense of homecoming…We were going home! And that is a feeling that I relate to even now.' Initially, Asma's mother thought of taking cooking classes. However, luck, according to Asma, landed her a catering contract at the Tata Centre. 'That was her first catering job… the rest is history.' She soon began catering at some of the city's most popular clubs — Tollygunge Club, Royal Calcutta Turf Club, and Calcutta Cricket and Football Club. Meanwhile, Asma attended La Martiniere School on Rawdon Street and later, Loreto College on Park Street. 'There was a very different sense of equality at that time in the 80s. Calcutta in the 80s and 90s was an incredible space,' says Asma, adding that one felt protected and valued. That feeling of protection wasn't the only thing that Asma loves about Calcutta. Food was central to her growing years. She talks about the 'rolls at Badshah in New Market, the chana bhatura and tutti frutti at Kwality on Park Street, the dosa at Jyoti Bihar, and the Chinese at the Taj Hotel.' That wasn't all. The American chop suey at Bar-B-Q is unmatched, although the queue to get a place is terribly long,' she laughs. For sweets, she names K.C. Das on Chowringhee, and for mishti doi (sweetened yogurt), Khan recalls visiting Mithai on Park Circus. She also explains the colonial influence on her family's food. 'My mother cooked a lot of continental food… She made Chicken à la Kiev, a prawn cocktail inspired from what was served at popular joints such as Sky Room, Mocambo, and Trincas on Park Street.' Having spoken at length and passionately about Calcutta's food, Asma says, 'All the Indian Chinese food in the rest of India is horrible. Calcutta Indian Chinese is really Indian Chinese.' Pausing for a few seconds, she utters excitedly…'And then, this kind of fabulous Dhaba culture – the chicken bharta, which is such a Calcutta thing. It's the adding of eggs to chicken. It's the combination of the Punjabi trucker and the Bengali kind of sentiments.' From a supper club to Darjeeling Express What remains in Calcutta for Asma is a house. 'My parents moved back to Aligarh, and my ancestral home on Elliot Road was demolished.' However, Asma bought a flat in the newly built apartment at the same place. 'I was the last granddaughter to be married from that house. And my mother was born in that house. So that link to that house was so great. In some ways, it's nice that I have a flat on the 11th floor.' Asma and her husband left Calcutta in 1991 for the United Kingdom. Years later, she began a supper club at home. 'I served chicken chop, rezala, kosha mangsho (dry chicken), gughni (chickpeas), luchi, aloo dum, and biryani.' 'People must have a desire to try good food,' she explains as her purpose behind the supper clubs. In 2017, she turned the supper club into a restaurant, retaining the name Darjeeling Express. 'My supper club was called Darjeeling Express after the toy trains in Darjeeling, which I cherished very much. Moreover, I thought my clients should know that it's by the same person. Otherwise, I would not call it this,' she laughs. Everything about the restaurant is designed to reflect Calcutta — walls painted in warm yellow hues, adorned with family portraits of the Khans and their home on Elliot Road, and a menu curated from Khan's favourite picks in the city. Although the eatery offers three varieties: à la carte lunch, pre-theatre menu, and set menu dinner, what remains constant are the tangra prawns, puchkas, niramish (a Bengali term for a vegetarian dish), prawn malaikari, and kosha mangsho. There is a cocktail called Jhal (a Bengali term for spicy) and a mocktail Jhalphoron. For dessert, Asma's restaurant serves the iconic Bhapa Doi, steamed yogurt. The locals and tourists alike flock to eat these dishes, resisting any change. 'That's what Calcutta food does to one,' she says gleefully. From the menu, Asma says, the favourites are kosha mangsho followed by prawn malai curry. 'Ta-da! Both Bengali dishes. These are our top favourites.' The next favourite is Calcutta biryani. When asked to describe it, she says, 'It is mild, fragrant. It does not contain too many spices, and the biggest thing is that the rice is not sticky. It's just separated.' Khan's favourite element of the biryani is the aloo (potato). 'The potato is better than the meat and the rice. All the flavour has gone into it. Best thing in the world. If that's the last meal of my life, I don't want the biryani. I just want the aloo.' 'And no city in the world, and I have travelled the world, for me, compares to Calcutta,' she asserts. 'I wish the government would do more. The state government would do more to promote tourism. I am tired of people coming to my restaurant and saying, Oh, I've been to India, I've been to Kerala, I've gone to see the Taj Mahal. I ask: Why have you not gone to see Calcutta? Our colonial history, our Bengali heritage, the beautiful stories about the synagogue, Nahoum's, you've got the Armenian tradition, you've got this amazing Muslim food as well as Indian Chinese (food). We have everything in the world but not tourists.' Asma expresses her desire to give back to the city that gave her an identity. 'I am willing to do it for free… to encourage people to put Calcutta as a destination. You cannot understand India if you do not understand and have not eaten in a city like Calcutta. It's the food capital of India and of the world.' On her plans for Darjeeling Express, Asma says she wanted to do something in Kolkata. 'In the West, I have achieved a lot. I need to go home. But in which way and how, I don't know. But the calling is very, very strong. The desire to go back is there. I want to go back when I can be of help. I want to go back when I still have the fire and I'm physically strong and I have the creative energy. Because the city has given me everything. I am what I am because of Calcutta. I also want to do something for Calcutta.' 'The Calcutta I grew up in,' Asma says in a low voice, 'has changed…I feel lost now'. Buildings demolished, streets renamed, modes of transportation modernised, and people more aloof. 'Yet,' she notes, sounding positive, 'the food remains the same – the best in the world.'

