[Reader-list] Corridor, a graphic novel

[Shivam Vij]

  "Corridor"

  A graphic novel by Sarnath Banerjee
  To be released by Penguin on 2 April


"The graphic Novel is not literary fiction's half wit cousin, but, more accurately, the mutant
sister who can often do everything fiction can, and, just as often, more."  -- Dave Eggers

Penguin is set to launch my first graphic novel, "Corridor", on the second of April, right after
fool's day. Considering, some of us still put a lot of trust in the classic word of the mouth,
this is my one big attempt to promote the book.

It is a risk for publishing house in the English-speaking world to do comics, because they are
considered as either obliged to be funny or adolescent power fantasies for boy-men, or satirical
or plain instructional. On the other hand, it doesn't seem to have the sobriety and the respect of
running words.

Which makes me think what are the chances of the genre of mature comics to survive in the Indian
market?  But I guess somewhere someone has to start. And Penguin has done a good job of pricing it
at Rs. 230, with excellent paper and colour reproductions.

A brief summary of the novel:

The graphic novel, "Corridor", is played out as a multi-plot, situated around the unifying space
of a second hand bookstore, in one of the numerous corridors of Connaught Place in Delhi. The
owner, Jehangir Rangoonwallah, who received enlightenment in an elevator somewhere in Nariman
Point, considers it as the centre of the Universe, from where he dispenses tea, wisdom and Ikea
catalogues.

Among his many visitors is Digital Dutta, a man torn between Karl Marx and H1b Visa. He lives in
his head, where he played guitar with Django Reinhart, danced with Isadora Duncan, blazed the
midfield alongside Garincha and helped Hiesenberg device the uncertainty principle. By the time he
was twelve, Digital had climbed Mt Everest, by fifteen he knew the names of every side streets of
Prague. All this knowledge he acquired without ever leaving north Calcutta, except for a brief
stint in Delhi. In short if you chop off his head, Digital will still survive, because he is
mostly head.

Jehangir's other client, Brighu is a post-modern version of the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta. 
He complains a lot, gathers records and other useless stuff, such as fountain pens. Along with
other collectibles, he sometimes is on the lookout for true love. But deep inside he prefers being
single.

Then there is Shintu, newly initiated into the complications of marital sex and searching for the
ultimate aphrodisiac. He wanders in and out of the narrow bye-lanes of Old Delhi in search of
answers, eventually finds it at the bottom of a bottle of sande ka tel, manufactured by the great
Hakim Allauddin Hyder Kalandari Tartoosie Kaki alias the Pathan of Kabul.

Among other notable characters is Prof., DVD Murthy, forensic surgeon with a taste for ska and
there is Kali, a documentary filmmaker with a healthy distaste for her profession.

Using the alchemy of text and images, "Corridor" explores the urban condition we live in. The
underlying knowledge that in the city some people meet, chat and part, some never do, living with
the frustrating notion that the person sitting in the train, three seats away could be a potential
lover, or the woman who just walked in, posses a rare LP of Woody Guthrie, which she has no use
for.

(Sarnath Banerjee is a graphic artist.)

(This event information brought to you by the ZEST Reading Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zest-india )

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