Merry on Little Things

Amit Banerjea
Author House (2004)
ISBN 1410798216
Reviewed by Linda Benninghoff for Reader Views (5/06)

This captivating memoir tells the story of the author’s childhood in India. Sections of it also portray his experience of Diaspora--being an immigrant living in the U.S.

The book begins with leave-takings. The family moves from East Bengal to Calcutta, where the father has taken a government post. The author is poor but always has enough to eat and houses to live in-- complex houses with verandahs. The houses are described in great detail. The memoir is made up of a series of anecdotes. Intricately written, it intersperses his past in India and future in the U.S. The author paints a compelling picture of an Indian boyhood and, in passing, gives some history of the country and teaches about Indian culture. Banerjea often uses Indian words, and describes in detail some of the religious rituals.

He states that Muslims and Hindus got along well prior to the division of the country into India and Pakistan, after independence. It was then that religious tensions rose. He tells the story of a Hindu man who, all his life, devoted himself to the Muslims in his village. Then, after the division of the country, they betrayed him.

Although the book focuses mainly on the author’s Indian childhood, it also attempts to capture the experience of Diaspora: "In the last century, millions of multinational and ethnic groups from various parts of the world came as displaced persons or as refugees, or immigrated, or worked as expatriates in new and foreign lands, and they became diasporic populations. Each of these people has his or her own diasporic experience which is unique and heartfelt."

I sensed how much the author missed his childhood home and family. While he is in Flushing, he manages to gather other Hindus together into a cultural-social enclave. This helps him feel less misplaced and helps him preserve his Indian roots.

The characters are drawn with careful brushstrokes. As I read, I felt I got to know them well. In one of the many stories, he gives a moving picture of his grandmother, Thakuma, who is widowed at an early age and defies tradition, bringing up her son by herself in her husband’s house. "She was a very disciplined woman. She did all her work routinely, she did her own cooking, and she had a separate chulla, which she lit herself when she did the cooking. She boiled her own land- grown rice, husked on dredi, producing brown rice which gave a superb aroma when cooked!" Thakuma’s strength and independence emerge from the description.

I felt the author aimed high with this work and, for the most part, achieved his goal. I was moved by the little boy falling down in the strange streets of Calcutta after having gone outside while his mother was napping, still too young to be out on his own. One of the remarkable things about this book is its focus on people--family, friends, and playmates. When he describes kite-flying with a playmate, I remember my own games and my playmates.

This is a sensitive and moving book. I think not only displaced persons and immigrants will enjoy this book--but almost everyone.

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