Mrinalini Harchandrai’s story ‘Rescuing a River Breeze’, which was longlisted for the McKittrick Prize in 2021 and in long list for the Asian Prize for fiction, tells the story of a girl who is about to reach womanhood in her life. The author of the novel, Mirnalini Harchandrai has been included on the longlist for the 2022 Erbacce Prize for poetry. She received an honourable mention for the Cid Pearlman Performance Project in 2021 and was the semifinalist for the Quarterly West Poetry Prize and the Stephen A A DiBiase Poetry Prize in 2019. Her short fiction has been placed on the shortlist for the Columbia Journal Spring 2020 Contest and the longlist for the 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. This is a unique novel that explores the anatomy of loss and rebirth experienced by generations, both implicitly and explicitly. It is a compositional achievement of introspective depth and autonomy and deal with reality of life while unravelling the history. The title of the novel is taken from a line of dialogue within the novel, to summon up one of the main themes in the book. With the intention of conveying the fleeting nature of dreams, the fragile hopes of a young girl, a fisherwoman, or even a soldier who frequently oppose the forces of history, Harchandrai portrayed and emphasised the inability of individual identities to control the changes that occur throughout massive sociopolitical upheavals. 

The story takes place in 1961, when Goa was ruled by Portuguese. Shirly Quarachim’s happy childhood abruptly ends when her father is taken into custody on treasonous allegations. She has to battle fearsome dhowmen, resistance fighters, and a ruthless policeman who enjoys torturing people. This book is written on an experience faced by Mrinalini Harchandrai’s mother during her youth. She has stated that she has had a neighbour, a Portuguese girl her age, whom she met daily. They were inseparable and spent time together while conversing together and huddling up same interests. And her mother has witnessed the daily Portuguese flag being hoisted and lowered from her Panaji window overlooking the Mandovi River, as Shirly in the novel. The story of a young girl whose emotions were in conflict with the overthrow of colonialism in Goa is woven by Mrinalini Harchandrai through the authentic experiences of her mother during the period of annexation of Goa. She was disturbed by such small personal stories of people that remain hidden and unwritten against the fortification of public narrative. According to my opinion, this novel can be considered as a ‘Bildungsroman’ as it portrays Shirly’s growth from a little girl towards womanhood as she becomes more heroic and outstanding in saving her father, Deepak.

The main character of the novel is Shirly, a young girl who is naïve and inexperienced about life. The story of the novel is woven around her, her parents Deepak and Mamtu, her little sister Devika and her friends Ana and Joao. This book is set in Goa, October 1961 during the period where India invaded and conquered Estado da Índia, the Portuguese ruled enclave of Goa, within the Indian subcontinent. At the beginning of the novel, Shirly was a very young girl who receives love and affection from her parents extensively. She grows up as a naïve girl without any experiences about life. But with the time being, with new challenges in life as to role play as Zulekha and meeting with Ana makes her life more daring and adventurous. As she grows up, she understands the real struggle of people who are in search of freedom. Being naïve at the beginning, she becomes brave enough to go on an adventure to save her loving father, Deepak’s life with the help of her two friends, Ana and Joao. From a young girl, she changes into a real woman who becomes valiant and fearless.

The novel is written using the third person omniscient narration. The narrator exists in the outside of the events of the story, and relates the actions of the characters, their thoughts, feelings and motivations. Accordingly, each character is referred to by their names and the characters do not sense the narrator’s presence in the novel. As an Indian writer, Mrinalini Harchandrai narrates the story as an outsider who knows each and every detail of the characters. As the story is based on a true story uttered by her mother, she makes up the story more imaginable through her creative and descriptive writing. She uses unique words from Sindhi, Konkani, English and Portuguese to suit the setting of the novel and the situations prevailing during that time when the novel was written. Accordingly, she uses ‘Puttha’, ‘Shee’, ‘Saint Jhulelal’, ‘Devi Parvati’ etc to bring out her cultural background as an Indian writer. And there are stories within the story throughout the novel, that makes the reader curious about what is to be happened in the future. Her writing coveys the true incidents that happened during 1961 and it creates a genuine picture of the story uttered by her mother. Use of language, narrative style, imagery depicts the background and as well as the setting of the novel. And this remarkable novel uses stylistic idiom of anecdotal story telling to question the ordered and bordered realm molded within the aesthetics of itself.

The story thematically balances the conflicting interests of diplomacy, Portugal’s resistance and the independence movement and how it affected on human lives. Starting from the partition of India and Pakistan and continuation to annexation of Goa in 1961, which was the year of political turmoil in Goa, people had to undergo many tormenting experiences. Shirly is depicted reliving her childhood innocence at the beginning of the story. Shirly and her archenemy, Ana, are well described throughout a large portion of the novel, which is devoted to their antics at school. And the transition from a girl to a woman physically and psychologically is depicted in the novel as it explores Shirly’s emotional journey as she makes her way through puberty, touching on her experiences as she approaches womanhood, including her first romantic relationship and the difficulties that accompany the change. Moreover, the life on the banks of the Mandovi is shown with remarkable emotional deftness, reflecting the ups and downs of a community fighting for freedom as it hums and whisper tales of childhood struggles against the unwavering will of liberation warriors.

The book brings out the real experience of a girl within a setting of people fighting for independence. As a writer she uses the background of a real story uttered by her mother, and at the same time she rescues the river breeze that has gathered all these hidden and unwritten stories of the people who experiences challenges of the annexation of Goa. The novel captivates the inner thoughts of the reader as it deals with real human emotions and experiences. The reality of life is outspoken by Harchandrai in her novel while bringing out many themes, stylistic idioms and stories within the story. As a reader, the parental love and sacrifices towards their children in a culture based on relationships made me more attached to the novel where it creates flashbacks about my childhood and how my father fed me while telling various stories with love and care. There is a parallel of ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’, the play by Bertolt Brecht, when Deepak narrates the story of two ladyfishes fighting for the babyfish to claim the motherhood. There are similar narratives and flashbacks within the novel that captures the readers’ attention towards the novel. This book does not only portray the annexation of Goa, the fight for freedom and the womanhood. It also reveals the real human emotions, sufferings and experiences that are hidden within the memories of people. As the river breeze that has collected those reminiscence, Mrinalini Harchandrai has saved them through her writing while making equity in her novel.

By Shashimali De Silva