Packed with a punch

Vikrant Parmar

At the time when India gained independence from the British yoke, there was another major movement taking place — the assimilation of princely states into the Indian union; some with consent, others with marked reluctance. It is in one such state, Tandhapur, where the major action of seasoned author Timeri N. Murari’s novel Gunboat Jack takes place. 

While the title invites curiosity, it turns out to be the name of the protagonist, an American boxer ‘stuck’ in India; someone who forever ‘dreamed of America’ and his return. The character has been culled out from a real-life persona, who existed in Bangalore; someone the author had heard a lot about, but never could meet — ‘he was dark, not ‘black’ or ‘African’ or ‘Negro’, Murari writes in the Afterword.    

A drifter, brawler, bordering on hedonism, Gunboat, who has a ‘strong, not particularly, handsome face’, stays with the Anglo-Indian community and his lady love, Gertrude. He has one talent though, which is a veritable key to a future he dreams of — Gunboat is a more-than-able boxer; boxing is his ‘raison d’etre’.

At the very outset, Gunboat and Gertrude visit a sadhu, whose words become prophetic for the narrative; he tells Gunboat that a woman ‘holds his destiny’ and a prince will ‘change his life’. During the next three-hundred-odd pages, that is precisely what occurs. 

As it were to happen, Gunboat meets Natraj aka Nicky, a prince with ‘Western education, Indian roots’, who wants to learn boxing to settle an issue of two races — Indian and European.  Nicky comes across as a ‘cold and self-contained’ youngster, who is out to make his family proud, with a fight that could prove fatal for him. However, in Nicky, Gunboat witnesses his future — money and freedom. 

The action shifts to the regal palace at Tandhapur, where Gunboat starts coaching Nicky, knowing well that his European opponent is much stronger. So, Gunboat even goes to the extent of teaching ‘cheat’ moves that would help Nicky win. 

It turns out that the fight is with the son of the housekeeper Ms Hobbs, who badly wants Nicky to lose and his family to bear the burden of shame. She claims, ‘I’m a pure European’; is a woman of devious ambition and pride in her roots, so much so that Gunboat, who stays away from her, is forced to praise her ‘right instinct: killer’.

The final fight pans out in the last few pages, where the author’s knowledge of the art of boxing comes to the fore, as he narrates each move with the eye of an expert. A clash of civilisations, inside a ring where blood oozes, bones break! 

The author’s lingual gift stands out with each line. He sets the scenes with consummate ease, yet with a surgeon’s precision. Barring the length, which sometimes thwarts the borders of concentration, all is well in place.