Rabbit Rap by Musharraf Ali Farooqi

Previously published in Dawn’s Books & Authors. 

Hot on the heels of Farooqi’s quiet, charming novel about a pehelwan and a tawaif Between Clay and Dust, comes his illustrated novel Rabbit Rap: A Fable for the 21st Century. The two couldn’t be less like each other: where Between Clay & Dust is an introspective, ‘literary’ book with emotionally mature characters, Rabbit Rap is a bit of a fun, low-brow romp in the hay with impulsive, raucous characters unable to stay out trouble. And as the title indicates, these characters each sport a pair of floppy ears, a fluffy little bob-tail and have a serious penchant for giant vegetables. 

Farooqi’s premise for Rabbit Rap was a sudden what if moment: what if rabbits could order flat-packed furniture and housing straight from an Ikea-style catalogue? That’s exactly what the Fat Rabbits Urging Modern Perspectives choose to do, now that they as a species are safely ensconced the ‘post-predatorial age’ in this fable of housing issues,  territorial disputes and environmental manipulation. The FRUMPS are opposed by the OGREs - the Old Generation Rabbit Elders - who believe that life in the warren continues to be the best lifestyle option. Rabbit Hab is Farooqi’s intrepid protagonist - a FRUMP who attempts to lead his family out of the burrows and into the modernity of flat-packed pre-fab homes. He is slighted by Gran-Bunny-Ma, the termagant matriarch of the family who takes control in a coup involving expertly wielded knitting needles. Rabbit Hab ends up part of the ALT - Aboveground Living Trend - and more importantly, involved in the startling results of a farming product known as Vegobese that helps grow ginormous vegetables with some unexpected side effects. Eventually, there is ‘blood sacrifice and a nuclear holocaust approach, and the scientists show their usual lack of imagination in weapon design’ and the lives of Rabbit Hab and Gran-Bunny-Ma continue to cross, but their relationship is just one aspect of this many layered book. And there is never a breath to spare in the constant, unrelenting pace of the novel - Rabbit Rap hops along just as fast and as fun as any rabbit after a giant pumpkin. 

Of course, an obvious question that arises when dealing with a story entirely about rabbits is whether it is anything like that one other book also about anthropomorphic rabbits - Richard Adams’ 1972 epic heroic fantasy Watership Down. Farooqi names Adams’ frightening, brilliant story of tyranny and desperation as ‘one of his all time favourite books’, but chooses to take a lighter tone with his rabbits. Rabbit Rap is just as much of an allegory as Watership Down, but is not as horrific - at least not as obviously so as Adams’ horrific story. ‘I prefer to serve morality as a side order, not the entrée’, says Farooqi. ‘I’m not too big on it, I’m afraid. Look at Gran-Bunny-Ma. She is a crook but saves the world. That’s my kind of hero.’

That’s exactly what makes the characters in Rabbit Rap so easy to like - their very fallibility. None of them is a standard hero - each has his or her agenda and though many may insist everything is for the greater good of a larger community, their methods of saving the world are not what is considered traditionally heroic. Of the multiple leporine personalities explored here, the most memorable is indeed Gran-Bunny-Ma, the conniving elderly matriarch whose methods are not the most transparent. The illustrations depicting her are perfect, with a sneer to the whiskery soft rabbit mouth, oversized bifocals and perpetual aggressive hunch to her back. 

Rabbit Rap started life as a graphic novel, even being nominated for the India ComicCon Award 2012. ‘ I like to work in different genres and I thought it would be a good idea to have Rabbit Rap as a graphic novel’, says Farooqi, ‘but the text and its tone is integral to how the story is told and I did not wish to lose that out to images. Also, we learned that it was rather long story for a graphic novel. It would have filled 900 pages. So all those considerations went into making it an illustrated novel rather than a graphic novel.’ The illustrations in question come from Michelle Farooqi, who is clearly more than a talented artist: her understanding of each rabbit’s personality resonates within the strength of her line drawings. The graphic element in Rabbit Rap adds a great deal of character to the work but never takes away entirely from the element of imagination needed to believe the story. Here, the pictures guide a readers imagination, rather than take it over. 

Farooqi is a writer to watch out for. Not just because he’s good but because he seems dexterous at switching between genres successfully. His main interest lies solidly in the very art of storytelling, no matter what genre he happens to have settled on. His language, whether for adults or children, is never complicated, cloying or patronising in any way - it is always perfectly clear and almost alarmingly simple. Only someone immensely secure about their storytelling skills would choose to use the simplest of styles: Farooqi’s work is storytelling stripped bare, a contemporary take on folkloric style that removes all excesses, all frills of language that may be needed by a less skillful writer. Rabbit Rap may not appeal to all the reader who loved Farooqi’s more serious work, but it is a exciting addition to his steadily growing repertoire.