Anita Desai's critically acclaimed novel comes packaged with a number of important themes. In particular, In Custody is a novel which contrasts the dark realities of the life of a dedicated, gifted, but aging poet with the beauty of his words and the wisdom of his work. In doing so, Desai creates a powerful dual theme of both how the public often over-idealizes the lives of poets and how, despite this idealization, brilliance can persist in the strangest of conditions.
Desai makes ample use of comedic contrast in her novel. Protagonist Deven Sharma is dissatisfied with his life and deeply interested in the Urdu poetic tradition. Urdu poetry is already the subject of fascination all over the world, making this particular choice an intentional one on the part of the author. Because Urdu poetry is often lauded for its beauty and form, readers are often likely to overlook the very human faults of its practitioners. Deven serves as the perfect example of this error in judgment.
Throughout the beginning of the novel, Deven's expectations of what he will find when he meets the legendary Urdu poet Nur Shahjenabadi are consistently idealistic. He seems to expect to witness a near-literal transcendence, speaking to a poet who has created the beautiful and wise works which Deven has read many times before. The reader, naturally, also comes to expect a rapturous experience when Deven enters the home of one of his heroes.
But when he finally meets the fabled poet to conduct his interview, it becomes clear that Nur's life might not live up to the expectations of his academic fan. Rather than existing immaculately in a refined, intentional world, Nur's life and living situation are chaotic. His house is nearly unlivable and is presented as being in a perpetual state of squalor and disrepair. This is a major point of contrast and contributes significantly to the point Desai attempts to get across: the real lives of poets who are intensely disciplined and involved in their craft often do not meet the expectations of their readers.
Another point of chaotic disrepair highlighted by the author is Nur's complicated love life. His two wives are constantly at each other's throats, feuding and fighting. In their own ways, both wives are also exceedingly dissatisfied with the state of their marriage. For his first wife, Sarla, the deplorable conditions of the house and Nur's seeming disinterest in the basic necessities of a functional life cause her to resent her marriage. Nur's second wife, Imtiaz, seems to want the opposite extreme. Her major interest is in benefitting from the fame of her husband, and her minor plots throughout the novel portray her as a manipulator interested far less in her husband's passion than in the boons of his success.
Despite the chaos and disrepair, Deven is able to glean significant bits of wisdom from the poetic master throughout his experience. Nur makes statements in conversation hinting at a wise understanding of the beauty of the world, saying, "the wound is the place where light enters you." Remarks like these seem to hint that the poet is one who, despite often terrible conditions which fly in the face of his public persona, is able to see the beauty in the world and in everyday life.
At its core, In Custody is a novel about embracing the realities behind poetry—and understanding that wisdom can come from places which might not fit our presumptions about the conditions which create it. Urdu poet Nur lives a life which contradicts what Deven expected when he traveled to interview the author. Readers are given a look into the complexities of a regular human life—complete with missteps, flaws, and unfortunate circumstances—led by a poet who manages to use a dedication to craft and an eye for truth to explore and refine his world into something remarkable.
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/03/books/the-poet-in-all-his-squalor.html
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