The Shawshank Redemption is about Andy Dufresne, an investment banker who is wrongly implicated in his infidel wife's murder, and is sent to the Shawshank Penitentiary in Maine. And how he comes to terms with his destiny. Realising he has a lot of time in his hands, he starts to occupy himself in a variety of things to keep busy. He begins to make himself a chess set carving the rocks with a jack hammer, gets the prison library into order, writes letters every week to request the authorities to provide an allowance to enhance the library, and begins to teach English. But mainly, he helps the jailors evade some tax, and makes the warden a cool wad of money, by handling his financial deals. Until one day, his English student reveals to him the truth of a lifetime.
Forrest Gump is all about man's achievement. It's about how Forrest, a crippled child, realises his strength and takes life head on. He gains his legs back, and runs like a man possessed. His running earns him a place in college, and he gets his degree by playing football all through college. He gets into the army, and goes to the Vietnam. He meets Bubba, from whom he learns all there is to the shrimp business. During the war, he also learns to play ping-pong and gets selected to the national team. He returns from the Nam with a Medal of Honor, and sets up the shrimp business to keep the promise made to his dead friend Bubba, and makes a big fortune out of it. With nothing left to do, he does what he does best - running. He runs all over the country for three years, and finally says, "I'm pretty tired now, I think I will go home."
I can't but draw comparisons between these two movies. Both are superlative, and hold your attention from the start till the end. While The Shawshank Redemption is all about patience, and willpower, Forrest Gump is about humility and simplicity. While Andy comes across as an extremely willed person, with a sound mind to draw a long term plan, and has the patience to implement it, Forrest is your local village simpleton. Yet both are ingrained with an exemplary zest for life. Both have good mentors, Andy in Red, and Forrest in his mother.
Both movies have beautiful lines which sum up the gist of life in the most marvellous manner ever, and mould your attitude towards life. The Shawshank Redemption - "Get busy living, or get busy dying." and Forrest Gump - "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you gonna get."
The Ladies Coupe by Anita Nair is about the life of a single middle-aged woman, and her pathos. Ladies Coupe reads like One Night at the Call Center, where four-five stories are woven around a central character. Akhila is your typical Tam-Bram lady, and the story begins as she enters a train to escape from her dreary life of being a daughter, a sister, an aunt and basically the provider for a family where she has no existence of her own, where she has no one to ask her about HER welfare.
As she sits in the coupe, she meets other passengers in her compartment, and delves into their lives, and realises everyone has problems, and viewpoints of looking at them. She meets an aged lady, who thinks that the happiness of a woman lies in the happiness of her husband and family; a middle-aged teacher, who overwhelmed by her husband's self-importance and lack of affection for her, seeks revenge by feeding him and making him an obese glutton, thereby making him lose his self-respect and come back to her; another lady who was the embodiment of the perfect orthodox daughter and wife, until her husband takes her ona trip abroad, and she realises what she was missing out on; a fourteen year old, who perceives what her parents cannot, and does things that others consider sacrilege; and finally, a house-maid, whose life is a pathetic kaleidoscope of poverty, unwed pregnancy, lesbianism and bisexuality.
All this is beautifully woven against Akhila's own life, her father's death at an early age, her being the 'man' of the family, and the parasitic attachment of her sister's family to her money. The story travels deep into her own life, bringing out her strengths and her realisation of her wants. The book does not give any answers, but leaves you with Akhila at her hotel, where you stand with her, having been a spectator to her whole life, as she looks out into the sea.
After the two movies and the book, I strangely feel, Akhila would have enjoyed watching The Shawshank Redemption and Forrest Gump, as she broods on her own life. Life, indeed is a box of chocolates, you never know what you gonna get, but you have to move on - either getting busy living, or getting busy dying.
Showing posts with label Books and Literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books and Literature. Show all posts
Monday, August 28, 2006
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Bengal and Indian English literature
Shobhaa De: Arguably India's most recognised woman writer. Popular for her sauce-n-sleaze novels like "Sultry Days", "Starry Nights", "Socialite Evenings" etc. Comes across in her columns as a hardcore feminist, though she has herself said she's not a male basher.
