He did so much and more in his debut novel, that whatever ‘Funny Boy’ Shyam Selvadurai writes is bound to be measured against his first, which is as much a tale of ethnic divisions and the rage that destroys lives as it is of a boy who is more comfortable doing “girlie” things like wear saris, realising that that’s where — “the territory of girls” — he will confine himself forever. Selvadurai’s third novel, Swimming in the Monsoon Sea, has a sense of deja vu because like Arjie (the protagonist of Funny Boy), 14-year-old Amrith loses everything he holds precious. He is also forced to come to terms with his sexuality, and yet there’s something refreshing about this novel on childhood loss.

We meet Amrith, orphaned and in the care of sickeningly sweet Aunty Bundle and Uncle Lucky and their daughters Mala and Selvi, trying to make his mynah Kuveni talk. He has kept rigid control of his past, never letting his mind wander to the tea estate where he spent six years of his life. And yet when his mind does slip silently back, we are treated to some of the best moments of the book — a six-year-old trying to hold on to a single strand of memory, that of his mother trying to make life beautiful despite being caught in a terrible marital tangle.

Now 14, Amrith often has black moods — “he felt that familiar inner blackness come in and sweep him out, like a current” — and an utter sense of sadness over the loss of his mother. He knows that the only things that will keep him busy during the upcoming holidays are preparation for an audition for a school play (he wants to play the wronged Desdemona in Othello) and typing lessons at Uncle Lucky’s office.

... contd.