Rohan Krishna, lawyer, wants revenge
Death in the air Ram Murali’s debut novel has been published by Harper Collins. Murali began his career as a lawyer in private practice in London and Paris and worked for many years in film and television. His novel seems to follow in the footsteps of an Agatha Christie crime novel, but offers a variety of themes and reflections on life in the diaspora that challenge the conventional crime genre.
The protagonist, Rohan Krishna, is a cosmopolitan lawyer whose parents of Tamil-Indian descent emigrated to the United States. At the beginning of the novel, Ro is in a career crisis after his boss, who has been spreading lies about him, denies him the reward he deserves for his hard work on a project. Ro wants justice for the unfair treatment he himself has experienced, and also for other members of ethnic minorities who have suffered similar injustices over the course of this woman’s career. Ro agrees to a plan for revenge, assigns the task to an acquaintance named Alex, and heads to a yoga spa retreat at Samsara, a resort near Rishikesh in the foothills of the Himalayas.
Desis in the diaspora seek spiritual comfort
Murali devotes a lot of time to setting up the murder plot at the exclusive Samsara resort. We meet many of the characters who are visiting, the owner of the resort as well as the yoga teachers and doctors. The clientele are the very wealthy Indians who are industrialists, politicians, western yoga enthusiasts and diaspora residents. desis who wear designer clothes, live very privileged lives and, like Ro, are still on a spiritual search for something beyond the conspicuous consumerism of their lives.
It is in this milieu that the first murder of a beautiful and very wealthy woman of Indian origin takes place. Ro is recruited to take part in the investigation. While the investigation proceeds according to the usual methods of deductive reasoning and the logical search for motives, alibis or lack thereof, other unexpected elements are introduced into the investigation. While Ro appears to proceed on the basis of his training with a lawyer and collaborates with the police inspector, he is also influenced by non-scientific methods such as fortune-telling with crystals and pendulums.
Uncover secrets with logic and crystals
This movement between logical and pseudo-spiritual realms is sometimes a little jarring for a reader expecting the usual progression of a crime story. Many crime novels are rich in atmospheric details and evoke memories of a particular place. Murali tries to give his readers a feel for Rishikesh, the place where the Beatles went to practice yoga and which is still a revered Hindu pilgrimage site due to its proximity to the river Ganga. However, apart from a description of the candle-lighting ceremony and the worship of the river Ganga, Murali focuses more on the interiors of the Samsara resort and its luxury than on the majestic Himalayan landscape.
Additionally, when describing the characters, much emphasis is placed on the designer labels of their clothes and jewelry rather than their physical features. As a result, many characters seem to be devoid of life and lack complexity. The characters also seem to be from the upper echelons of a global elite. The poorer sections of the Indian population seem largely absent from Samsara.
A crime thriller with philosophical questions
Like any crime novel, this novel offers a surprising denouement. However, it does not evoke a sense of dread, which is often expected from this genre. Since it seems to be dealing with larger philosophical questions such as spiritual well-being, the immediacy and horror of the murders seem somewhat toned down. The spiritual quest that seems to be the goal of many of the characters who have arrived at the resort also seems to be a distraction for most of the characters, a temporary respite at best from their real jobs as businessmen, movie stars or politicians. The novel is an astute commentary on the emptiness of the new neoliberal elite in India.
For the Indian diaspora, returning home is unlikely to alleviate the feelings of unrest and isolation they experience in the big cities. The novel therefore paints a rather grim picture of the Indian diaspora elites and the alienation they experience in their lives.
