Jun 19, 2006 11:19 AM
5396 Views
It was a busy saturday morning,the climate was too harsh for the pilots to be co-operative and so my flight to D.C. was delayed by more than three hours,a news that always makes me sick and angry.Well that must be ok with me because i'm not the president of united states to rake in the AIR FORCE ONE on command for my travel...ah,wish I could...leave it anyways.So the flight got delayed and i'm left out with too much time in hand and it's only after spending an hour watching some stupid cricket on the 'curiously watched-by television' at the airport did I realize that I need something to read and headed to the airport bookstore just to find some 'age 4 and above' stuff for the first ten minutes and whoa! I caught a book 'THE NAMESAKE' by Jhumpa Lahiri....the name attracted me but it's too thick to be read now so I thought of preserving it for a lonely,rainy day and headed to the next counter.
A very attractive girl was checking out 'STEPHEN KING' but I hate that guy and whatever he writes so I let my thought go of that counter but cannot ignore the 'very attractive','colourful' cover of the book that she was checking out from a bit high up shelf...damn it! she's reading the entire book in the store itself and i,not able to resist made the typical indian unignorable 'plchhh' sound and I sensed that she understood and kept it back on it's place and yo! I just took it with a force and looked at the author's name,A stranger who goes by the name 'ANURAG MATHUR' which is too indian to be attractive or strange but the name of the book 'THE INSCRUTABLE AMERICANS' caught my eye and didn't stop me from billing it.For a price of less than $3,i thought it might not be a good read.No offence.
OK,got back to the lounge,sipping some cold coffee and took a seat next to a very decently-dressed lady who is in her mid thirties.I took the book from the cover and placed it on infront of me and as usual the colourful cover caught her eye and she suddenly started smiling with a voice that is too loud to be ignored....''good pick'' she said.....''OH thank god!'' was my immediate reply as in what I mean ''i'm happy''.
Well,read about the author who makes of no interest where he studies and whatever concerned about him...he writes a column on a Men's magazine in india so I considered his english to be 'nothing different' but reluctantly opened the first page which to my surprise was a very funny letter starting with an unusal 'Dear brother' and some twisted funny indian english which I found to be intentional.Ok,i can forgive some idiotic fun as long as it stays limited.The letter managed a few smiles on me and here goes the narration which made me smile for picking a good one.Every line is describing,well defined in itself and well-explained.The next pages are filled with the character 'GOPAL' and his confusion at eversville,his imagination,his ancestral and historic 'HAIR OIL FACTORY' in a funnily named town 'JAJAU' in india and his encounters with the flight stewardess,airport checking counter officer and his intimacy with a mesmerisingly real character 'RANDY' who comes in and goes out as a relief of help to GOPAL as well as the readers.
SEX,KISSES,GIRLS,BOOZE has equal importance along with RACISM,COMMUNISM AND RUSSIA,CHRISTIANITY AND RELIGIONISM which sounds weird but is awkwardly funny and it makes sense too.However this book is about Gopal's view on the americans and america and his experience in that strange country in his own views.Nowhere will you find it too boring to be stopped and it acclerates you to read further.The chapters are well distributed and the language is the easiest to understand but the book is short of matter after you finished it.
The life of an indian for two years in america is all about this one.The expansion is meanigful and charcterisation and the representation of the intentional charcters are reasonable,though not appreciative.The entire saga about the indian idiocracy stays fit into the story and makes it fynny to realize that the characters are so serious that it's funny.Well,the book makes you crave for more as you go along and also which doesn't make you go back for reference to characters....know what?...this is a well planned story which is too perfect to be real but hey,it's funny and touchy....we,inspite of shuttling between world's biggest metros, sometimes find some similarity with the character of 'GOPAL' which makes us think for a while if it's the story of the author himself...i would have been better if it was real.
I had wet eyes at the end when 'RANDY' bids a strong goodbye,SUE is not found at her house when gopal wants to tell her that he is going back to india forever and when 'GLORIA' gives him an another poem as a goodbye letter.....it really touches your senses as a ,matter of fact.But,everything written in this book is intentionally aimed at the reader....like an entertaining Hollywood chick flick but then it makes sense.
