Anuradha Roy’s evocative novel ‘Sleeping on Jupiter’ is longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. This eye-opening novel sheds light on the ongoing hypocrisies in the modern world accompanied by some treacherous practices.
The narrative opens with a seven year old Nomita who loses her parents and her brother and ends up in an orphanage run ny an internationally acclaimed Guru. Nomita was sexually abused by the Guru which shatters her dignity. Later, she moves to Norway only to be haunted by those memories. After that, Nomita visits the temple town of Jarmuli to tie up some loose ends. There she meets a photographer named Suraj who is also fighting his inner demons. The narrative is also interwoven with the stories of three women – Latika, Gauri and Vidya, each devoured by their own struggles in life. Added to these characters is a whimsical tour guide named Badal who is love struck with Raghu.
Roy’s gypped narrative highlights the hypocrisies of the modern world in a subtle manner – the bare bodied priests who ridicules women’s clothing, the lust-driven beasts who sexually abuses the young girls while celebrating exotic paintings on temple walls, the lone struck women who seeks solace in the outer world, the so called ‘progressive’ men who never thinks twice while hitting a women right at the face. Violence and mysogyny is the norm of Roy’s narrative.
The novel touched me deeply in ways that is hard to describe. She, through her narrative, raised many questions on burning issues in the society. Will it ever be possible to curb the injustices done against women? Will it ever be possible for a women to raise her voice against all the violence done to her in the name of the divinity? Roy has used her incredible writing skills to unmask the hidden face of Indian spirituality and the malpractices that it embraces. Gender violence is beautifully portrayed by Roy as she quotes – ” Again that terrible pinprick, then a burning pain.” (P.13)
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