Jhumpa Lahiri: Most promising writer on the Indian fiction front. Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for "Interpreter of Maladies". Her other novel "The Namesake" is being made into a movie of the same name by Mira Nair.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni: American Book Award in 1996 for "Arranged Marriage". Other novels include "The Mistress of Spices" (being made into a movie of the same name, starring Ash Rai) and "Sister of my Heart" (being made into a Tamil soap by Suhasini Maniratnam).
Sagarika Ghose: Senior Editor with the Indian Express, and prior to that, worked as a journalist for The Times of India and Outlook. Her first novel "The Gin Drinkers" is a comedy of manners set in Delhi’s cocktail circuit. Second novel "Blind Faith" will hit the stands late this year. Married to Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN.
Gayatri Mazumdar: Worked as a journalist at the Press Trust of India, The Independent, All India Radio and Debonair (where she also edited the Poetry Page). Her first Anthology of Poems (in English) - "Shout" - has recently been published by Sampark, New Delhi, India. It includes her poems written since she was nineteen till the most recent ones.
Bharati Mukherjee: National Book Critics' Circle Award for best fiction for "The Middleman and Other Stories". She has taught creative writing at Columbia University, New York University, and and Queens College, and is currently professor of English at the University of California at Berkeley
Do you see what I see? Make a list of women writers of India, and these would prominently figure in the list. All of them have a Bengali connection, having born or being educated in Calcutta. Those who are abroad are either first generation emigrants (Bharati, Chitra) or were born to Indian parents (Jhumpa).
The connection reflects in their writings too. I haven't read Sagarika, Gayatri or Bharati, yet. But Chitra and Jhumpa's writing teem with the Bengali flavour. In "Arranged Marriage", Chitra brings out beautifully the angst of a would-be Bengali brides, her romantic longing for a Mills-and-Boons type guy to sweep her off her feet, the elaborate rituals of the conservative Bengali family, the vivid expressions of a new bride in an unknown US city, where the only other Bengali she knows is her husband...
Jhumpa too conjures the same magic in "The Namesake". In the uncertainty of a young girl who settles with her husband in the US, and how she misses the wide terraces of her ancestral home in Calcutta, she brings out the taste of Bengal through minute descriptions of the food and living. The once-a-year visits to Calcutta, the other Bengali families, who live cities apart, but gather for celebration of Naba Barsha and Durga Pujo as if they were relatives...
Shobhaa De, however tries to keep the connection toned down in her writings, but occasionally it does show up in some of her columns. Shobhaa, in any case, converts all her novels into a feminist, male bashing conundrum. I have read a couple of her novels, and believe me, I never went ahead of her sex-sleaze-scorned woman-male bashing angle.
These writers, combined with the likes of Vikram Seth, Amitava Ghosh et al prods me to look in awe at the contribution of Bengal to Indian English literature. Add a bygone era and you have innumerable stalwarts to adorn your list.
Is it just coincidence, or is it something with the Bengali life and roots?
Jhumpa Lahiri: Most promising writer on the Indian fiction front. Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for "Interpreter of Maladies". Her other novel "The Namesake" is being made into a movie of the same name by Mira Nair.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni: American Book Award in 1996 for "Arranged Marriage". Other novels include "The Mistress of Spices" (being made into a movie of the same name, starring Ash Rai) and "Sister of my Heart" (being made into a Tamil soap by Suhasini Maniratnam).
Sagarika Ghose: Senior Editor with the Indian Express, and prior to that, worked as a journalist for The Times of India and Outlook. Her first novel "The Gin Drinkers" is a comedy of manners set in Delhi’s cocktail circuit. Second novel "Blind Faith" will hit the stands late this year. Married to Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN.
Gayatri Mazumdar: Worked as a journalist at the Press Trust of India, The Independent, All India Radio and Debonair (where she also edited the Poetry Page). Her first Anthology of Poems (in English) - "Shout" - has recently been published by Sampark, New Delhi, India. It includes her poems written since she was nineteen till the most recent ones.
