One night @the Call Center by Chetan Bhagat

The self hyped youth icon writer Chetan Bhagat seems to put a commendable effort to write his second novel One Night@ the Call Center. Setting the plot at a Call Center in Gugaon Chetan Bhagat tries to represent the life of the Indian youth work in this industry. 

In the beginning of the novel the writer assigns a task to the reader that should get an answer by the time he/she finishes reading the book. The novel has a prologue in which the writer appears himself to sow the seed.

The later part of the story progresses through the eyes of Shyam whom Chetan Bhagat chooses to be the protagonist.  The story progresses through the narration of Shyam that revolves around six Call center employees including him.  The narration progresses smoothly, highlighting the main problems of youngsters in corporate sectors- Dissatisfaction in job, daunting boss, love failure, domestic problems, the Damocles’ sword of lay off and so on.  Each one of them suffers either one or all these dilemmas until they chance meet to death face to face. It’s then they get the call from the God.

The call from the God certainly changes their lives. Their traumas in life find a way out and each one decides to write their own destiny. This is what I like the best in the book and what the God had suggested them for the success in life:

The fourth ingredient is the most painful one. And it is something that all of you still need to learn. Because it is often the most important thing,’ God said.

........................................................................................................................................................

‘....to be really successful, you must face failure. You have to experience it, feel it, taste it, suffer it. Only then can you shine.’ (p.233)

Also, the God tells them where to find him in need. Check inside yourself. If you’re hearing an inner voice that is none other’s but God’s own voice. The book was interesting till this point. Then all of sudden a miracle happened in Chetan Bhagat’s book also.

The later events in One Night@ the Call Center make the reader feel as if watching a Bollywood movie without any logic. When the characters toss each other telling that their normal talks are dramatic or cheesy or lame (p.261); the plot itself turned to be so dramatic. For instance, I can’t imagine people applaud a couple who created a scene and made a traffic block in the peak hours in a metro road. Chetan Bhagat has excused himself of the appearance of God to him by giving the reader the right to choose. I seriously doubt that Chetan Bhagat was planning to make this novel as movie as he reached the final chapters.

Chetan Bhagat intends to represent a major share of the present youngsters in India through this novel. However after reading the novel, I felt that he seems to represent the young men of India through this novel. His view on the lady characters in this novel is partial at times and loss total understanding. ‘Hello, what’s he trying to do?’  That’s exactly what I thought after reading some scenes in this novel.

The adaption of theme from areas unfamiliar to him, must have failed him at times. May be his attempt to successfully narrate the entire story in a short time span of 11 hours, must have put pitfalls in the plot. Definitely, this is not a great work from the writer who has written better books like Five Point Someone and 2 States. As a reader, I appreciate his genuine interest in reviving the Indian youth and his reader friendly writing style. But from the point of view from a literature lover, Chetan Bhagat has a long way to go.. .

Afterword: For the first time I might sound slightly scornful in my views. I am sorry but couldn’t help it!

2 States: The Story of My Marriage by Chetan Bhagat

When someone gets married in India, it’s not to another one individual that they are getting married but to an entire family! Yes, even in this age of modern technology, women empowerment, busy schedules and the new hype of spiritualism, the family dramas are still live, may be with a little more spice in it.  The love marriage, which are supposed to thrive well away from family interferences are also not saved from these dramas.  India’s bestseller writer Chetan Bhagat’s novel 2 States is all about the marriage dramas in India.

Taken excerpts from his own life, Chetan Bhagat narrates the initial trouble that any couple faces in a love marriage. Just like many other lovers in India, the hero and heroine-Krish and Ananya- have to face the basic but complex issues while they decide to get married. The problems may seem weird to anyone outside the India-they have to be loved by each other’s families, they have to combat the ego clashes between families, even being the same nationals they have to adjust the cultural issues and above all they have to keep their love alive in this battle to get married. 

Krish and Ananya eventually win their battle unlike many other lovers who fall apart during these dramas. The story is actually about their strategies to take their marriage to an occasion where their families smile over them. One in an Indian marriage can easily relate to their situations, even those who are in an arranged marriage.

 However I couldn’t stop wondering on one fact. Why marriages are so complex in India? Why families play such a critical, interfering and sometimes annoying role in one’s marital life?

Apart from the main theme, the book also give glimpses of some problems that today’s young generation faces such as family disputes, office politics, cultural discrimination, insecurity in love etc. There is also a part in the novel that put light on the increase of interest in spirituality among Indian youngsters.

