.jpg)
Waoo! I have not wasted my last few days , I picked up an Indian novel , English , August by Upamanyu Chatteree and guess what ! I loved it like anything . I don't usually like Indian novels , firstly , because they seem to try to copy American or British style ; secondly , if they don't copy they don't show any depth or good story-line. But this one has Indianness plus a strange style which carries Indianness with it very well. What all I mean is , it is funky , funny yet it has some original depth .The narrator , Agstya , fashionably called by his friends August , has a very funny and weird way of viewing things. He is a modern - a representative of Lost Generation or as his father used to call - "A generation which doesn't apply hair-oil" . It is a post-colonial novel.The author goes ahead of all modern Indian English novelists . He projects a world dominated by males . It is very shocking to see everything from the eyes of a modern man - a man occupied with hard-drinks , marijuana , sex n alike. August is man without ambition.
About the motif , one which is very prominent is - The Gita and Krishna - Arjun. It appears whenever he is in distress and not able to accept things , carry on the fight or make a decision. One more striking thing is the Title - English , August . It may indicates towards the Englishness of August i.e. Agstya who is not quite able to adapt to his job which requires distinct Indianness.
The novel is very attractive for those who are on turning points of their life. Through out the novel August tries to adopt the life-style of an IAS but through out he feels he needs time ... Time to think about his life and himself as a traveler would think before choosing his way and I think its always better to think beforehand than turning back. At the end ....... ah! won't reveal the ending.
Well it was an interesting read. Enjoyed , obviously because it is full of young stuff - stimulating your own Ids - instincts. But finally shows you a good way , gives you little wisdom not through dictating but subtly through hinting.
Now so much of outsiders ! I will have to begin my course studies. And it was good ending of my retreat. Thanks to the friend who lent me this novel.
English August is one of my ATF novels. It very clearly portrays the feeling of someone visiting interior after having lived in metro. I so liked the book that for few days for all questions, I answered randomly-just like protagonist. I can imagine Rahul Bose playing the role very nicely but it was not released in digital format
ReplyDelete