And All the Seasons in Between by Arti Jain

Childhood is said to be the golden period of one’s life. And All the Seasons in Between by Arti Jain is the memoir of her childhood. The book has a real as well as a fictionalized version. The protagonist of the real version is Arti, the author herself, and the protagonist of the fictionalized version is Artemis.

All Stories are Same

Like Life of Pi, it doesn’t have two distinct versions. It’s more like the storytelling of the character of Piyush Mishra in the movie Tamasha in which he mixes different stories into one. He starts with the story of Ramayana & midway changes it into the story of Troy. When someone points out, he says that all stories are same irrespective of place & time. I have talked about this aspect of story in terms of a Basic Story Template in my book on storytelling.

In the book And All the Seasons in Between, every chapter starts with the fictional version but ends with the real one. The transition is pretty smooth. It feels like the same story. It’s commendable.

Journey to Promised Land

Artemis grew up in a Field of Wildflowers and dreamed of becoming the Most Green Gardener of all times under the apprenticeship of Papadash the Perfect in his Great Garden. She started her journey with her wild hair blowing in the breeze. Later it was shown that the knots of her unruly hair were being untangled along with the statement that the Truth revealed itself to one who’s ready to see it.

It isn’t a coincidence that ‘Truth’ and ‘Untangling the Knots’ are used together. ‘Untangling the Knots’ is a quite famous symbolism in Sufism. The journey from the Field of Wildflower to the Great Garden is also a symbolism—a symbolism of the journey to the Promised Land. The fictionalized version is more about the Promised Land while the historic version deals with the author’s Golden Period of her childhood.

Representation of Existence

“And the Truth, my dear Artemis, will reveal itself to you when you are ready to see.” Mother answered while stroking Artemis unruly hair, untangling the knots so gently that it felt like a massage to Artemis.

Napoleon Hill in his book Think & Grow Rich said, quoting psychologists, “When one is truly ready for a thing, it puts in its appearance.”

The principle is equally valid in the spiritual as well as the materialistic world. Anyone who has some idea regarding the working of Existence knows it. You’ll find such nuggets of wisdom throughout the book, and they show the depth of the author’s understanding.

As per my understanding of the book, ‘The Gods of All Things’ represents formless Existence, Papadash represents its form, and Papaji could be seen as the human incarnation of Papadash. The story of Artemis talks about spiritualism while the story of Arti deals with the materialistic world.

And All the Seasons in Between & Bhagavad Gita

Arti lived in a joint family with her father-mother, younger sister, uncle-aunty, cousins, and grandfather-grandmother in Dehradun in the 1970s. According to the author, Joint Families are like jalebis: complex, complete, crunchy, & sweet.

On the other hand, Artemis lived with her mother and father who were the Beekeepers of the Valley and believed in the saying: “Half for us and half for the bees.” The same message is conveyed in Arti’s version as well through cows that they fed us & kept us healthy, and it’s one’s duty to look after them with love & care.

They remind me of Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3 Verse 11, which says that foster the gods (nature) and let them foster you, and fostering one another, one attains the highest good.

Lessons in the Book

The book And All the Seasons in Between is rich in all kinds of lessons: spiritual as well as materialistic. The beauty of the book lies in the fact that it could be read by 6 years old as well as the readers beyond the age of 60 years.

For example, the statement: “Understanding comes to those who sit still” fits well in the context of Artemis’s story and could be interpreted in a larger context: The understanding didn’t come to Budhha until he sat still under the Bodhi tree. It didn’t come to him when he was wandering from one Guru to another for it. I have talked about it in my book on Zen Way of Living.

Paradox of Existence

It’s said that the Existence has no beginning & no end. It’s infinite & eternal. In this context, the book is aptly titled as And All the Seasons in Between.

The book illustrates the paradox of Existence in context of Khusrau‘s strange river in which who jumps into it drowns and who drowns, gets across, as well as the balance between the spiritual & material world. It’s said that no enlightenment is possible without being born in the form of a human.

What’s in the Name?

The name doesn’t matter in the spiritual world as the first verse of Tao Te Ching says that the nameless is the beginning of heaven (energy) & earth (matter) and the named is the mother of all things, but the materialistic world is all about name & its fame.

When someone offers you a dish called Loon Kalari or a dish prepared from stale roti, which one would you prefer?

Recipes in And All the Seasons in Between

Well, if you want to taste Loon Kalari, the book has its recipe along with the recipes of rose-petal jam, apple murabba, paneer ke paranthe, & different types of tea. If you think that the description of the recipes would be boring, then let me quote you something from the book:

Tulsi, ginger get rid of fever
Fennel fixes stomach pains
Boil tea with brown cardamoms
And chase away all period pains

And if one morn, your throat feels torn:
Crush a few black peppercorns
To it add an inch of cinnamon stick
And watch how quickly the tea does the trick

Writing Style

The writing is lucid. The flow is amazing. The style is poetic. And their combined effect is intoxicating. The presence of poetries in between the poetic prose works like shots.

Monsoon’s first kiss when he lowers down on Earth and touches her parched, dry lips, erupts like a cloud of perfume. The alchemy of soil and rain, of longing and pain, fills puddles, wells and dry river beds gurgle with songs –‘It’s raining. It’s raining.’

Characterization

The characters are nicely carved out. There’s even a description of how Artemis got her name. The subplot of Summer to depict the pain of Artemis is well executed.

Beji’s Kingdom of Kitchen with the author’s mother & aunty as ministers is fantastic. The story also has the Emperor of the Not so Tasty Foodland, Heads of States of Inediblabad & Pheekapur as well as the Nawab of Beswaadgunj.

Takeaways

If you want to learn the art of developing memorable characters for your story from the people around you or want to master the skill of writing exceptional metaphors or want to have a command on vivid description of events, you must read And All the Seasons in Between by Arti Jain.

If you have no interest in learning the craft of writing but simply want to relive your childhood of stealing fruits from other’s trees, arranging the marriage of dolls, cooking in earthen pots, etc., with all the thoughts, emotions, & sensations of those golden periods, then this is also your book.

You can download the book from Blogchatter.

By the way, if you are interested in knowing how Arti eats mangoes, you should read the book or watch her reading those excerpts from the book here: