Money, mithai and Mummyji

Mere paas ma, mithai aur money hai – could have been the sub title of Namita Devidayal’s Aftertaste, a riveting tale of a dysfunctional bania family. The Todarmal’s mithai business has been their personal route to salvation and appeasement to the gods of money. Only for the dysfunctional brood, by the second generation, none of this seems to have helped much.

Aftertaste
Namita Devidayal
Random House
Rs 399; Pp 292

Commerce and literature have not really been the best of friends, especially in India. While most Indians worship wealth in some ways, few have taken it to the levels of sophistication that the bania community has. With bahikhatas rather than books as their favoured written content, not many outside bothered to decipher the social mores of this community beyond perceiving them to be sharp traders with a reputation for tightfistedness. Just Neelima Dalmia Adhar's Merchants of Death and Himani Dalmia's Life is Perfect come to mind.

Devidayal upholds the stereotype – the Todarmals are migrants – from Punjab to Bombay of the early 1960s, they are innovative in their business, they follow business practices not taught at MBA courses, and business, family and honour are intermingled in a tangled web – and none can be disturbed without impacting the others. Money is a character in itself. “Money has a mind of its own, which is what a clever businessman should realize, though most do not… Above all money despises arrogance. And that was the price Daddyji was paying for his vanity.” Daddyji’s standing in as a guarantor for cousin Phoolchand provides the catalyst for the family’s fortunes to dip, and till Mummyji comes up with the idea of selling mithai, there is little for Daddyji to do in their world of honour-driven enterprise.

Along with the parents and the four siblings – Rajan Papa, heir to the throne, ineffectual and forever in need of Mummyji; Sunny, brash, unwilling to settle for a settled business, and with a complicated personal life; fair Suman, the arrogant princess and forever-in-the-shadows younger daughter Saroj – there are a host of minor characters who bring alive this fairly insular world. “One day slipped into another but nothing changed for the family. Newspapers carried monumental news about China accusing India of supporting Tibet and the city of Bombay being split into two states, Maharashtra and Gujarat. But for most people, there was very little interest in such distant issues. The only thing that mattered for families such as the Todarmals was the ebb and flow of money.”

Devidayal seems to have been drawn to the quirkiness – it is money that determines that Saroj should no longer stay with her husband, out of favour in his own family, and therefore unlikely to inherit anything substantial. It is again money that ensures that Mummyji takes no stand even when Bhatija keeps her supplied with money but not Rajan Papa, putting his life in considerable turmoil. Suman’s overt spiritual meetings to overcome material needs is amusingly contrasted with her covert greed for Mummyi’s legendary diamonds. The Todarmals may not be lovable, their life story certainly makes for an entertaining read. The author brings alive facets of how the family dynamics works, complete with insecurities and jealousies – when Daddyji decides to name their shop in Kalbadevi ‘Bimmo di barfi’, Mummyji’s first thought is one of pleasure as the move would undoubtedly annoy her mother in law. The mother fixation, common to Indian males well beyond the community under spotlight here, finds ample play.

Equally noteworthy are the detailed period descriptions of Bombay of the 1960s and 70s. Descriptions of Kalbadevi, where “most of the business was conducted on gaddis...” to the shadowy lives of clubs, hash, discos. “The conservative party bleated relentlessly about propriety, sobriety, fidelity, and modesty, but Bombay winked back and did exactly the opposite. It was bad and it was really good.” The novel begins with Mummyji in hospital, and is in flashback. All the lead characters get enough space for their back stories.

A delightful blend of lyrical prose and gossip, strategies and insecurities, ambitions and limitations, desires coupled with frustrations, of families doing business by the old codes hesitantly under question.

Devidayal’s love for music seems to have spilled over from the first book, the part biographical The Music Room. So their uncle Phoolchand, actually Mummyji’s distant cousin and Daddyji’s close friend, sought out the young Ameer Khan, while “Geeta Dutt’s chirpy songs would forever remind them of those miserable days” cooped up in their home, the optimistically named Cozy Villa. Songs from Aradhana play in the backdrop, while Lata Mangeshkar sang at Birla Matoshri at a fund raiser for Bangladesh war veterans. It is food however that becomes the theme and the metaphor for the dysfunctional lives. Hot jalebis, crisp phaphda, pitthi puris with rasse wale aloo, kachoris, fresh barfis, Bimmo di barfi and later avatar, Bimz had it all and more when Mummyji had the idea of customizing – from Bournvita barfis to sweets shaped as company logos, her ideas kept taking their reputation, and wealth, forward. Almost every domestic situation has food, if not as its central focus, at least on the peripheries. Weight watchers, beware. For readers who have inadvertently picked up this book – there is no way you are going to be able to not accompany the reading with some of the delectable Bimz mithai, or its equivalent nearest mithaiwala around the corner.

BLURB
“Their families belonged to the trader community–the banias–known for their formidable business acumen, where the boys were taught their multiplication tables in quarters. At some point, they may or may not have come from Marwar in Rajasthan but, over the years, they had dispersed all over the country, following the smell of money. The Todarmals had long adopted the language, food, and dress of their adopted home in Punjab. Yet, their identity was bania first and they continued to intermarry within this diasporic business community.”
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Full review in Business India