Readers Prejudice(s)

I just finished “The Oleander Girl” – Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. She had become one of my favorite authors after I read “Palace of Illusions”. I followed it up with “Arranged Marriage” & “The lives of strangers”. While in Palace of Illusions the concept itself was so innovative / different that it gives you a different perspective of a tale which has been retold generations after generations. The other two books were more real life and beautifully depicted the up’s & down’s of a relationship & choices we make in our life. What stood out for me was how she could bring out a small & insignificant moment so graphically that I could visualize it, feel the hurt or joy in the deep recess of my heart. Both her books had the background of immigrants & the Bengali milieu – which I love, but after some time it does get repetitive & boring. So I gave her a break & moved on to some other books waiting in my shelf.

The Oleander Girl came recommended to me from a dear friend & I started reading it in earnest, but after a few chapters – everything became so predictable that I kept losing interest. Many elements like the Godhra riots & the Hindu Muslim divide looked force fit & the trappings of a spoilt girl were so clichéd that I was getting bugged as I read. But for my sheer respect & love for the author I finished it last evening.

Looking back, I remembered I had the similar feeling when I read Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri earlier this year & Amitav Ghosh’s 2nd part of the Ibis trilogy – River of Smoke last year. I have read all their books ever published & hero worship them as those rare authors who can spin such human tales so beautifully. Then why do I feel let down? Literally, hurt & angry when the books are not of my expectation. Is it too much of the same thing? Is it that I can peek into the writer’s mind & know what to expect in the next few pages? Have they become jaded in their story telling?

Honestly, I don’t know, but yes I will definitely hesitate before I spend a large amount of money in buying the 3^rd part of Ibis trilogy (for reason unknown – it’s comes in hard bound & is very expensive) or pre-book my copy. I would rather wait for it to come to my reading library or a friend to buy it or maybe I will just try the e-book if it’s cheaper – If I get used to reading books on my pad.

Is it just a reader’s prejudice or Is it simply a devoted reader’s love for his author….If I meet Amitavda’ in his Goa house I will probably ask him over a fenny. Cheers!!

The lives of strangers

We live our life in a blur, most of us. School gives on to college, love, marriage & then suddenly you hit a stage when you know you are reaching the end of the road when you want to look back.

As we live our life day after day, month after month we also go through gut wrenching moments you want to forget – like the day I saw my mom’s body in a gunny back in a room full of such gunny bags stuffed with dead bodies & I was supposed to identify her face, I did not puke but what I have swallowed makes me sick even now as I write about it or the beautiful moment when I took my new born daughter in my hands after she was born & I broke down – These are moments which remain crystal clear in your mind even after 40 yrs - images which come in a rush like you are living it again.

Then there are times when you want to say something but maybe at that moment you did not have the conviction to say those words & they remained in your mind & the sorrow / joy / expectation. The feelings which ran through you gets hidden in some crevices / layers of your heart, maybe mind (I don’t know). 

These hidden feeling, unspoken conversations – creates at times unknown angst, aspirations shapes our view on life, our relationships, our behavior & our whole outlook towards life. And we live your life mostly basis the experiences & its effect it would have had in you at that moment but in the past. Yes in a way at that moment we move on, let it go but in a deeper sense you don’t.  Good, bad, ugly, delightful – these are the images which get stitched in your mind when you look back.

As I read, Chitra Divakurani I relived many of these moments. It was so real & so beautifully written that I could almost touch, feel & live with these characters (being a bong helped) & by doing relive their (mostly) angst & hurt. Short story writing is a difficult art, you have to build the character, the layers of the individual’s character in those 5-6 pages & close the story in a way that the reader keeps thinking about it, toys with the idea / feelings evoked by the stories till he or she moves on to the next book.

She does that with panache’. The fact that the book made me write the blog so that I could turn around my thoughts into a piece of paper is proof enough.

Footnote: I got introduced to Chitra by her BEST - The palace of illusions & went on to read most of her books. This particular piece was written after reading "The lives of strangers" few months back.