Bharati Mukherjee: National Book Critics' Circle Award for best fiction for "The Middleman and Other Stories". She has taught creative writing at Columbia University, New York University, and and Queens College, and is currently professor of English at the University of California at Berkeley
Do you see what I see? Make a list of women writers of India, and these would prominently figure in the list. All of them have a Bengali connection, having born or being educated in Calcutta. Those who are abroad are either first generation emigrants (Bharati, Chitra) or were born to Indian parents (Jhumpa).
The connection reflects in their writings too. I haven't read Sagarika, Gayatri or Bharati, yet. But Chitra and Jhumpa's writing teem with the Bengali flavour. In "Arranged Marriage", Chitra brings out beautifully the angst of a would-be Bengali brides, her romantic longing for a Mills-and-Boons type guy to sweep her off her feet, the elaborate rituals of the conservative Bengali family, the vivid expressions of a new bride in an unknown US city, where the only other Bengali she knows is her husband...
Jhumpa too conjures the same magic in "The Namesake". In the uncertainty of a young girl who settles with her husband in the US, and how she misses the wide terraces of her ancestral home in Calcutta, she brings out the taste of Bengal through minute descriptions of the food and living. The once-a-year visits to Calcutta, the other Bengali families, who live cities apart, but gather for celebration of Naba Barsha and Durga Pujo as if they were relatives...
Shobhaa De, however tries to keep the connection toned down in her writings, but occasionally it does show up in some of her columns. Shobhaa, in any case, converts all her novels into a feminist, male bashing conundrum. I have read a couple of her novels, and believe me, I never went ahead of her sex-sleaze-scorned woman-male bashing angle.
These writers, combined with the likes of Vikram Seth, Amitava Ghosh et al prods me to look in awe at the contribution of Bengal to Indian English literature. Add a bygone era and you have innumerable stalwarts to adorn your list.
Is it just coincidence, or is it something with the Bengali life and roots?
Friday, November 18, 2005
One night @ the call center
I picked up this book in no time, as I was more than impressed by Chetan Bhagat's first book - Five point someone. While his first book talked of the youth in IIT, striving to make it big, this book, coming in quick succession deals with the life and pressures of the youth working in call centers.
"One night at the call center" is about six people who work in a call center, supporting US clients. Shyam, Varun, Military Uncle, Priyanka, Esha and Radhika are a team, who support WASG at the Connexions Call Center in Gurgaon. How their life is, and the pressures they undergo at work, and what happens on one night when the systems are down, and everyone's personal lives take precedence over their work life forms the crux of the novel.
Chetan, by his own admission, is a lot like Shyam, so he takes the oppurtunity to tell the story through Shyam. Shyam and Priyanka are college friends, who have landed up here after college. They have been going around since college, and have now broken up, even though both have feelings towards each other. Shyam considers himself a loser. Even though he is the team leader for the other five, he constantly lets their manager Bakshi run over them. He just cant stand up and say no to his manager, and is constantly upset over this.
Priyanka lives with her mother and brother, and is always at loggerheads with her mother because she is biased. She allows Priyanka's brother certain freedoms which are no-no for Priyanka. Every time Priyanka goes out, there is a fight...sometimes about the clothes she wears, sometimes about the lack of a necklace, and sometimes just for the heck of it. She knows about Shyam, and is not ready to marry off Priyanka to a fellow who is not "well settled" in life. Shyam knows about this and this was the chief reason she broke up with him.
Esha is a pretty girl, with modelling as her dream career. She is in the call center to earn herself a regular income, while looking out for breaks in the modelling industry. Ever a tip-top personality, she has an impeccable dressing sense, and Priyanka and Radhika look up to her for tips. She is the 'hot' girl on the floor and the WASG bay lights up as soon as she enters the floor.
Radhika is married to Anuj, and being a love marriage, she happily takes up the treatment meted out to her by her ultra orthodox in-laws. A small frown on her face while fixing up milk for her mother in law, especially when the cab is waiting for her to pick her up for the shift, is reason enough for her MIL to complain to Anuj, who works elsewhere. Radhika can't stand it when Anuj takes his mother's side, ignoring to acknowledge the efforts she takes.
