Neem Dreams

By Inez Baranay, New Delhi: Rupa & Co, 2003, 278 pages, paperback, $22.95. Reviewed by Ch A Rajendra Prasad in the June 2005 issue.

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Inez Baranay's Neem Dreams narrates the story of four individuals -- Pandora, Andy, Jade, and Meenakshi -- whose personal traits and experiences reflect global ailments and strengths -- such as greed and hatred, activism and frustration, compassion and sacrifice. Baranay's characters, portrayed with uncompromising frankness, strive to find meaning and purpose for their lives in the shade of the neem tree which, in the novel, symbolises the innate strength of the 'Orient' -- India.

Pandora is an Australian 'feminist scientist' who comes to India inspired by her discovery of an upcoming grassroots neem project in India and its motto of 'honoring tradition'. Jade is a New York business woman interested in buying the neem products for her shop, 'Orientalisme'. Andy is a gay, HIV positive man from London who seeks a miraculous cure for his predicament. Meenakshi is an Indian woman entrepreneur closely associated with the neem trees project. The meeting of these individuals, who have diverse professional backgrounds and also carry the baggage of personal trauma, takes place under the 'canopy' of the Neem Tree.

Though the narrative focus constantly shifts, the novel centres on the neem project that means many things to many people. Baranay suggests the 'advancement' of the West is self-defeating; it does not seem to bring real solace to its denizens. Commercialism, industrial pollution, the breakdown of human and family relationships and diseases such as AIDS seem to have created a permanent void. For Pandora, Andy, and Jade, the Orient represented by India and its miraculous Neem Tree -- or 'Free Tree' -- appears to be the 'promised land' that will help them come to know themselves. The story of Meenakshi echoes that of the westerners in some ways; India is blighted by political corruption and male chauvinism.

Pandora leaves Sydney and its typical western metropolitan chaos along with her messy past -- a sick father, the separation of her parents, the subsequent mental breakdown of her brother -- and arrives in India to provide news coverage for a scientific magazine. She is confronted with the startling dichotomies and diversities of India. The meeting with Meenakshi, the person who conceives and organises the grassroots neem project, greatly impresses her and, inspired by the innate strengths and virtues of rural Indians, she becomes wholeheartedly involved.

Andy, primarily with a view to fulfilling his dead lover's wish of merging his ashes in the Ganges, visits the holy waters to find solace amidst the chanting of hymns and deep-rooted faith in their healing capacity. At times, the floating half-burnt human carcasses and unhygienic streets of holy cities rightly suggest the mixture of holiness and brazenness. Finally, Andy's search for peace for his tormented mind and a cure for AIDS has him join hands with Pandora in the mission.

Jade, with her easy going and upbeat manner, is determined to make the most of her stay in India. In her pursuit of neem products for her New York shop she attempts to strike a deal with Meenakshi's factory. But her effort doesn't materialise, as the neem project is yet to come to fruition.

Meenakshi struggles to keep alive both her marriage and the neem project against the odds of a burdened past, male chauvinism, and political corruption. Constantly haunted by her experience in America of being jilted by a white man who is 'a serial dumper of young women of what they call other races', she seeks to find meaning in being a successful entrepreneur and in successfully fulfilling the neem project. Meenakshi's Indian husband is understanding and helpful, but she confronts opposition in the person of Dinesh, the incarnation of wily politician and generic greed.

The novel draws to a close by echoing the 'sensitive' and volatile mood that was originally stoked and perpetrated by a few self-centred politicians and which prevailed for some time in India during the aftermath of the attempted demolition of 'Babrimasjid' -- a disputed Muslim worship place ('masjid' is Arabic word for mosque) built on a site which is popularly believed by Hindus to be the birth place of the Hindu god, Lord Rama. This atmosphere results in a temporary layoff and communal clashes among the workers of Meenaksh's factory. In the meantime, Jade, who fails to fulfil her mission to procure neem products, becomes stranded due to prevailing community tension, and is trampled in a religious procession.

Moved by the increasing awareness of the rural population about the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the corporate patenting of seeds and plants, including the Neem Tree, and not wanting to be 'silent spectators', Pandora and Andy 'commit themselves' to the cause in the Indian way -- that is, by 'self-less' sacrifice. The shocking end of the novel depicts Pandora and Andy deciding to commit suicide by setting themselves aflame as 'neem warriors', so that the issue will get the necessary attention of the world.

The novel might have been a loose patchwork of narcissistic and self-centred tales but for the incisive, down-to-earth, imaginative, and suggestive use of language by Inez Baranay. The artistry of the writer has culminated in a convincing depiction of a 'higher reality' that overcomes nationalist and racial barriers in a definitive way.

Citation

• Ch A Rajendra Prasad. 'Review: Neem Dreams by Inez Baranay' [online]. Network Review of Books (Perth, Australian Public Intellectual Network), June 2005. Availability: <please cite the web address here> ISSN 1833-0932. [accessed 25 May 2013].

Back Cover Blurb

• Andy, an English lawyer looking for a miracle cure. Pandora, an Australian eco-scientist, looking for the perfect women's project. Meenakshi, author and co-ordinator of the project, returned to India to work for rural development. And Jade, an Australian working in New York, come to buy neem skin care products to sell exclusively at a New York store. The past passions each of the four brings to their meeting in India are revealed in a web-like plot, with the neem tree acting as a kind of crucible for each as the novel draws to a startling climax.