Krish visits the Aurobindo Ashramam in Puducherry. It’s a unique experience for him as he opens up his hidden past to the Guruji at the Ashramam. Guruji asks Krish to forgive others who had hurt him in the past. To make this attempt easy the Guruji says:

Forgiving doesn’t make the person who hurts you feel better; it makes ‘you’ feel better. (p. 168)

What the Guruji advice Krish about the past traumas seems to be applicable to most of the readers too. Most of us have heavy bags of ‘anger, pain and loss’ on our heads. Guruji advices Krish:

Imagine you are wearing a thick cloak that is wearing you down. Pardon the hurt that the others caused you. What they did is past. What is bothering today are your current feelings that come from this load. Let it go. (p.169)

Wow! I just loved the book for this advice if for nothing else. 

 The Guruji’s advice revives Krish for some aspects in life for sure. However the later parts of the book also give the thought that life is never easy. Krish cannot apply this advice at many times in his life and there come many hurdles in his way of union with Ananya. Well, I think it’s same with most of us, who tend to forget some soothing advices in critical situations in life.

Overall, 2 States focuses on a major topic for the Indians to discuss-the complexities in Indian marriages. Why it is so complex to get married if you belong to different states, or languages, or religions even after being an Indian? Why should there be racism and prejudice between the people in the same country? Why should there be a rat race between states in the same country to become superior to one another? Krish and Ananya decide not to elope and Krish tell his ideas clearly while stating that elopement is easy but do not curtail the issues

Yes, this stupid biases and discrimination are the reason our country is so screwed up. It’s Tamil first, Indian later. It’s Punjabi first, Indian later. It has to end. (p.102)

I am not intending to say much about the writing style and language that Chetan Bhagat has used in this novel. I read this book with a short span of two days just in time that I finish any easy reading book that doesn’t require much to ponder on. It was just hilarious for me since I’ve witnessed many real life incidents as quoted in this book. The book definitely helped me to look at these real life dramas in a humorous way for some time at least!

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall- Anne Bronte

Set in the familiar Brontë country of Yorkshire, the second and last novel of Anne Brontë, the youngest sister of the Brontë family sketches the similar themes as in other Brontë sisters' novels- love, domestic woes, gender discrimination and struggle of willful woman in the Victorian period!

Helen Graham, the new mysterious tenant of the Wildfell Hall in Shire, soon becomes the center of discussion in the small social circle of Shire. Her story progresses through the perspective of Gilbert Markham, the young farmer from Shire who is in devoted love with her. In his later letters to his brother-in-law, Gilbert explains-how he fell in love with Mrs. Graham, his attempts to woo her, how there arose a rumor about her landlord Mr. Lawrence and Helen; how even Gilbert  falls prone to suspicion at a time and how Helen explained her life story to Gilbert through the medium of her diaries.  

Helen Huntingdon’s life represents the lives of many women in the upper middle class society of the nineteenth century. Fallen prey to a wrong marriage with Arthur Huntingdon of Grassdale, she suffers betrayal, emotional abuse, differences in religious views, attempts of seduction and financial difficulties. However rather than choosing her fate in a calm manner, Helen decides to act. When Helen feels convinced that her ‘strength and purity’ won’t save her husband from ‘the gulf’ (p.206), she decides to save her only son from the bad influence of his father.

Helen’s escapade from her husband takes her to the Shire. As a female artist Helen support herself with her paintings in the male dominated society. The happiness doesn’t last long as the neighbors start to pry on her privacy. Even amidst the rumors, Helen finds her solace in the company of her brother Frederick and Gilbert Markham.

 In the meanwhile, her duty as a wife calls her back to Grassdale to attend the ailing Huntingdon. Anne keeps the reader on anticipation till the final chapter on the question, whether Gilbert Graham’s love will be returned or Arthur Huntingdon would be redeemed?

In this novel the youngest of Brontë sisters points out mistake that many women make while choosing their marriage. The plot has been set in the time period of June 1^st 1821 (as dated in the first entry of Helen’s diary) and June 10^th 1847 (as dated in Gilbert’s letter to his brother in law). Though the theme can be applicable to the particular society and time, the novel’s popularity shows the relevance of theme in the present century and across the continents too.  Even though Helen’s Victorian upbringing is inclined by the traditional Christian/moral view than an overtly feminist one, Anne Brontë has highlighted the significance of women empowerment in this novel. 

At times, while reading this novel, I felt that in contrast to the other Brontë heroines, Helen is somewhat cold and rigid. She doesn’t have the kind attitude of Jane Eyre, passion of Catherine Earnshaw and the caring nature of Agnes Grey. Helen seems to look forward to the rewards after death than that in earth, which makes her insensitive to worldly affairs. . 