Varun, or Vroom, is a happy go lucky guy. He loves speed and survives on pizza. Cars, bikes and gadgets are his first love, and the internet his way to get information on them. In office, he is Shyam's deputy, and out of office, he is his best pal. Known to ride at breakneck speeds, he too has a dark side to his life, like Radhika and Esha. His parents are separated, yet fight with each other daily over the phone. He is constantly upset over this. Like Shyam, he is also upset how Bakshi, their manager, runs their lives.
Military Uncle is a name given to an retired army officer, who is in their team, and gives email support to the customers. He was thrown out of his house by his son due to excessive preaching of Gandhian principles, and trying to interfere into their lives. Now he lives here alone, while his son is in the US. He is however fond of his grandson, and keeps in touch with him through email.
Chetan intertwines all their lives beautifully into one night, and on that night, the systems fail, and their dark sides emerge to shake them up. Misunderstandings, flaring of temper, clash of egos, and the feeling of revolting against life itself consumes all of them, until that one phone call. The call comes from God. What happens next is not revealed here, and you will have to read the book for that.
Like Five Point Someone, this book too is written in first person, and in trademark fashion, teeters on the edge of reality. Chetan has this habit of making certain things very Bollywoodish and truly filmy. Like the way in FPS where Ryan, Alok and Hari try to steal the question papers from the HoD's chamber, here too, these guys, in the middle of their shift, borrow the Qualis from their driver and go for a drive at 3 a.m. He has taken the liberty of going into flashback, a la Saathiya, even as the narrative moves slickly ahead. But towards the end, he begins to sound like Paulo Coelho, with his phone call from God coming in. Practical persons like me, fail to relate with such things. Chetan goes on, on topics of goodness and responding to the "inner call". But two pages hence, he regains his groove and the narrative, like their Qualis, shifts gears and moves into overdrive.
Chetan has mastered the art of relating to his readers. FPS got a standing ovation, inspite of his filmy liberties, because we, as collegians had done or heard all the experiences he weaves into the story. In fact, this book will be an instant hit in BPO hubs like Bangalore, Pune, Gurgaon and Hyderabad because he deftly handles topics which the current generation in call centers face. Response times, timed breaks, Average Handling time, foreign accents, creepy bosses, cab drivers...you name it...he has incorporated it. The most impressive aspect is the way Chetan highlights the manager, Bakshi's lingo ...supervisory stuff is strong future potential ... his secretiveness is confidential management priority ... delay in action for the problem at hand is looking at the big picture ... waiting to make a decision is looking for a methodical game plan ... calling up onsite for something is being proactively involved. Most of India's youth, which works in the BPO sector will definitely relate with each and every challenge described....
However, there is the uncertainty of how God's phone call will be taken. Chetan gives an explanation into why he used it, and why he wrote this story in the first place, but all that is better enjoyed with the book in your hands and chips by your side. This will be Chetan's double whammy, but this is definitely not as unputdownable as Five Point Someone. Also, unlike Ryan's future in FPS, you can predict the end quite effortlessly here. I read FPS in four hours flat, but the temptation of 'Chocolate' on TV drove me to drop this a couple of times. I took around six hours for this, cover to cover.
"One night at the call center" is about six people who work in a call center, supporting US clients. Shyam, Varun, Military Uncle, Priyanka, Esha and Radhika are a team, who support WASG at the Connexions Call Center in Gurgaon. How their life is, and the pressures they undergo at work, and what happens on one night when the systems are down, and everyone's personal lives take precedence over their work life forms the crux of the novel.
Chetan, by his own admission, is a lot like Shyam, so he takes the oppurtunity to tell the story through Shyam. Shyam and Priyanka are college friends, who have landed up here after college. They have been going around since college, and have now broken up, even though both have feelings towards each other. Shyam considers himself a loser. Even though he is the team leader for the other five, he constantly lets their manager Bakshi run over them. He just cant stand up and say no to his manager, and is constantly upset over this.
Priyanka lives with her mother and brother, and is always at loggerheads with her mother because she is biased. She allows Priyanka's brother certain freedoms which are no-no for Priyanka. Every time Priyanka goes out, there is a fight...sometimes about the clothes she wears, sometimes about the lack of a necklace, and sometimes just for the heck of it. She knows about Shyam, and is not ready to marry off Priyanka to a fellow who is not "well settled" in life. Shyam knows about this and this was the chief reason she broke up with him.