Venus Williams Announces Her Engagement After Historic Singles Win At DC Open
Venus Williams Announces Her Engagement After Historic Singles Win At DC Open

News18

time5 hours ago

  • News18

Venus Williams Announces Her Engagement After Historic Singles Win At DC Open

Last Updated: Venus Williams returned to tennis after 16 months, winning at the DC Open and announcing her engagement to Andrea Preti. Venus Williams' return to professional tennis after a 16-month absence came with more than just a win—it came with a surprise off-court announcement: she's engaged. Following her historic singles victory at the DC Open, the 45-year-old tennis legend thanked her fiancé, Andrea Preti, who was cheering from the stands. Preti is a Danish-born Italian model and actor, according to IMDb. A Record-Breaking Comeback Williams made headlines by becoming the second-oldest woman in history to win a tour-level singles match, joining the ranks of Martina Navratilova, who achieved a similar feat in 2004. In her opening round at the DC Open, Williams defeated fellow American Peyton Stearns 6-3, 6-4, in a 97-minute match. The win was Williams' 819th career WTA singles victory and marked her first singles triumph since returning to the tour. She had already claimed a doubles win on Monday before exiting in the second round of doubles play on Wednesday. Williams, never short on charisma, delivered a tongue-in-cheek explanation for her comeback: 'I had to come back for the insurance," she joked, referencing the perks of staying active on the tour. Her victory also solidified her place in history, as no woman aged 45 or older had won a WTA singles match in more than 20 years. Meanwhile, excitement continues to build for the U.S. Open's newly revamped mixed doubles event, with Venus Williams set to participate. The entry list, released Monday, features several high-profile pairings. Williams will team up with Reilly Opelka, while recent Wimbledon finalist Amanda Anisimova is partnering with Danish standout Holger Rune. The expanded format is expected to draw more attention to the mixed doubles draw at Flushing Meadows. Williams is scheduled to face Poland's Magdalena Frech in the second round of singles at the DC Open on Thursday night as she continues her inspiring return to top-level competition. (with AP inputs) view comments First Published: Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Venus Williams says she is engaged to Andrea Preti after her first singles win in 16 months
Venus Williams says she is engaged to Andrea Preti after her first singles win in 16 months

New Indian Express

time6 hours ago

  • New Indian Express

Venus Williams says she is engaged to Andrea Preti after her first singles win in 16 months

WASHINGTON: Venus Williams' winning return to the professional tennis tour also came with a surprise announcement: She is engaged. After becoming the second-oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match, Williams gave thanks to her fiance, who was in the stands at the DC Open. He is Andrea Preti, who is a Danish-born Italian model and actor, according to the website IMDB. The 45-year-old Williams hadn't played in a tournament in 16 months until entering the event in Washington. She won a doubles match on Monday and a singles match on Tuesday, before losing in doubles on Wednesday. Williams, who has won seven Grand Slam singles titles, is scheduled to face Magdalena Frech in the second round on Thursday night.

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