Ghachar Ghochar

 

GHACHAR GHOCHAR

 

The best part of this book is that it would slide like butter. Easy to read and easy to picturize in your mind.

I am not a fan of doing things that I don’t like. I wouldn’t even start reading a book which is not recommended to me by me. As a matter of fact, I am not really into Indian literature – I could say that because I have tried and failed reading Indian books like “A Suitable Boy”, “Something I Never Told you” and such – as I think, from my previous experience, that either they start or continue on a note which would be out of my liking. But when I started reading this, I was amazed how I turned pages over and over. And, it never felt boring or so as the words were easy and the picturization would sound so real – as being a part of Indian society and culture. Indian families are equally heaven and hell at the same time.

I was shocked to realize that not even for a single time, the narrator of the story (not the author) mentions his name throughout the book. There are intriguing characters (family members of the narrator) and their tales of past and present, but no-one even called the narrator by his name.

It was a non-English book translated by Srinath Perur from its authentic Kannada version written by Vivek Shanbhag which is also translated into many other Indian languages. The genre is psychological fiction, which I now like after reading it.

Basically, it was a story about a sensitive married young man, who narrates his family members and their stories from both past (his childhood, adolescent, years after college and before marriage) and present. He shared firm and affectionate bonds with each of his family members as a responsible man of a middle-class Indian family. But I would hesitate to use the word “responsible” for him as he himself doubted his responsibility at points and I, too, have sensed it while reading the book. At the same hand, it would be unfair to blame him for this entirely. In most of the Indian families, the person – especially the “man”, who earns money is the ones who runs the house as well as its residents. I would not like to comment my own assessments about this fact as it would be rather controversial and out of the question here.

The main idea however is that how we find ourselves hesitant and scared in the family we live, to speak against a thing we disapprove of. Individual opinions create chaos and breaks the unity of the family. It is just like somewhere else outside; we choose silence and deafness to things below our principles and dignity to fit ourselves in a society where majority is the winner over goodness and truthfulness.

In most of the Indian families, men are supposed to run the family by earning and women are supposed to be run by the earning men acquire. But changing times gave birth to societal revolutions and majority of the men are supposed to stand up for themselves by earning on their own.

From the narration, it seems like the family is dysfunctional and hierarchical. There is supposed to be one and only one opinion of the entire family and whoever tries to object, would suffer as the objection was intended to break the unity and honour of the family. The man narrated rags to riches events of his family. The initial struggles of accommodation and having jobs were well narrated as if it were real. There are instances of unity throughout the book and the narrator sometimes wanted to be the part of it and sometimes was bound to be a part even if he did not want to be.

I like it how the old days were full of struggles as well as happiness and affection. But present storyline seems to be unpleasant and less affectionate from the influence of money, outsiders and revolutionary ideals. The narrator describes himself as if he were being crushed by the wheel which was run by his family and his wife. But a man is free to make his own choices.

From the beginning of the book, I felt disoriented as the narrator starts the tale abruptly with connections of both past and present. Then, towards the last part, it was more past and less present. But the description of past events helped me connect to the characters. Over the years, the roles of the family members remained the same. The married narrator sounded as equal as the childhood one – having no real opinion or prestige in the family. He just did whatever was asked of him by his elders. This conveys the idea that younger ones are supposed to have smaller opinions than their elders in a family.

The ending of the book is puzzled and its solution is depended on self-interpretation. It does not have a climax or an anticlimax. There is nothing sad or nothing happy. If you are good at interpretation and psychological study, you can solve the puzzle on your own. But there is no accurate solution to it. People have created many theories about the ending, but none of them are confirmed to be official. So, it is entirely up to you. It is a small book and an interesting one. I finished it within 5 hours. Guess I was fast and did not live the moments well. But I enjoyed it and as I said it just slid like butter.

 

My assessments on the book:

•  It is hard to live in a marriage based on lies.
•  An opinionated man or woman is the real version of him/herself.
•  You would not want to belong somewhere you are supposed to be fit in by blind agreement. That is mediocrity.
•  ‘Ghachar Ghochar’ is basically the state of being entangled or complicated.
• Indian families are as Ghachar Ghochar as the society.
• Yes, Ooty is a romantic place.
• Exceptional thoughts are questioned and objected as madness and the people having them are considered “mad”.
• Marriage is like mehendi.
• It is inconvenient to search your partner’s things in his/her absence.
• Murder of a woman is not a matter of mockery with your companions.
• Ants could be annoying even if you are kind and sympathetic towards them.
• I like how they always drank coffee, not tea.
• Earn on your own and live on your own.

Spolier Alert:

“One new outsider is enough to break old and internal peace”