A Skyful of Balloons is an exuberant outpouring of sheer lyrical beauty written in a novella by the internationally acclaimed Santosh Bakaya. It is very hypnotic and from the first page onwards I was firmly under the spell weaved by the magic of her poetry in prose. Like a harmonic melody the story of love between Preeti and Vivek just flows in the salubrious environs of Kashmir. The characters are so well etched.
Preeti is how I would imagine the younger Santosh to be – pretty and vivacious, “like a bubbling brook she babbled on. And on and on she went with a bright-eyed exuberance” to quote the lines from the book. The father, an English professor, is crushed under the niemiety of Preeti’s incessant chatter. He often brings Literature’s greats like Coleridge and Schiller to the table and is most upset with wrong spellings. Vivek, her childhood friend who shakespearises everything is her best friend and they are literally born for each other and eventually become sweethearts – so easy was the transition. The ribbing, jeering, scoffing, leg-pulling and love between the two is celebrated by nature also. To quote, “The pine trees and the deodars heard her love song and broke into a dance. They loved love, they breathed love, they loved the couple in love”.
Both sets of parents wander when the two will grow up and Preeti often pummels Vivek for some ham jokes. A skyful of balloons, pregnant with possibilities opens up as their love reaches its natural conclusion with their marriage. Under Santosh’s brilliant pen, rich imagery smites the page as nature once again celebrates the honeymoon of the couple with “Fat clouds frolicked, getting a vicarious pleasure out of the fun-filled feisty couple. The twilight trembled on the mountains, the breeze rapturously kissed the Pine and Fir trees, the feisty foam-freckled Lidder broke into song.”
But then there is a twist in the story as the angels also could not see this much happiness and Preeti falls silent for five long years. She doesn’t even recognize herself “trudging through life in a somnambulistic trance, she had become a cheap pale version of herself. The windows of her mind and heart were clamped shut, and not a whiff of fresh air was allowed to penetrate. The door to her heart was rusted with disuse”.
And then one-day, a seven-year-old child brings her out of her somnambulance as she dashes to catch a goose singing the song from a lifetime ago “Goosie goosie gander, where shall I wander? I found myself dabbing my tears when after that she rushes home and asks her parents “Where are my paint brushes, mom?” Toward the end of the book there is again a skyful of balloons or possibilities that open up for the future as Preeti again joins the land of the living.
A skyful of balloons is a rich and glorious read, a testimony to the exuberance of writing and the skillful way in which the reader’s emotions are drawn from the author’s pen. An absolute must-read!
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Avantika Vijay Singh is a writer, blogger, editor, script writer, poet, researcher, and amateur photographer.