The above characteristic of Helen Huntingdon may be attributed to the writing style of Anne Brontë. Written under the pseudonym of Acton Bell, Anne Brontë never preferred the art of employing romance and melodrama to a realistic fiction. The realism in her works certainly makes her work so captivating but leave some cold attributes in her characters. 

After all, many women readers that Anne Brontë was addressing belonged to the above category of Victorian society. Trapped in the pretension of happy marriages, many of them must have found their own lives in this book. Though many critics slammed this book as written by the Brontë without genius, the novel definitely appeals to the major evils in a Victorian society-unhappy marriages, alcoholism and social prejudices. 

When the reader approaches the Tenant of Wildfell Hall as an art of fiction than criticizing it, she/ he can’t stop appreciating the style of writing. Anne Brontë has made the drama effective with the style of a story within a story. Each character in this novel might be representing one of the characters in the Victorian society that Brontë must have acquainted with. Also, she doesn’t put the blame for discord in marriages entirely on women. She also portrays Annabelle who ruins her own marriage with infidelity. Also, she must have tried to portray evil effects of licentiousness and distinguished moral standards of the Victorian period through a cognizant, perceptive style of her characters. Tenant of Wildfell Hall definitely requires a loud applause for this attempt.

The Queen of Dreams

...life is nothing but a dream
From which I will wake into death,
which is nothing but a dream of life.
(p.19)

Most of the people do dream! There are people who never give a second thought to their dreams. There are people who obsessively try to sort out the meaning of their dreams. There are some others in whom, the dreams will live for some time and fade out soon. Chitra Divakaruni Bannerjee’s Queen of Dreams is for those who dare to dream!

The plot evolves between Mrs. Gupta-the queen of dreams and her daughter Rakhi-a budding painter. Their lives designed in two extreme poles and the daughter always tries to find out the mysterious aspects of her mother’s life. However, Mrs. Gupta passes away without giving an answer either to Rakhi or her husband.

Rakhi later find out her mother’s dream journals in the private room, which had been a forsaken place in the house. Through these dream journals, her mother explains her life, its mysteries, its miseries and her love towards the husband and only daughter. These letters also help to build up the father- daughter relationship in a curious way.

Rakhi’s life set in a different land, culture and caliber flows in a different current than her mother’s had been. She faces the financial insecurity; as a single mother, she is threatened of her daughter’s love; as a budding artist, she finds vagueness in her way; in her small business she gets the challenges from the worst competitors ever; in a later period she has to encounter the ugly tentacles of racism in land where she was born- and all these time Rakhi feels that some mysterious power emanated from her mother protects her all around!

Well, it’s not only Rakhi’s mother who possesses mysteries in her world. From the man in the woods to Rakhi’s daughter, from Rakhi’s father to the manager in JAVA shop, her close friend Belle to Eliana, others too imply mysteries to Rakhi’s life. It should be comprised to say that all goes well in the end. Rakhi learns to let go the unsolved mysteries and unforgotten maladies. 

Chitra Divakaruni Bannerjee has once again let alive the feel of Indian magic amidst a foreign culture. She has brought together the beautiful co-existence of two cultures through the mother and daughter who seems to be emotionally alienated, but shares the strongest bond beneath!

In this novel, Chitra Divakaruni Bannerjee gives a subtle implication that once you are out of your country of birth, the natural magical powers imparted to you by that place diminishes. There is no clear indication on whether Jona’s visionary gifts, supposedly inherited from her grandmother would benefit or diminish by the contact with the Western culture. Like many of her former literary works, she has set the plot in the United States and made the characters as immigrant Indians from Calcutta. The author has shown one of the predominant ABCD (American born confused desi) syndromes among many expatriates through Rakhi’s friend Belle (Balwinder Kaur). 

The novel leaves many unanswered questions to the reader at the end. That may be the beauty of this novel adding to the wisdom imparted about the dreams. However, I personally feel that the book is not up to the usual standard of Chitra Divakaruni Bannerjee. I site this novel as a reflection of Mistress of Spices at many instants. Surprisingly, the language also looses the Bannerjee beauty unlike in her other works. Well, there are ups and downs for all artists.

Afterword: There is an idea that I most liked in this book:

As an artist, Rakhi never likes to get disturbed during her creative time.

“She tried to explain to Sonny once. How at a certain moment the colors take over the eyes, the hands. How she must surrender her body their rhythm. How, until the movement is done, nothing else matters.

 

She had not expected him, who was not an artist, to understand.

