Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line

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The language, playful and light in its child’s point of view, is held in constant tension: as the young detectives come to terms with grief and bereavement, darker political and social forces, like the ever-present smog that makes ‘shadows sprawl’ and looks ‘like the devil’s own breath’, threaten to engulf their lives.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara - Reading Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara - Reading

As the situation turns dire, the slum-dwellers take matters into their own hands, start vigils and try to find the missing children on their own. Chhota Pakistan’ might be mere words for Jai, but it holds the weight of decades of religious intolerance and prejudice that continues to cast a gloomy shadow over all of us. Engaging characters, bright wit, and compelling storytelling make a tale that's bleak at its core and profoundly moving. The narrative goes beyond portraying how the poor of India have been betrayed by their government, and suggests they might also be betrayed by the stories we like to tell about them. Since December, people in India have been participating in peaceful marches (apart from those who have resorted to stone pelting) because they want to have their problems heard and solved.

Chandni’s (one of the missing children) mother goes to the police station to invite the police to the puja, in the hopes that it might provoke them to find her. Every tin-roofed hut, abandoned alleyway, and overcrowded bazaar fizzes with a richness of detail that could only be rooted in the author's intimate knowledge of her setting. The text presents these matters as they would happen in the real world and it makes for disturbing, albeit realistic, reading.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is a Careful Study on - WWAC Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is a Careful Study on - WWAC

The seeds of distrust between the Hindu and Muslim communities were first sown by the British, during the era of colonial rule. The reader absolutely trusts that not only Jai but Samosa is surrounded by a bubble of magical safety.Our economy is in decline, rural poverty has shot up, the gap between the rich and poor keeps increasing. Anappara paints all of her characters, even the lost ones, with deep empathy, andher prose is winningly exuberant.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara - Waterstones Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara - Waterstones

We’ve been brought up to believe that children are only focussed on their games and food, unaware of the harsh realities of life. Anappara wrote the novel while pursuing a master's degree in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. In the meantime, the woman Jai’s mother works often has so much food left over, that she gives it away to her maids. In this world, stories will not save your life, and, if the powerful will not protect them, poor kids can never be safe.There are also third-person sections that follow children about to be abducted, but these end with cliffhangers: we never see a child come to harm. They have been here for so long, they must watched the walls of this palace crumble, the pillars soften with moss and creepers, and pythons slither over cracked stones like dreams wavering in the light of dawn. Xenophobic violence, political power plays and hate perpetrators run amok while it is the common man who still has to work, worry about how to feed his family and survive amidst this violence. In any case, Anappara is not interested in explaining, embellishing, refining, or simplifying her story — and certainly not for a white reading audience, or a “Global North” literary marketplace.

An interview with Deepa Anappara – City Short Courses An interview with Deepa Anappara – City Short Courses

Hearing him, Jai believes that Faiz would never kill him, showing the innocence and purity of a boy who hasn’t been sullied by religious divisions. Believe me,” the badshah says, “today or tomorrow, every one of us will lose someone close to us, someone we love. Most of Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is narrated by Jai and leavened by his unflappable personality.You rush through the pages wanting resolution, but you also dither because you don’t want to leave the company of its characters. In a sprawling Indian city, three friends venture into the most dangerous corners to find their missing classmate . The final reveal felt like a complete cop-out—which may be true to life but the book seemed to be heading toward a definitive conclusion in Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line which was nothing close to what readers actually received.