The Readymoney saga

A novel about the Parsi community, The Moment of the Banyan by Armin Wandrewala is also the story of its women and their agency

- Percy Bharucha

The Moment of the Banyan is a novel that attempts the impossible: the cataloguing of an entire culture, religion and tradition in a nuanced fashion even as it tells a story that's engaging and unique.

Still, the author Armin Wandrewala does a fine job of using a large cast of characters in a novel with many births, weddings and life events, to provide a picture of Parsi history, the community's way of life, and that of its Iranian Zoroastrian counterparts.

This is a fine novel on its own, but Wandrewala is especially to be lauded for her attention to the attire, jewellery, food, nataks (plays), calendars and roj system, and death rituals, which are the essence of the Indian Parsi tradition.

The reader learns of the many systems that sustain a people, including inheritance, language, fire temples, prayers, laws, politics, hypocrisies, gossip, scandals, professions, faith and more.

The author employs a nonlinear structure, moving back and forth in time across the city of Bombay, which is just being built, and towns of Gujarat, including Navsari and the fictional Lanskui, allowing her to blend historical fact into the story of a fictional family. The transitions from the agrarian way of life, and from small Gujarati villages to the posh lanes of South Bombay are handled seamlessly. Going into minute detail, Wandrewala also captures pastoral traditions and customs of homes, explaining why they are the way they are and the significance of their elements.

The Moment of the Banyan is as much a story of this small community as it is of its women and their agency.