....................................................................................................................................................................................................But as she was taking the dishes to the sink, he murmured, ‘It’s like being in the middle of lovemaking, isn’t it?’”

(p 11-12)

Prisoner Of Tehran

Sometimes some books make way to our hands with a purpose. Marina Nemat’s Prisoner of Tehran is such a one for me. I bought this book, thinking as one of the other books that detail the troubles in a Muslim dominated society. But the book captivated me from the first page itself and opened up a world that was totally alien to me.

Marina Nemat’s Prisoner of Tehran is an autobiography of the author’s life in ‘Evin,’ the notorious prison in Tehran. Aged sixteen, Marina Nemat from an expatriate Russian family in Iran got arrested for reasons that may be incomprehensible for people outside Iran. The two years that she’d spent at Evin contoured the rest of her life. The tortures and painful memories at a time encumber Marina and at the same time give her an insight to the world outside.

The narration is interwoven between Marina’s memories of life inside and outside the Evin. As any other girl in Iran during Iranian revolution of 1979, Marina Nemat also had to witness tragedies happening around her and to suffer the loss of her dear one. This must have sowed the seeds of self assertion in her. However, her modest actions for justice changed her life dramatically.

After being arrested by the revolutionary guards in 1982, Marina Nemat was tortured and later sentenced to death in Evin. However a prominent guard named Ali Mousavi took an interest in Marina and she was taken away from death to the position of his secret bride. Marina had to get converted into Islam during this time. All along her life with Ali, Marina grew hopeless of her return to the life she’d always cherished. She was growing accustomed to love Ali and bear him the first child, when Ali got shot by the revolutionary guards involved in a conspiracy against him.

Ali’s last words to his parents saved Marina from the life in Evin. As she puts it, Ali had saved her life twice, once from the gun point and the second time from the life at Evin. Marina returned to her life with her parents who were unable to protect her during all these mishap. She then took the courage to marry Andre-her love before arrest-against the Islamic law. Though she got the threat of arrest once again for this, Ali’s parents and friends lend the support for Marina. 

Marina and André decide to leave for Canada. Though her parents couldn’t help her, her guardian angel again came for help and Andre could secure the money needed for the security deposit at Evin. Life turned out to be normal for some time at Canada for Marina. However soon the memories returned and nightmares began. None had asked her about the life at Evin and the painful memories suffocate her. Soon Marina out poured her memories into the paper and here came out one of the most edifying memoirs- The Prisoner of Tehran.

After Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, this novel got the same effect on me. Even though Marina Nemat hasn’t listed all the atrocities that had happened inside Evin, her writing is apt for evoking the realization of suffering to the reader. Through the form of fiction, the book also educates the reader of the political scenario of Iran prior to and after the Iranian revolution. 

Marina also draws the futility of violent revolutions through a comparison of her life with that of her grandmother’s. Her grandmother had suffered losses similar to hers during Russian revolution. However these new governments never proved to be better than the previous one to provide a better living for the society. People suffered and suffered!

It seems, the atrocities that are still happening with Evin, also prompted Marina to write this memoir. She has dedicated this book also to Zahra Kazemi, the Canadian-Iranian journalist who got brutally killed in Evin in 2003.

Marina Nemat presently works with people who assist social welfare. Her second book After Tehran: A Life Reclaimed got published in Septmeber 2010. To know more about Marina Nemat also visit her website http://www.marinanemat.com Marina Nemat’s Facebook Profile http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Marina-Nemat/56366503068 

Afterword: Just after reading Prisoner Of Tehran, I took the courage to mail her. Her reply showed her real self, “There is a lot of suffering in this world, and if we don't know about it, we cannot help it.”

Memoirs Of A Geisha!

I didn’t come across Arthur Golden’s Memoirs Of Geisha by sheer accident. I was planning to buy the book ever since 2004. However, I mistook the term ‘Geisha’ just as the Westerners took it and always put aside the purchase. Therefore, when the book came to my hands as a gift, I realized that I am destined to read it.

From the very first page, you feel like living in Japan feeling its unexplored lands and a time prior to the World War. The story unfolds through the memories of the successful Geisha Nitta Sayuri who spends her old age in New York. Though Nitta Sayuri is an imaginative character of Arthur Golden, the passion of her for the bygone time reflects in the introductory pages.

“Sayuri chose me as her amanuensis, to be sure, but she may have been waiting for the right candidate to present herself.” (p.vii)

As the reader begins to read, a usual question arises. “Why did Sayuri want her story told?”(P.vii) unlike many other Geishas, she didn’t choose to keep her secrets. Why? Though not explicitly written, the answer comes to the reader’s mind as the book progresses.