Esha is a pretty girl, with modelling as her dream career. She is in the call center to earn herself a regular income, while looking out for breaks in the modelling industry. Ever a tip-top personality, she has an impeccable dressing sense, and Priyanka and Radhika look up to her for tips. She is the 'hot' girl on the floor and the WASG bay lights up as soon as she enters the floor.
Radhika is married to Anuj, and being a love marriage, she happily takes up the treatment meted out to her by her ultra orthodox in-laws. A small frown on her face while fixing up milk for her mother in law, especially when the cab is waiting for her to pick her up for the shift, is reason enough for her MIL to complain to Anuj, who works elsewhere. Radhika can't stand it when Anuj takes his mother's side, ignoring to acknowledge the efforts she takes.
Varun, or Vroom, is a happy go lucky guy. He loves speed and survives on pizza. Cars, bikes and gadgets are his first love, and the internet his way to get information on them. In office, he is Shyam's deputy, and out of office, he is his best pal. Known to ride at breakneck speeds, he too has a dark side to his life, like Radhika and Esha. His parents are separated, yet fight with each other daily over the phone. He is constantly upset over this. Like Shyam, he is also upset how Bakshi, their manager, runs their lives.
Military Uncle is a name given to an retired army officer, who is in their team, and gives email support to the customers. He was thrown out of his house by his son due to excessive preaching of Gandhian principles, and trying to interfere into their lives. Now he lives here alone, while his son is in the US. He is however fond of his grandson, and keeps in touch with him through email.
Chetan intertwines all their lives beautifully into one night, and on that night, the systems fail, and their dark sides emerge to shake them up. Misunderstandings, flaring of temper, clash of egos, and the feeling of revolting against life itself consumes all of them, until that one phone call. The call comes from God. What happens next is not revealed here, and you will have to read the book for that.
Like Five Point Someone, this book too is written in first person, and in trademark fashion, teeters on the edge of reality. Chetan has this habit of making certain things very Bollywoodish and truly filmy. Like the way in FPS where Ryan, Alok and Hari try to steal the question papers from the HoD's chamber, here too, these guys, in the middle of their shift, borrow the Qualis from their driver and go for a drive at 3 a.m. He has taken the liberty of going into flashback, a la Saathiya, even as the narrative moves slickly ahead. But towards the end, he begins to sound like Paulo Coelho, with his phone call from God coming in. Practical persons like me, fail to relate with such things. Chetan goes on, on topics of goodness and responding to the "inner call". But two pages hence, he regains his groove and the narrative, like their Qualis, shifts gears and moves into overdrive.
Chetan has mastered the art of relating to his readers. FPS got a standing ovation, inspite of his filmy liberties, because we, as collegians had done or heard all the experiences he weaves into the story. In fact, this book will be an instant hit in BPO hubs like Bangalore, Pune, Gurgaon and Hyderabad because he deftly handles topics which the current generation in call centers face. Response times, timed breaks, Average Handling time, foreign accents, creepy bosses, cab drivers...you name it...he has incorporated it. The most impressive aspect is the way Chetan highlights the manager, Bakshi's lingo ...supervisory stuff is strong future potential ... his secretiveness is confidential management priority ... delay in action for the problem at hand is looking at the big picture ... waiting to make a decision is looking for a methodical game plan ... calling up onsite for something is being proactively involved. Most of India's youth, which works in the BPO sector will definitely relate with each and every challenge described....
However, there is the uncertainty of how God's phone call will be taken. Chetan gives an explanation into why he used it, and why he wrote this story in the first place, but all that is better enjoyed with the book in your hands and chips by your side. This will be Chetan's double whammy, but this is definitely not as unputdownable as Five Point Someone. Also, unlike Ryan's future in FPS, you can predict the end quite effortlessly here. I read FPS in four hours flat, but the temptation of 'Chocolate' on TV drove me to drop this a couple of times. I took around six hours for this, cover to cover.
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