A storyteller meets a begum and fabulous fables follow
While ahmed shah abdali is wrecking havoc and plundering Delhi in the 18th century, a lonely and disillusioned Begum is exchanging stories with a bedraggled storyteller. Omair Ahmad’s second book, The Storyteller’s Tale, set in those turbulent times, is part fable, part fantasy and creates a romantic illusion of Delhi where the Mughals are fading fast and the wealth of the city is luring warlords from Afghanistan. Ahmad has adapted ancient traditions of storytelling, skilfully weaving history and the lives of ordinary people in a landscape of war and devastation. (A note in the book refers to the author’s fascination with Quranic and Biblical tales.)

Divided into five interconnected chapters, The Storyteller’s Tale begins with a poet-storyteller, consumed with grief at the brutalisation caused by Abdali’s army. After losing home and hearth, he finds himself near an isolated haveli. Unsure of whether the lord of the haveli is in cahoots with Abdali, he’s about to move on when a chance encounter leads him to a “hauntingly beautiful begum” (there are several cheesy moments and some grandiose feelings expressed here). The Begum disregards propriety and invites him in to entertain her with stories. So while the rampaging Afghans are busy looting and pillaging, the storyteller engages the lady of the manor with the story of an unwed mother raising a wolf baby alongside her infant son. Ahmad stops short of adding a moral to his fable, but the simplicity of his tender narrative has enough impact. The Begum, mesmerised by the startling story of filial love by this gripping stranger, responds with one of her own. During this dueling with stories, the discovery of quiet yearning between the storyteller and the Begum is gently brought out.

... contd.