Having recently finished reading Vikram Seth's, A Suitable Boy i couldn't stop mulling over the comments from many of my friends over my 'accomplishment.' Yes, they do perceive it as a feat of sorts...reading so dedicatedly a tome weighing more than a pound and spanning to an extensive 1350 pages! But as i stop and think about their astonishment...i wonder if it stems more from a surprise that such a long novel...dotted with innumerable characters, their twined and intertwined ordinary stories, the not so related characters and their non heroic tales of friendships and enmities....not merely held my attention, but thoroughly delighted my senses! I wonder if in an age of bestsellers, those sleek tailor made linear tightly woven narratives, with the promise of a roller coaster ride...to be undertaken and finished while waiting for that A train or traveling on that M4 bus, or just waiting for that appointment with the dentist...have we come to inhabit a world that only appreciates everything that is to the point, and sees everything that is not, as "noise," an irritating noise? As people always hard pressed for time, as people always hard pressed to live life king size following the philosophy of work hard and play harder, as people always taught to prioritize, as people always conditioned to focus on the 'larger' issues of life.... have we forgotten what is it to live? Have we forgotten to appreciate life in its simplicity...a life as it is meant to be- full of chatter, meaningless twitter, rambling stories told over innumerable cups of tea, hoarse throats, sticky oil laced hands, and shared cigarettes? For me novels like Seth's, A Suitable Boy reminds me of that noise, that delightful relevant noise that fills in the background, reminding us of the greater, yet simple world around us....a world that essentially derives meaning from those mundane joys, and woes...a world full of ordinary people like Seth's characters...who become extraordinary, not because of heroic actions, but simply because they remember to live.!
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scribblings,epiphanies,and ramblings...
7 comments:
I think you're right. It is exactly this urge for neat little packages that dissuades most readers from engaging with Seth's "noisy" creation.
Yes...and i think it is the same urge that makes people not pick up a hardy or a Dickens for reading
Well, your ideas deserve an applause but the point is, to what extent do you implement them in practice? Have you lived life with such simplicity? We always admire such stories but it's the non-reflection of these stories in real life that leads these comments a touch of an artificially enforced feeling!
The personal nature of your comment surprised me and i had to visit your blog to find the rational. Reading your disenchantment, i could contextualize the comment. I always looks upon myself as a Marxian organic intellectual who doesn't imagine herself as an autonomous group, above and separate from political class struggle. In fact i believe that as a thinker my ideas connect me to the common people, their struggles, local issues and their experiences. My admiration of Seth, and my remuneration of the culture is exactly a comment on this move away from the ordinary and everyday. Thus,in my very thought lies the reflection as well as the experience of such a life which finds the 'noise' relevant!
Point taken... I guess the use of word "you" in my previous message was misunderstood. It was meant to address a general audience rather than something personal and what I said is applicable to all (including myself)! So there's no hidden rational there :-)
The point I was emphasizing was; We all have moments wherein we think of simplicity in life, but unfortunately that either remains confined to our thoughts or to discussions, but never translates into real life. Even if it does, it fails miserably on the parameter of sustainability. They're confined to a few moments among the millions that we live... A sorry percentage by any means! Even otherwise, whenever there's a tradeoff between a simple existence and an exotic short-term, most of the times we end up making the latter choice. So despite being thinkers and debators, we end up being horrible implementors which brings authenticity of the fundamental thought process in question.
Of course, there's no denying that such ideas do indeed make a wonderful read
I take your point about the disjunction between ideas and their implementation within our own lives due to various reasons. However we need to always contextualize the ideas within the space which holds them. I am expressing my ideas within my own personal space of the blog which is essentially a stream of consciousness writing for me. Hence since i am not writing for a 'good read' like a novelist, or telling a 'story' like a raconteur but writing out the life i think and live!
Interesting aspect... I'll rest my case now that we agree on the core issue of belief and reality.
As for the other parts... that can as well be attributed to the difference in mindset between a person with an engineering background and someone with liberal arts background! The way these people think are entirely different... The former is completely objective and the latter is almost entirely subjective. For example, blog in my opinion is a public space in which people decide to express their personal opinions which is subject to critique, praise and various other evaluations by those who read it.
Either ways, great thoughts which deserve to be brought to life!!!
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