It’s a daring move, one that gives the The Two Krishnas historical sweep, and Dhalla handles it just as expertly as he does the novel’s numerous subplots and large cast of supporting characters, many of whom turn out not be as shallow or materialistic as the author first satirizes them. More than 200 pages into the narrative, Dhalla even makes an ambitious leap in settings, moving the narrative from California to Kenya. Over the course of some 300 pages, these references range from Bollywood to The Exorcist, from Buddha to the Koran, and from Gaskell and Austen to Rumi and a ghazal by Faiz. It is also a vehicle by which Dallah brings together East and West, incorporating references from the many cultures and religious beliefs he’s inherited. The narrative is based on the myth of Parvati, who, because the mythic love of her mythic life is off somewhere seeking enlightenment, takes matters into her own hands, rubbing herself with scented oil to magically create a son! Similarly, Pooja, one of The Two Krisnhas’ central characters, so single-handedly and so over-protectively raises her temperamental and homophobic son that she succeeds in further alienating her already emotionally stunted workaholic of a husband, who, it turns out, is really off somewhere finding out he’s…gay! And thus the omniscient narrator of The Two Krishnas places the act of coming out on a spiritual level with enlightenment-indeed, a nice, ambitious way to structure a novel.
In any case, Dhalla, his note tells us, “co-founded the South Asian program at the Pacific Asian Aids Intervention Team and is one of the founding members of Satrang, a support group for LGBT and questioning South Asians.”ĭhalla’s ambition is also apparent in The Two Krishnas. Dhalla is also a “passionate activist.” By this I suppose we can infer that some activists, while they are active, are not, in fact, passionate. The Two Krishnas (Magnus Books) is Dhalla’s sophomore outing as a novelist, and in 2008 he apparently wrote, produced and co-directed a “major motion picture” version of his debut.
If the point of a writer’s biographical note is to make it sound like the writer is busy, then Los Angeles-based Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla’s biography certainly does the trick. ‘The Two Krishnas’ by Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla
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