Beyond the Rainbow

by Murli Melwani, Veda Aggarwal (Illustrator), Saaz Aggarwal (Introduction)

In 1947, India was partitioned, and Pakistan was formed on the basis of religion. The Hindu Sindhis, rendered homeless by this act, scattered and settled in different places where they established themselves as an enterprising and hardworking people and became financially successful in a surprisingly short period. Behind this façade, the history of this ethnic community was obscured and has only recently begun to be investigated, and many fascinating facts have emerged. Murli Melwani was a professor of English Literature until circumstances led him to become a businessman in middle age. In this collection of beautifully written and gripping short stories, he depicts various aspects of his community. He says, “We are viewed as shallow for our ability to suppress negative thoughts, devote unbounded energy to business and live a flashy lifestyle. Being individualistic and opinionated by nature, and because we have not shown a cohesive and attractive face to the world, Hindu Sindhis are seen as stereotypes. With these stories, I have endeavoured to show that we have lives as individuals too.”Resh speaks Papiamentu fluently; also Dutch and English. But no Sindhi.Hassaram, successful in business, deeply respected in his expat community on the US-Mexico border, won’t stop at even the most heinous of crimes to preserve his image. Metha, who makes his fortune in Hong Kong, loses it all and has no qualms about starting all over, has changed his name to Mike, but will not allow his wife to call him anything but ‘Heydaan’.Little Shiv, stubborn and carefree as only an adored little boy can be, matures as the task of tending shoes at the gurudwara gives him an insight into the lives of the worshippers.Meet them, and a number of other colourful characters who live and work in different countries around the world. All are Sindhis, displaced from their ancestral homeland by the partition of India in 1947. Being enterprising, hardworking and financially successful, this ethnic community is largely perceived through shallow caricatures. Murli Melwani’s stories take the reader into the lives of real people, showcasing intricacies of thought and feeling, exploring the impact of loss of culture and identity alongside the tremendous achievement of life as global citizens who speak local languages and are immersed in communities in countries around the world. This book is not just an exceptional work of fiction with strong characters, gripping plots, and an unwavering vein of humour, it also incorporates a range of sociological and anthropological insights. In addition, the book unwittingly also forms a practical manual of insights into how Sindhis do business. A skilled businessman himself, Murli Melwani’s stories provide practical never-fail tips on selling, exposure to business cycles, and the understanding that large investments, even the most obvious, could turn out to be ruinous.

234 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 21, 2020

Reviews

[Saaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most interesting aspects of the Sindhi diaspora are its many communities scattered in ports around the world, and this collection of fine short stories is an intimate glimpse into its realities by one of its members.
Murli Melwani was a professor at Sankerdev College, Shillong, India. In the 1980s, political events in Shillong caused Murli to leave the home in which his family had settled after Partition. In his forties, he became a businessman, lived briefly in Hong Kong, then in Taiwan for twenty-five years, and moved to the US, where he now lives, in 2005. All this while, he continued to write.
Murli was buying in one place to sell in another, as Sindhi businessmen have done for centuries. In the 1850s, they began to do so in countries around the world, and Murli is one of the many who followed this tradition, establishing the theme for his own short stories. Set in various exotic locations, each of the short stories in this collection was sparked off by something Murli saw or heard, and he refers to the collection as “a gift of my travels”.
Says Murli, on the cover of the book:
We are viewed as shallow for our ability to suppress negative thoughts, devote unbounded energy to business and live a flashy lifestyle. Being individualistic and opinionated by nature, and because we have not shown a cohesive and attractive face to the world, Hindu Sindhis are seen as stereotypes. With these stories, I have endeavoured to show that we have lives as individuals too.

In 'Water on a Hot Plate, Hari and Rajni are visiting their son in Toronto, and they meet an Indian Chinese lady who runs a restaurant 'there. They converse with her in Mandarin – from their several years in Taiwan; of course they speak to her in Hindi and English too. From the ‘Bollywood’ music playing in the background, Hari can tell that the India she belonged to was not the India he had left. Resh, their lunch guest, is visiting from Curacao. She speaks Dutch and English and even idiomatic Papiamentu – a Portuguese and Spanish-based Creole language – but not Sindhi.

'Writing a Fairy Tale' is a gripping love story in which the reader journeys into the rainforests of eco-versatile Chile – and unexpectedly encounters the Arabic aspects of the country too. 'The Mexican Girlfriend' is also a love story, and though set in a home by a lake on the US border where migratory birds flock – a real place, as Murli told me when I asked – has more sinister than exotic twists. Followed by 'The Bhorwani Marriage', a high-energy satire of Sindhi weddings, including an expose of the business opportunities offered by matchmaking in the diaspora, it appears that Sindhis don’t really do romance. Family comes overwhelmingly first; business and profits are a priority; living comfort is never going to be sacrificed for a lover.
It’s not that everyone in the community is money-minded. This book takes us beyond that stereotype, with businessmen who are polite, mature and love to read. And the skilled portrayals of many different kinds of relationships reveal the author to be an exceptionally subtle and discerning person himself. Even the businessman in 'Shiva with a Garland', lonely in his marriage, “had grown sensitive and become aware of many things. He had come to understand the right and wrong of things and the meaning and worth of happiness.”
These are splendid stories: good plots, lifelike characters, beautifully laid out in clean, distinctive language. However, Murli is not just an observer of humans and their situation, not just a weaver of tales – he is a skilled businessman too. And his stories provide practical never-fail tips on selling, exposure to business cycles, and the understanding that large investments, even the most obvious, could turn out to be ruinous. There are young employers who clone themselves, swiftly learning the trade and soon enough snatching it out from under their employer’s feet to set up as competitors. Some families have members living in other countries: the father ships out goods from a manufacturing location while the sons sell in other parts of the world, creating hugely profitable companies which run around the clock. So while Murli’s PhD is in English Literature, this book tells all kinds of things he didn’t learn at Harvard Business School.