When Pulp Sparkles

The daylight heist is planned with meticulous attention to the smallest detail. Its execution, though not entirely in accordance with the plan, is near-perfect. Yet, things go horribly wrong. So wrong, so far from how it was all planned, that this is a tale of life itself.
 
Surender Mohan Pathak’s Daylight Robbery was first published in 1980, in Hindi. This is his second work available in English. His translator, Sudarshan Purohit, and the publishers of Pathak’s works in English, Blaft, ought to be commended for bringing this book to readers in English. The plot is set in post-Emergency India, in the cities of Agra and Jaipur. There is a reference to programmes on TV such as Krishi Darshan and the fact that transmission is not as relentless as it is now, being limited to a few hours each day.
 
There is a hot chase right at the beginning of the novel, a black Fiat in furious pursuit of an Ambassador. A train ride too, and it all seems like a lived reality, very earthy. There are references to events that have entered ordinary discourse; Emergency, the Janata government, the 1978 kidnap of children in Delhi by the infamous Billa and Ranga, a holiday to Srinagar held out as a promise to a difficult wife, recalling a time when Srinagar was still a tourist draw. These are woven into the narrative, sprinkled with Hindi phrases that give it just the right effect. Wahe Guru, Sacche Paatshah says Vimal, devout and almost admirable, the genteel and handsome young criminal; a constant in many Pathak novels. 
 
“It’s easy to pull off a heist, my friend. All it takes is guts. But to stash your loot and wait patiently is a hard job. There you don’t need guts, you need brains,” says Dwarkanath, the wise-owl leader of the gang of four involved in looting the vehicle carrying the salary of workers at the Ratnakar Steel Mill. Daylight Robbery is a story of Pyrrhic victory. Death follows close on the heels of success.
 
What a cover! Vintage Hindi pulp: A vamp surrounded by pistol-wielding men, a light blue vehicle; much like a poster of an ‘Adults only’ film. Surender Mohan Pathak is a sophisticated storyteller. The cover belies this author’s sophistication. But then, the publishers, Blaft, think they sell ‘pulp’ when they actually do literature.
 
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