Bharath's Reviews > Ice-Candy-Man

I had not read a book with the partition of India as the backdrop for the story since many years, and was excited as I picked this up. The paperback I ordered had 8 pages of praise, mostly excerpts from reviews in the news media. As the view of the happenings by Lenny, a Parsi girl, I thought this was a powerful way to write the story – without getting mired in the Muslim, Hindu or Sikh viewpoints (the most impacted religious groups).

The story gets off to an engaging start. Lenny is a young Parsi girl in Lahore, who has trouble with her legs due to polio. She is cared for by her Ayah, a young Hindu woman with family in Amritsar. There are a diverse set of characters – Lenny’s parents, Adi – her brother, Electric Aunt, Cousin, Godmother & her Oldhusband, Iman Din – the cook, Hari – gardener who later converts, Ice-Candy man in the area, a Masseur, Sher Singh – the zookeeper, Colonel Bharucha – local Parsi leader, Hamida – another Ayah, and a few others.

The story is set when it is apparent that partition of India will soon happen, and there is tension in the air. Ice-Candy man is lecherous, constantly eyeing Ayah. Lenny has to contend with some lewd behaviour from Cousin (which she does not understand initially). Lenny is close to all the people referred in the previous paragraph, and Iman Din at times takes her to his village. Soon, mobs roam the streets killing Hindus and Sikhs in Lahore, and Muslim refugees facing violence in other parts of India start pouring in. The rural areas are also impacted and people are told to vacate based on their religion. The city soon loses its diverse multicultural nature. Ayah’s life is turned upside down. (view spoiler)[ She is raped and forced into Heeramandi as a dancer to entertain patrons. The Ice-Candy man coerces her to marry him. (hide spoiler)]

I read many referring to this book as one of the best reads of the partition period. If only, I could agree with that – I found the book extremely shallow. The story and characters offered a great opportunity – largely wasted. There is almost no character development – even the character of Lenny is not well developed. Ayah, was the only character I felt for, and I wish there had been her viewpoint to read. I suppose if you have a young girl providing her perspective, it is difficult to provide depth to the narration. To the book’s credit it portrays a realistic scenario of the violence which erupted at the time. Also, the tone is somewhat neutral (though not entirely). There is this episode where Lenny & her mother meet Mahatma Gandhi – among the most absurd and wasteful passages I have read in fiction. The humour never really hit the mark for me, and there are some stereotypical references to communities which I suppose the author meant as humour. There is one impressionable dialogue by a man who decides to flee Lahore which stayed with me “When people who have been close feel the need to hate & harm us, it is time to move”. There is another nice touch in the exchange which Lenny has with her mother when she suspects the family is storing petrol to provide to mobs to burn property, but it turns out that the family gives this to people who are fleeing the city. Such passages are however too few, and the story telling overall is very flat.