A Dusky Dawn: First Rays of Hope

By Amrita Chakraborty

Nigeria! Why? Chhobis world is turned upside down when her husband has to suddenly move to what she had heard as the crime, strife and disease-ridden dystopia of West Africa. What she finds when she gets there challenges her in more ways than she ever imagined. From coquettish, vivacious maids to kidnappers who werent bereft of all humaneness, she finds a land where the hardships of everyday life can scarcely hide an indomitably exuberant human spirit.

In Dusky Dawn, Amrita paints a beautiful picture of modern urban Nigerian society through the eyes of an expat, describing her journey from one of ignorant despair to grateful and beholden to Nigerians. Her stories, albeit fictionalized, draw inspiration from the everyday realities of Nigerian lifethe ubiquitousness of the chaos and clutter in the fastest-growing large economy of the African continent and surviving and triumphing in the midst of it. It is a book about how joy, laughter, and happiness are so easily found in places where it would seem impossible to those uninformed of the Nigerian character. It speaks of a land where the beautiful dawn can, at any moment, turn dark by the terror of gunfire; but where also, in the darkest hour of night, hostages may find compassion in dreaded kidnappers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Jun 26, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543700022

Amrita Chakraborty

The author grew up under an overprotective father and later went on to have extremely caring in-laws. She's also an erstwhile bank manager in India’s largest bank, where she spent several years , working under stringent safety guidelines. All in all, her growing up, training and work life, contributed to her being an intensely risk averse person. She had never travelled to Africa and was extremely anxious about going to Nigeria where her husband was posted. But went on to live about four years in Lagos.

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Copyright © 2017 Amrita Chakraborty. All rights reserved.

ISBN

978-1-5437-0001-5 (sc)

978-1-5437-0002-2 (e)

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

www.partridgepublishing.com/india

06/23/2017

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Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

PROLOGUE

Chapter 1   WHERE ON EARTH … IS LAGOS?

Chapter 2   LAGOS @ 36,000 FEET ABOVE SEA

Chapter 3   RULES WERE SIMPLE—YOU EITHER COMPLIED OR YOU WERE WHIPPED TO COMPLY

Chapter 4   WE WERE STUCK. RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE

Chapter 5   SHE WAS THAT IRRESISTIBLE APPLE

Chapter 6   AN UNENDING DRAMA PLAYED OUT EACH DAY

Chapter 7   A LAGOSIAN EPIPHANY

Chapter 8   HE WAS AN ARCHITECT, A NATURALIST, A WILDLIFE AFICIONADO. . .

Chapter 9   THERE WAS GRACE

Chapter 10   THEY LEFT THEIR COLOURS ON HER MEMORIES FOREVER

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I don’t have adequate words for my dad, son and husband for encouraging me to write, when all I had a were a few fuzzy ideas. Without their prodding, their patience in hearing me out with whatever I had, I could have never written this book. And there are hardly enough words to write for young budding Nigerian writer, Peter Otabor, who has not only written the 5th chapter for this book but provided me with valuable insight, information on his great country and given me the mental support to go ahead with this book. Peter is a talented, young budding writer with a passion for empowering people and always ready to help, whenever needed. I’m also very grateful to Ms. Ruby Shekhar of Singapore who would prod and encourage me to write stories for her. And to the many friends, like Indira Ganguly, Medini Pandey, Rachna Bahadur, Anu Gupta, Shalini Biswas, Anu Chawla, Manita Saboo, Sucharita, Sushmita Sen, Sonia Deb and others, all of whom I may not have mentioned here, whose vocal or subtle encouragement propelled me to write this book.

Above all, my book is an acknowledgment of the happy and carefree demeanor of the lay Nigerian whose paths I crossed while in Lagos. I feel an untold gratitude for all those Nigerians who gladly shared their country with me and other expats and I dedicate this book to those innumerable spirited men and women of Nigeria.

PROLOGUE

A few years ago happenstance took me to Lagos in Nigeria, although on the wings of a commercial plane. I lived there three and a half years. It was a journey from bleak expectations to unexpected colors, a path that l hadn’t been able to imagine while in India. The range of my emotions just before and during my sojourn went from utter fearfulness to moments of sheer joy. I decided to capture this kaleidoscope of emotions through a few stories, albeit fictions, which drew inspiration from real life happenings and hearsay. Meaning, I have fictionalized my comprehension of all that l had heard or seen. So the names, settings, surroundings, happenings and other details are fictional but the book portrays the impression of that vibrant country and its exuberant people as it was registering in my mind.

