Feb 07, 2005 10:43 AM
5854 Views
(Updated Feb 07, 2005 10:43 AM)
...Which means - Hail to IAS officers!
I have not read the complete book ? it could not hold my interest actually. I had always heard that IAS officers are selected after very tough entrance examinations and if one gets through it means he / she is definitely very intelligent. Since I like intellect more in humans I had always thought that if possible, I will marry an IAS officer as I cannot stand dumb people at all. Anyways in https://commonwoman.net I have written under ?Poems? section about why I decided not to marry an IAS afterall. After reading bits and pieces of English , August, I was rather happy at my decision.
Here goes my description :
English August is written by a young civil servant Agastya (''August'') Sen. Joining the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) -- which author Upamanyu Chatterjee himself joined at the same age, in 1983.
In the opening scene, Agastya's friend (and fellow marijuana-smoker) Dhrubo tells him: ''I've a feeling, August, you're going to get hazaar f..... in Madna''
Somewhere else the author has said :
'Amazing mix, the English we speak. Hazaar f...... Urdu and American,' Agastya laughed, 'a thousand f....., really fucked. I'm sure nowhere else could languages be mixed and spoken with such ease?
I was really surprised to read such language by an IAS officer ? or is it because he is a frustrated Bengali ?that his write-ups exude such frustration ? just like mine actually ? but I have reason to be frustrated- drawing only Rs 5000/- per month whereas my friends are either married or working as Professors and drawing handsome salaries?but what about Mr. U chatterjee?! He is working in the most prestigious position ? an IAS ! its any man?s dream come true I thought?..
About marriage he has written thusly :
?Eventually, he knew, he would marry, perhaps not out of passion, but out of convention, which was probably a safer thing. And then, in either case, in a few months or years they would tire of disagreeing with each other, or what was more or less the same thing, would be inured to each other's odd and perhaps disgusting ways, the way she squeezed the tube of toothpaste and the way he drank from a glass and didn't rinse it, and they would slide into a placid and comfortable unhappiness, and maybe unseeingly watch TV every day, each still a cocoon?
That?s it Mr. Chatterjee, you have identified the biggest truth of life. Why do you not meet the film Directors and make a good audio-visual movie and show the truth, show what life is all about - ..being posted to Madna ? a remote Indian village ? could have been made a heaven by the kind of powers you have ?or are supposed to have ? why think of marriage at all when there is sheer failure and disgust in it?
And he has said something about kolkata as well ? something like : ?Kolkata has soul in it ?soul oozing out of its teats as well !? (pg.206)
? should you be using such a disgusting language as well ? when you know you represent India?and more so Bengal !
Suggestion to Mr. U. Chatterjee :You should read some stories by Oscar wilde, P.G Wodehouse ? even they have been satirical but with a lot of sophistication and elegance.
I am going to recommend this book to MS-ians as I want them to have a taste of an IAS officer from Bengal?.probably after reading his book ..certain people here who consider me a pervert will have a different view !..and also have a different view of Mother India .
