Identity Matters | The Buzz | Book

Dear Brother,
… Many times I am meeting girls of good family during study time and they are saying "so long". Really, Brother, you are not telling anyone this, but I am blushing. How can they know? And I am assuring you I am spending time only in Prayer and Higher Studies, then who is spreading this rumour about me, I am thinking? What are they meaning by saying "So long"? …

You must be confused. Gopal Kumar, a foreign student in the USA, is just as perplexed by the various nuances in American English. To Gopal, 'gimme a break' means someone wants to break his leg and 'so long' can only be a comment about his private area. Anurag Mathur's The Inscrutable Americans is a subtle parody of the American way of life, through the eyes of a wary, woeful, but at most times fascinated foreigner.

The Last Song Nicholas Sparks
Rs 312
Gopal is the son of a rich hair oil factory owner in a small town in Madhya Pradesh, India. He has never laid an eye on any girl and can only keep up a conversation with anyone if it's about his vast academic knowledge, or the process of making hair oil. Every 'daring' move he plans (such as going to a bar) is followed by an afterthought about what his folks would say, or imagining that he is under the surveillance of his grandma's spirit. Portraying Gopal as a lost little creature in a big bad world, Mathur has not only made him comical but because we can relate to his situation, pitiful.

Though the story lacks in speed somewhere in the middle, with Gopal's characterisation seeming a bit too dumb and pathetic, thus the humour coming out forced, on the most part Mathur has done a great job in depicting how difficult accommodation and assimilation into a different kind of cultural environment can be. Gopal's amusement at how easily and comfortably American girls shed clothes, his tight spots over veg and non-veg food and the overtly active sexual life of Americans are some of the issues that leave him in a quandary. Also a win is Mathur's insight into what it means to be away from family and consequently viewing almost everybody in a brotherly or sisterly way. This is the case with Gopal, who despite his best friend Randy's unyielding efforts to 'devirginalise' him, cannot overcome his cultured background and go to bed with just anyone.

Rich Girl, Poor Girl Lesley Lokko
Rs 472
Mathur's language and tone is simple and direct, almost as if to match the comprehensible and straightforward terms in which Gopal likes everything to be. Though not made to underplay Indian culture or criticise the West, there are a few instances that hint the latter, for instance when Gopal is mercilessly thrashed by a group of locals who accuse him of robbing them of their jobs, and also descriptions of the conflict between blacks and whites within America itself.

There are two major weaknesses, however: the context and the climax. Because the story is almost two decades old now, it's difficult not to roll your eyes at the idea of a heavily accented Indian boy in America with his hair oiled and side-parted, scared to death of his folks. (Spoilers ahead) The fact that the story ends on a rather sappy note, with Randy nearly crying at the airport when Gopal leaves, and worse, Gopal meeting a girl on the plane whom he "lurche[s] into the bathroom" with, makes Mathur seem too desperate in allowing his protagonist his share of 'fun'.

But for its frank, plainspoken humour and honest character portrayal, Mathur's book is a must-read.

Eat Pray Love (2006)
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Publisher: Penguin

Paradise Lost?
State Failure in Nepal Ali Riaz & Subho Basu
Rs 632
Somebody said they were embarrassed to read this book in public and rightly so. At points, it felt like reading a personal diary of a thirty-something woman shamelessly whining and crying about her mid-life crisis. But it isn't a best-seller for no reason; it definitely scores on one important area: the author is so cleverly able to transport the reader into her life and world. Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love is a memoir of her efforts to find balance, for which she packs up her life and travels solo to three places across the world: Italy, India and Indonesia.

Maya: A Novel
Dr. Ruby Gupta
Rs 560
The strength of the book is definitely its beginning. Gilbert's quirky description of people, the language and in Naples a piece of 'thin, doughy, strong, gummy, yummy, chewy, salty' pizza, makes her complaining seem less annoying and what could have been a boring travel essay, a rather fun one. The book loses this vigour and even drags in India, where she stays in an ashram trying to meditate. Only 'trying' because she can't get her head round it and instead wastes time fretting about her life back home. She writes, "life, if you keep chasing it so hard, will drive you to death," but she gives the impression of doing just that, being at the ashram because she thinks it is something she 'ought to do' and not something she really wants to. By Indonesia, the reader is too tired to follow Gilbert on her search of the middle path or get excited for her for finding love.

If nothing, the book does arouse one important question: What do I want? Maybe the aspect that made it so popular. Something we should all want to ask ourselves between the cat and mouse chase called life.

All books are available at Pilgrims Book Store.