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A New Friend
Nacho Blanco
Price: Rs 30 ($1)
Frog Books, Mumbai
This novella is an
accurate diagnosis of the malady at the heart of modern day
existence: our emotional impoverishment
Reviewed by
Aparna Jacob
RAHA/13/November/2003
Perhaps it is portentous to suggest that most
works of translation should be accompanied by apologies. Apologies
from the various hands they have passed under. Hands that in the
process of polishing them might have left their own finger smudges
behind, or worse still, rubbed off some of the original sheen.
For these reasons, Spanish poet and artist Nacho
Blanco’s first novel in English, A New Friend, certainly
deserves one. It will fall upon the reader to discern the author’s
voice and sense the emotions that he originally infused into his
work. But the gleam of Blanco’s message will unerringly catch the
eye. And when it does, it will lodge itself like a splinter,
impossible to ignore until remedied. For, A New Friend is an
accurate diagnosis of the malady at the heart of modern day
existence: our emotional impoverishment.
Someone recently wisecracked that growing up was
about learning to perform in public. That it entails reining in many
of our thoughts, biting down certain words and never overstepping
the codes of our assigned roles. Once grown up, we live in constant
fear of being penalised for breaking the rules, or god forbid, being
labelled outcasts for digressing from them. We build fortresses to
guard our spaces and within them, we lead very lonely lives.
It is a gradual deadening, so insidious in its
machinations, that before long we begin to seek security in the
artificiality of social mores. We grow to love the straightjacket
that replaces our spine. Growing up makes cowards of us. It compels
us to measure our steps and calculate our moves.
This state of sterility is what the young speaker
in Blanco’s tale dreads approaching. As he stands on the brink of
adulthood he has one lament: “I had been taught to keep my life to
myself and not to let out my feelings and miseries.” Then one
fateful night he encounters a blind man who opens his eyes to beauty
and joy around him, who shows him how to love.
“What grips your heart so tightly that it cannot
search for the blue skies of happiness and love?” the old man asks.
Indeed, what has constricted our hearts so tightly that it
has made us fearful of loving; blinkered our minds so that it has
inhibited our courage to dream?
We were brave once. As children, in our innocence
we had the courage to hope, never feared falling and most of all
were unafraid to love. ‘Love’ is not a word that is popular among
the elders, observes the young protagonist. It awes them and they
shy away from it. When the old man speaks so effortlessly of love,
it baffles Bob who never knew that there could be other ways of
being. “There was no notice with ‘No Trespassing’ written on my
heart; everyone was free to enter,” he realises in a shock of
delight.
Love is the finest of human emotions that
sustains life itself. It animates the world around us and makes us
see through new eyes. “The moon, the stars, everything around us is
seen differently when love makes for our hearts. They begin to talk
to us and they are no more mere objects for a scientist to study;
they become alive,” says the seer. In our capacity for loving lies
the key to living. Being miserly with it can only invite misery.
Only when our hearts are full to the brim with love can it overflow
to those around. Only then can we open ourselves to beauty, become
receptive and responsive to the life throbbing around us, says
Blanco.
A New Friend
comes simply as a reminder that it’s time to retrieve our lost
glory. To reclaim our true selves and the life of our dreams. Life
is to be enjoyed not endured, Blanco insists. Living carefully, by
the rules is mere existing. “Life,” as the old man says, “is not
meant to be learnt by heart” --- playing by the rules does not teach
you anything. Experience does. “You become the perfect captain of
your boat after you have set sail more than once.”
Fear of failure is what keeps us from venturing
forth. It clips our wings and chains us to the ground. Yet failure
is nothing but another lesson learnt for good. “You have the freedom
to fall and learn from the mistakes. Never forget this,” Lonely Star
tells the young man embarking on the fabulous adventure of life.
Such hope and inspiration is what A New Friend conveys.
Assurance that life will offer us as many chances as we need to find
happiness and love. Only we need to reach out first and grab them
with both hands. After all, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
For copies of the book contact:
spoolani@hotmail.com |