The life of Geisha was not the choice of a simple girl ‘Chiyo’ born in the fishermen’s village of Yoroido. But just a pebble fallen into a river, her life takes her away from Yoroido to Kyoto to become one of its successful Geishas named ‘Nitta Sayuri’.

When the novel initiates the reader with the dilemmas of a helpless girl in the beginning pages, it soon takes the reader to the world of Geishas without even being realized of it. As a reader leaf through the pages, they may get so familiar with the lives of Geishas, their customs, manners, competitions, hard works, dilemmas etc.

The novel has its later settings in the backdrop of Second World War. The writer sketches the hardships of Second World War without even pointing at it directly but through the eyes of Sayuri. The earnest mind of the Japanese to hope amidst hardships after the world war has brought out a new realm in Sayuri’s life. She struggles along with the business magnets in Japan to bring forth a new thriving phase into their country.

The course of life eventually takes Sayuri from Japan to New York. She discovers the scope for a business venture in New York through her experiences as a Geisha. As her old age withers day by day, she meets the author whom she confides her life in.

As one finishes the story, the fact on why Sayuri chose to write the novel becomes clear. She wanted to wipe out the wrong notions about a ‘Geisha.’ A Geisha is not a prostitute but an artist. It’s true that she entertains the men but, the relationship is bound with customs. Sayuri also sketches the time of Japan in the backdrop of her life story for those to revive the history. As she speaks the last lines, she not only speaks about herself but on the history of her country itself.

"But now I know that our world is no more permanent than a wave rising in the ocean. Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they blend into a wash, just like watery ink on paper." (P.439)

Author: Arthur Golden
Publishers: Vintage Classics
Price: 232 Rs/-

Eragon & Eldest-The Fantasy Continues After Harry Potter!

Once you become a fan of Harry Potter series, it is only natural to leaf through any other books from the fantasy genre that comes your way. On the more, if the second series that comes into your hand is the Twilight series, the interest all the more builds. However after these dives into the fantasy world, a reading of Eragon might take you back to the world of literature.

The gist of the two books can be summarized as this-a peasant boy finds the dragon egg, the dragon hatches for him, enemies locate him and murder his uncle, a village bard escorts him to flee, the boy gets introduced into the real world, acquaints with supernatural powers, win the war against a fierce enemy, pursues a challenging romance and finds out the secret of his life etc...

The beginning pages of Eragon will definitely raise the interests of a fantasy reader. However as one reads through, there are striking similarities between the Harry Potter series and Eragon. The protagonists are teenage boys orphaned in their childhood. While Harry Potter is under the guardianship of his unsympathetic aunt and family, Eragon is under the care of his loving uncle and family. They are initially unaware of their rightful supernatural world and bumps into that blindfolded.



Once Harry Potter and Eragon reach the supernatural world, they become the heroes or saviours of that world. Both of them have to fight against mighty magicians who have distorted their lives as well as the society. There is all right to believe that Christopher Paolini was influenced by the concept of ‘Dementors’ in Harry Potter series while depicting Ra’azac in Eragon. Both these evil sect of creatures can glide through air, can drain their enemy of emotions, do always hide under their hoods and emulate foul breath. There are elves (though in different provisos), use of magic and conspiracies that can be traced as the binding forces between two books.

The influence from J.K.Rowling can be attributed to the author’s teenage while writing Eragon. However, while taking the author’s age into consideration, the series are a promise for the wonderful tales that have to come out from his pen. Christopher Paolini has discovered a brilliant secret of magic that Rowling had missed in her wizard series. That only makes the Eragon a little more interesting than Harry Potter series. However, the readers will definitely hope that he’ll miss out unnecessary adventures and incoherent events in his forthcoming books.

One more last point to be noted here is the author’s inclination towards Indian ideas and rituals. The name of the elven princess Arya, the rigorous ‘Rimag’ practice that is a duplication of ‘Indian Yoga’, the advocacy of vegetarianism and the narration of the power of nature are based on Indian culture. Being an Indian, I enjoyed noticing these espouses.

I couldn’t like Eragon as I liked Harry Potter series. This may be because; I read the teenage wizard’s adventures prior to the teenage dragon rider’s adventures. On the whole, I enjoyed reading Eragon and Eldest. I always have the feeling that if characters can communicate with me in my dreams, that book has got into me. I slept with the whispers of Eragon, Saphira, Brom and Arya around me, while reading these books. In that way, I am happy to get these books into my hands. Keep flying Eragon and Saphira; there are people who need to meet you!