There were few triggers for me to write these stories. One of them was that I had felt disturbed when recently a widely watched international TV channel was discussing whether Indians were racists after some unfortunate incidents. I have never been racist myself so as a corollary I was saddened by the debate of probable racism in India. Historically India had taken into her fold, people from many cultures and races, who were warmly accepted and today are proud Indians. But some of the African interviewees seemed to differ with this universal acceptance. Some averred that they had felt discriminated at some point. Were we becoming more intolerant or were these sporadic cases against one or two Africans, who probably were involved in some sort of wrongdoing? Nonetheless, I felt sad at the need for the discussion more so since I had just returned after spending few years in Lagos and had experienced a life in Nigeria where l had grown to adore much about Nigerians.

So I decided to write a few stories, drawing inspiration from strands of real life incidents and hearsay. It wasn›t an obligation to convey my understanding of life in Nigeria (l was not bound by any contract of fealty). But through the fictional characters in this book, my broad impression of Nigeria today is conveyed. Before I went to live there it was replete with only fears and anxieties. When I pondered about it later, I wasn›t even aware when and how so many fears had creeped in. I know that there’s a natural tendency amongst some people to be afraid or anxious of the unknown. Getting into a new country, specially one that is far from home and unknown (about people and culture) can be daunting for them. I was one such person. But what I did find strange was when many others, like some relatives, friends and acquaintances asked many questions of safety when I told them we were transferred to Nigeria and even asked me to rethink the decision. All of which created my big apprehension. It’s only in hindsight, I wondered whether they would they have asked as many questions if I were going to Chicago, Baltimore, Houston etc. Could it be that these cities, specially Chicago, is even more dangerous than Lagos? And were the negatives about some countries amplified?

Undoubtedly for some expats the start of a Nigerian sojourn is fraught with fear and anxiety. I have known Indians, men and women alike who have been so apprehensive of a Nigerian posting that they barely managed to serve a few months before they resigned and left lucrative jobs. I had also met a newly married Indian couple, the first time I was coming home in a flight from Lagos to Dubai, where the young husband repeatedly asked me how I had felt and coped in my first few months in Lagos. His insistence and persistence in asking me this question made be curious about their experience. And then he blurted that he had got his new bride of twelve days to Nigeria but soon found her homesick, unhappy and slipping into depression. I had quietly asked him, when she was napping, whether she had been a patient of depression before marriage and he had vehemently shaken his head, denying it. Rather seeing my slightly disbelieving expression he asserted with a tad of annoyance that she had been a very spirited girl in the four years that he had known her before their marriage. I hadn’t been able to explain very coherently to them that I empathized and understood their feelings, yet was a little confused about how I would describe my earliest couple of months in Nigeria. I too had been rather apprehensive about going to Nigeria, having been forewarned on issues regarding security by a lady who I had spoken to in India (and who had lived in Nigeria for three years before she along with her family had decided to return back home). These discouraging points of views were those that I had encountered more often, while preparing to go to Nigeria. Yet I found myself a little unsure of giving my young co passengers an exhaustive answer about my earliest days in Lagos as l had set my heart to find out whether what l had heard were fraught with individual biases or the general truth about living in Nigeria.

But when l chanced upon Peter Otabor’s article (what seemed to me an emotionally charged article in a leading newspaper) that Nigeria may represent many things barbaric, primitive and lost, my confusion plumbed a new depth. How would my Nigerian sojourn be? Was it going to be a tenure of hardships and perils or it could it be serendipitous? I didn’t want to be tied down by the negatives, since all societies have it, in varying proportions. So l decided not to be blinded by the mind. Hence, during my stay in Lagos, I decided to talk to as many Nigerians and Indians that I met in the ordinary course of my life. I wanted to find if there were common views that I could generalize and turn as pointers for an average life in Nigeria. I also wanted to know whether Peter’s views were an average view. I saw that Peter was not an exception. I found many Nigerians felt there had been phases of despotic rule. And corruption had kept teeming millions in abysmal poverty whilst a handful roamed in vulgar pomp. They felt that some of the young and unemployed Nigerians were often times inspired by militants, hoodlums and armed robbers to kidnap and kill to fill hungry stomachs. And stories of triumph (against all odds) and wisdom were paled by those of banditry and greed. In Peter’s words, no wonder the black man remains black, his achievements wrought with doubts as men only cling to acceptance in the absence of nothing else. And so the black man’s society is often prejudicially thought as where much isn’t right or bright. This was a view that I came across several times ………..but was it the complete view? Was it even the correct view?

I was asking myself these questions because l was also beginning to hear