History without context

This is a difficult work to describe, leave alone classify. Take the title. It suggests that the author's great-grandfather (the titular character) had possibly a consequence comparable to that of the Mohan, Mahatma Gandhi, as far as the British Empire was concerned. It doesn't take the reader long to discover the presumptuousness of it, since Mohanlal Killawala was nothing of that ilk; he was a mere blip in the Empire in the Indian Ocean and does not merit even a footnote.

- SHREEKANT SAMBRANI

For the record, the said gentleman, born into a Mumbai vania family on the fringes of business (being mostly clerks and bookkeepers) originally from Surat, was bitten with wanderlust and sailed first to Mauritius at the start of the 20th century, got married there to a young girl possibly of Indian and Creole origin, moved to Durban in Natal (the Union of South Africa was yet to be formed). He tried for a court interpreter's job, among other things and somehow managed to get it, after some failed attempts. He clerked with some White solicitors' firms, tried to move to Transvaal, was a fringe participant in one of Gandhi's anti-permit satyagrahas, may have undergone a brief imprisonment, before coming back to India in the 1910s. He wanted to go to South Africa again and even sought advice and help from Gandhi who had earlier returned home for good.

With all due respect for the author's affection for her ancestor, the above does not quite sound inspirational, not even interesting, for a narration. Somewhere in her prolonged search for her roots, even she might have become aware of this. That is why Mohanlal makes so few appearances in her tale. He actually disappears for long stretches, which is when she fills up the space with the real Mohan. She browses through the South African records of Gandhi, visits the many locales associated with him and talks to some who may have handed down memories to share.