revisiting a tragedy

consider, if you will, a peculiar experiment. pick an advertising agency; any agency. walk to where the copywriters congregate, and gently whisper the name ‘indra sinha.’ then stand back and watch as feelings of inadequacy suddenly rush into the room.

there is a perfectly logical explanation for the reaction. for decades now, sinha has been making copywriters around the world feel inadequate and inspired in turns. being voted one of the top ten british copywriters of all time tends to give one that kind of power. back in the sixties, collett dickenson pearce & partners was known as britain’s most influential advertising agency, home to big names including sinha, sir frank lowe, lord david puttnam, sir alan parker and charles saatchi.

what has made sinha more interesting to non-advertising folk, however, is a battle he has helped wage for over a decade now -- his battle for bhopal.

thirteen years ago, when sinha decided to give up advertising for things he considered more important, his peers were in shock. what they didn’t know was that sinha had been visited a year earlier by a man called satyu sarangi. the latter wanted his help to raise funds for a free medical clinic that could make life less painful for the thousands who survived the early hours of december 3, 1984. it was the night a union carbide pesticide factory released 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate, killing 3,000 people immediately and eventually claiming around 22,000.

with the help of a now-iconic photograph of a child’s burial by raghu rai, sinha created an advertisement for the bhopal medical appeal, kick-starting a movement that continues to serve thousands every year. between 1996 and now, a clinic set up through charitable funds has helped 20,000 people. sinha’s fight for justice in a country far from home -- he currently lives in southern france with his wife of 30 years and three children -- continues.

earlier last month, the world at large was given a third reason to pay attention to indra sinha. animal’s people, his second novel, made it to that spotlight-grabbing pedestal coveted by writers worldwide -- the man booker long list, 2007.

sinha’s writing career has been intriguing. he began with a translation (kama sutra) and followed it with an explanation of the tantric tradition (tantra: the cult of ecstasy), before winning acclaim with his rather frightening memoir on hours spent online in the early years of the internet, the cybergypsies. his first novel, the death of mr love, was based on a real-life murder in his hometown, mumbai.

animal’s people is set in a town called khaufpur which, interestingly, now has its own web site that documents its alleged history, has its own matrimonial (featuring a certain 19-year old called jaanvar), and even lists current events (dominique lapierre, author of city of joy, will apparently read from his new book at an upcoming open-air event)!

leaving aside the web site though, what makes animal’s people compelling is the bhopal disaster that resonates through its pages, as the protagonist -- called, simply, ‘animal’ -- shares his tale with an unnamed journalist, or ‘jarnaliss’.

whether sinha wins the booker or not is irrelevant. what is, is that his fiction will finally get the recognition it has long deserved. when that happens, maybe a lot more people will weigh in on his side of the fight against a big, bad, real-life kampani.