Skip to main content

Living out the life in novel


What life doesn’t offer you or takes away from you, novels give it in abundance. A chance to juggle multiple answers for a question troubling you, a chance to peek into someone’s thoughts, a chance to bridge the perception of imagination and reality, is given or sought in the fictional world.
“These and other factors like awakening to the sensory experiences, the feeling of being sucked in by time, giving us motives, and the ability to break the boundaries of time and space are the ‘10 ways in which novels can change your life’,” says author Chandrahas Choudhury, who was in Pune recently at the invitation of Open Space, taking time off from his busy life in Delhi and Mumbai.
To elaborate on the topic, Choudhury chose 10 passages from the works of the past and present writers, which were not necessarily the central plot or even focussed on the protagonists, but nevertheless struck a chord. He first read out the passage from Irene Nemirovsky’s Suite Francaise which depicts the sensory experiences of a town or city cat that has moved to the country. According to Choudhury, the non-human perspective of the cat allows us to become more human.
To give the audience a complex example of time, he chose to go back to 200 CE, where Nanda, Buddha’s half-brother is “drawn on to visit Buddha and drawn back to his wife.” He said dramatic moments like these lead to the “explosion” where one is irrevocably sucked into by the time.
The excerpt from Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red — Enishte Effendi Meets God — tells us that there can be alternative possibilities to one question. Novels leave the choice open to us.
In Anton Chekov’s The Kiss, Ryabovitch, the soldier, knows no woman will ever marry him, yet he cant’ help dreaming about the woman who mistook him for someone else in the darkness and kissed him. He dreamt of being married to her, work taking him away from her, and then meeting again... Don’t we all dream and imagine, even if the reality is very different?
The highlight of Manu Joseph’s Serious Men was the correct usage of the right word at the right place. “The word ‘something’,” says Choudhury, “tells us about the action taking place in the story.”
He also chose to read from U R Ananthamurthy’s Bharathipura, because it delved into human psychology. “Jagan, the protagonist realises that people wouldn’t accept anything just because it’s given to them. The import in this story is ‘change’ and ways of democracy.”
Now, you know why we often say, “I could relate to the book and its characters.” Because it’s you who are ‘living’ out the life.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Portrait of a poet

This has already been published in the Sunday supplement. Krishnaji Keshav Damle also known as Keshavsut --- Poetry never really appealed to me. And, so it was with great reluctance that I agreed to my husband's plan to visit Keshavsut Smarak – a memorial raised in memory of 'Father of Modern Marathi Poetry', Krishnaji Keshav Damle – in Malgund. We were in Ganapatipule at that time and decided to go to Malgund, a 10-minute drive (a kilometre) from the popular tourist destination. A sign-post told us to take a left turn and what greeted us, at the end of the lane, was tranquil silence. No security guards, no tourists, just a plaque announcing that Damle, popularly known as Keshavsut, was born in the red-roofed house, surrounded by green shrubbery. Keshavsut's house in Malgund  A poem by Keshavsut  The house, renovated in the old style, was near-empty, except for Keshavsut's portrait that was hanging from the wall in the front room. In the
Post a Comment
Read more

Valu and more

Visited Poman Pimpale village where Marathi picture Valu was shot. --- Documentary la chala… came the shout and Poman Pimpale villagers slowly started gathering at the village square. The children were already there, jostling each other, eager to see the ‘documentary’ – Marathi film Valu, which was shot in this village, some 14 kms away from Saswad. On the occasion of the film completing 50 successful days, the cast and crew of Valu, decided to host a special screening for the villagers on Saturday as a tribute. As Umesh Kulkarni, the director of Valu says, “ The movie is a collaborative venture of the villagers and myself. Valu is theirs as much as it is mine.” You just need to mingle with the crowd to find out what Umesh says is true - it’s their movie that the villagers have gathered to see. Pradeep Poman, a village elder, says that they enjoyed the whole film making process. “It had become a past time for us. Whenever we had some time to spare, we just went to see the shooting.
Post a Comment
Read more

Many ideas of ‘self’ (Review of Pratibimb, Marathi play)

With Mahesh Elkunchwar’s name as a writer associated with Pratibimb (Reflection), you know nothing in the play will be at face value. Nothing is what it seems. It is difficult for commoners to get into Elkunchwar’s mindspace, which is precisely the subject of the Marathi play, which was staged earlier in August and will now be performed again on Friday, September 15 at Sudarshan Rangmanch, Shaniwar Peth. While watching the play, it’s evident that the viewer has to peel various layers to get to the core of the story — Who are you? What does ‘self-identity’ mean? Is it so bad if your reflection goes missing or if you have no identity? Thokale (a white-collared office goer) wakes up one morning and finds his reflection missing. Enters Bai, his landlady, who tries to assure him that nothing is lost. In fact, it could be a ‘breaking news’ for the newspaper. This perhaps could have led to a lot of chaos physically. Instead, we are led to the darkness looming large in our dystopian minds
Post a Comment
Read more