DELINQUENT CHACHA

by Mehta Ved ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 12, 1967

This enchanting introduction to the latest Seeker of the Dream in the character of an expansive Indian, Delinquent Chacha, is also a gentle poke at the mores of East-West coufrontation. Chacha (""Uncle""), a middle-aged, prolific disastrously incompetent member of a distinguished Indian family, had given himself the name ""delinquent"" as a rueful comment on his status as the errant growth and unruly phenomenon which it is his family's blessed privilege to urture and support. However, Chacha is above all a stylist, a constructor of elegancies in the drama of life's divine fringe benefits--from regal British attitudes in her formerly wide dominions, to the singing fantasy of the Taj Mahal. Chacha is so taken with the conviction that the salutary effects of the late mass of doings of the Colonial British in India could be extended, in grace, to him that he feels no qualms in placing the title C.M.G. (Companion in the Order of St. Martin and St. George) after his name. This adopted title leads eventually, after his arrival in England, to a remarkable transposition from the humble status of porter in an Indian restaurant to a glorious speech at Oxford and orations in a courtroom where British law is put to the supreme test. Seen through the eyes of his modest nephew, Chacha's career--its moments of poetic exultation rivalling the forensic skill of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N--is a joyous and hilarious view of the sunny side of Colonial India and the delights of wily innocence.

Pub Date: April 12, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1967

Categories: FICTION