STORIES: TORONTO TO TAIWAN
Gripping tales about families that originated in Sindh but now live and do business across the world
Ipicked up this book and started reading it as reference material for a research paper on the global Sindhi diaspora. The author is a global Sindhi businessman. Halfway through the fourth story, I realised that I was reading entranced. These were splendid stories: good plots, lifelike characters, beautifully laid out in clean, distinctive language. What made them even more fascinating was that each one is set in a different, exotic location. Murli Melwani is an inveterate traveller and this collection, as the jacket describes it, is a “gift of his travels”. 15 of the 23 stories are set in different parts of India and in them we encounter separatist movements, landslides, cramped urban spaces, insights into different aspects of religious devotion and various other complex situations in unexpected locales. Murli grew up in Shillong. Between school and college, he travelled a lot and visited different parts of India. In time, he moved to work in Taiwan and his job took him to countries around the world, doing something many Sindhis do.
A little more than half the book features this diaspora, families which originated in Sindh and now live and do business in countries around the world. Water on a Hot Plate is set in Toronto. Hari and Rajni are visiting their son there and in this story, they meet an Indian Chinese lady who runs a restaurant there. They converse with her in Mandarin – from their several years in Taiwan; of course they speak to her in Hindi and English too. From the Bollywood music playing in the background, Hari can tell that the India she belonged to was not the India he had left. Writing a Fairy Tale is a gripping love story in which we somehow journey into the rainforests of eco-versatile Chile – and also, unexpectedly, encounter the Arabic aspects of the country too. The Mexican Girlfriend is also a love story, and though set in a home by a lake where migratory birds flock has more sinister than exotic twists. The Bhorwani Marriage is a highenergy satire of Sindhi weddings. It appears that Sindhis don’t really do romance. Family comes overwhelmingly first; business and profits are a priority; living comfort is never going to be sacrificed for a lover.
Murli is not just a weaver of tales. He is a skilled businessman too and his stories give us practical tips on selling, business cycles, and the understanding that large investments could be ruinous. Some families have members living in other countries: the father ships out goods while the sons sell in other parts of the world, creating profitable companies. So while Murli’s Master’s is in English Literature, this book tells of things he didn’t learn at IIM-A.