THE DJINN IN THE DJINN SOAKED BOY
Set in Dhaka, Djinn City blurs the line between the worlds of magic and of science
For someone who grew up on a fairly heavy dose of djinn stories, the first few chapters of Saad Hossain’s “Djinn City” read like a fantastical bedtime story from a quintessential grandmother. Except that it isn’t. A serious work of magical realism or urban fantasy – depending on which genre you would like to fit it in – and takes off where the grandmother’s story ended. It is an ambitious work that blurs the lines between the world of magic and the world of science, successfully probing the fragmented world of djinns, their politics and their complex relationship to the ones made with clay.
The story centres around 10-year-old Indelbed, who lives in a rambling building once home to his legendary ancestors - the Khan Rahmans - in a has-been fashionable area of Dhaka. Indelbed is a poor boy with rich cousins and a mathematical geniusturned-alcoholic father – Dr Kaikobad. The Khan Rahmans have a long history of ties to the djinn world. Two hundred years ago, a Khan Rahman married a djinn and the bloodline got genetically altered, with rumours of many from the family being dumped in a special village for people with mental disorders.
No one knows what Indelbed means in a land where it is a custom to have “a Muslim name and then an eccentric one”. What everyone does know is that his mother died in childbirth - “death by Indelbed” – as the death certificate proclaimed, and that her death destroyed his father. The others in the house have been banned from talking about Indelbed’s mother and he has no clue about her name or what she looked like. When Indelbed’s father passes into an “occultocephalus coma”, the Khan Rahmans decide to help Indelbed. Siyer Dargo Dagroman - “emissary, consultant of the occult, and barrister of contract law in the Celestial Court” – is summoned. Dargoman agrees to help in exchange for “dignatas and jewels and Solomons”, and “auctoritas”. Dr Kaikobad’s ambassador cousin’s wife Aunty Juny steps in and takes charge. “What is this dignatas thing?” she asks. “And this auctoritas business? What good is that for”.
In that great bargain to save Indelbed and his father, she learns that dignatas is the very essence of the djinn, his personal worth – his influence is measured by it. Auctoritas is the currency used by djinns, without it a djinn is a beggar in his world.
This is the genius of Hossain. The clever names – of people, places and the impossible insight into the intricacies of the djinn world. That Hossain is a master storyteller is evident from the pace and the tone of the book. He switches from the tragic to the funny with marvellous ease. And when you are done reading the book, there’s more on offer – “a glossary of absolutely 100 percent factual things meticulously researched by the author during his lunch break”. Apart from the type of djinns and djinn concepts, and a djinn rhyme, there is a glossary of djinn clubs. My favourite is the Secret Archaeological Conservation Society - “a group strongly in favour of preserving ancient sites”.
The book flap tells the reader little about Hossain, apart from the fact he lives in Bangladesh and that this is his second novel. Somewhere, the reader learns of his self-confessed love for the macabre. That explains the perfect portrayal of a parallel universe in this 447-pager. I am ready for Hossain’s first book.