Some battle for a normal life, others fight against it. The "flying man" in Roopa Farooki’s novel belongs to the latter.
Sunny, alias Maqil, alias MSK, alias Mikhail Lee, is a freak genius and an anti-hero. For him, what is normal is redundant and hence repulsive. He goes through his life like a play act and dares to change the script mid-way. He will not suffer boredom and throws away both fortune and love in his persistent bid to escape lichés.
Born in Punjab of 1931 he is Sunny for his parents and Maqil for the family in which all first-born sons bear the same name. At 16, Sunny is dashing, glamorous and street-smart; the star of the family. A train of fans from urchins, servants to his own parents follows him everywhere. He is the Pied Piper and everyone is happy to step up to his tune. He is already blackmailing his school seniors into loaning their father’s Bentley and is advising the bookstore owner to sell tea and coffee along with books.This is the only section where Maqil’s character sounds forced and stalk-type. Hereon, Ms Farooki builds with force and remarkable consistency. Maqil emerges as someone who’s foremost motive is to surprise his audience, whatever the cost.
In America, where he goes to study, he is MSK, a mystery, a phenomenon of sorts. No one knows where he is from and when asked he says, "Everyone knows who I am and if they don’t , they should."
In 1965 he is Mehmet, married and settled with a job in Egypt. He leaves for work one day and never returns to his wife, never writes or calls for the simple reason of being bored. Maqil’s arguments are unnerving for their cold, murderous simplicity. Ms Farooki handles this complex character with great craftsmanship. One can’t resist liking him despite his almost criminal egotism.
In 1969 he is at the blackjack table at a casino in France. From a few thousand francs he swells to a hundred thousand. Wining is too easy for him but he loses too just to get that symphony of oohs and aah from onlookers. He loses till he is left with a sparse scattering of chips and celebrates with champagne his narrow escape from fame and fortune.
In 1970, he is back in Lahore where he meets Samira. She is a Bengali Christian; skinny, espresso-skinned and very glamorous. Love strikes Maqil. Samira is an unusual woman, hence, a perfect match for him. In another three years the two are married and have moved to London.
One of the best achievements of Ms Farooqi in this book is her characters. They are all unique, almost eccentric yet convincing and endearing. Samira is no sweet-talking, innocent chick with haunting eyes. She is the "modern" woman with cosmetics in her drawer, brands in her wardrobe and wits that can outsmart Maqil. Samira is perpetually on diet and has trained herself to throw up food after plush
parties.
Maqil and Samira are made-for-each-other but that’s too simple a script for Maqil to play. So he decides it is time for him to be a father. Samira is of course too smart and knows him too well to let that happen, so he cheats her, switches her pills and soon she is pregnant. With the twins between them Maqil soon has to move ahead but not before attempting to trick Samira out of her money. But Samira is never a damsel in distress and can see through the act he puts up for the world.
From London he goes to Madrid, then to Marbella-Spain, Hong Kong, Paris and finally Biarritz. He swindles people out of their money, dabbles in forgery of art and passports and crosses continents till too many people are on lookout for him. He marries a third time to a matronly Bernadette in Hong Kong but Samira is always the only love of his life. His twins grow up angry and estranged.
The vibrant milieu of this novel ensures there is never a dull moment. Ms Farooki is an expert at getting inside the characters and making them speak. From Samira to the twins to Bernadette and even the minor characters are intriguing but not elusive. The story is written as a letter by Maqil at the end of his life. He is old and broke and has refused persistent efforts by his children to take him home as that would be too simple an end.
He sticks to his fight for a life lived unusually, till the very end. The letter writing though gets forgotten in the tide of the story. The initial few pages are quickly forgotten and seem to be somewhat disconnected from the rest of the novel that is remarkably well-knit.
After you finish the novel the lines on the book cover also begin to sound strange: "I was once a son, a husband, a father. And now I am a storyteller."Maqil never played the role of son, husband and father with conviction. He is always a storyteller.
The Flying Man may strike some as a story of a highly-selfish man. Maqil has little regard for others in his life. He seems almost Camusian in his disrespect for all that is established and acceptable. A man who sticks to his flawed vision of life till the end causing immense pain to all he knows.
He comes across as almost heartless. But that’s not entirely true. In his life filled with depravity, Maqil has just one acute regret. Quite like her creation, Ms Farooki’s surprises the audience, and gives a story unlike any other.
