I have been reading a lot of non-fiction books lately ranging from Biographies to Self-help. I recently hit a plateau however and had a fervent urge to go back to fiction again, and I figured, what better than The God of Small Things to kick-start the genre again.
The first two times I'd read the story, they were in shattered-battered copies from libraries. This time, I finally decided to own a copy because I want to start a tradition of reading it once every decade of my life. I was searching for it at a local bookstore, where the books were arranged by the first alphabet of the Author's names. I did locate The God of Small Things easily and I noticed that by its side, lied a glaringly colorful hard-bound book. At first glance, I read the author name as Arundhati Roy so I immediately picked it up to know more. I searched for it on Goodreads wondering why I hadnt heard of "All the lives we never lived" by Arundhati Roy and as I read, I realized it was by a different author by the name of Anuradha Roy. Since I always judge a book by its cover, I had an incredible need to purchase the book with a magnificent cover art. And what more, the author like the former Roy was also nominated for a Booker.
"In my childhood, I was known as the boy whose mother had run off with an Englishman", read the brief. My need to possess the book had intensified and it goes without saying, I went home with both the books, excited for weekends to arrive so I could finish them in one go.
And as promised to myself, I did read them over two weekends. After finishing both the books, I couldnt help but notice the striking similarities between the unintended protagonists, Ammu of The God of Small Things and Gayatri of All the Lives we Never Lived. I have an inherent bias where I always have more adulation and interest to the works of female artists than the male ones. When I read books too, the same applies.
In a gist, here is what Ammu and Gayatri are all about, they are both born rebels who make it their life's mission to pursue what suits them the best , even if this best was against all the rules laid down by a social construct. Both women are inherently confident that the decisions they make for themselves would serve their souls well than the paths their family/society at large would have defined from the different eras these books are from. Upon closely observing the characters, I could find the following similarities -
1. The passion to be free -
Ammu marries a Bengali man and moves away from her fulminate family, just so she could be unchained from the shackles of playing a role of an conventional house wife.
Gayatri abandons her family, just so she could provide wings to her passions of living a life filled with art.
2. Separated from their kids on account of their choices -
Both women have kids they were undeniably close with, but being the victims of circumstances, are distanced from their children.
Ammu's short-lived affair with Velutha and his subsequent death brought shame to her family and because of this incident, Chakko and Mammachi assume responsibility of Rahel and Ammu's ex husband, the responsibility of Estha.
Gayatri, suffocated by Nek's masked restrictions (providing freedom to her only when it suited him), abandons Myskhin as an unintentional dire step towards travelling to Bali and painting there for a living.
3. Falling in love with the outcasts
Ammu and Gayatri both married their husbands in the face of hopelessness and found true love in outcasts.
Ammu's whole life comes crashing down because of an affair she has with the pariah Velutha. She finds herself full of life and deeply in love with The God of Small Things. Their whirlwind romance was uninhibated only in parts, in their secret place of randezvous. Roy writes beautifully about their love, I was almost moved to tears when their forbidden love is exposed.
Gayatri falls in love with her neighbour Brijen, while being married to Nek Chand. She realizes that the parts of her which were long dead inside her, came to life with Brijen around. He sang songs for her and she lied wide awake on her bed until he was done to start her day.
4. Lonely, loveless deaths
Ammu meets Rahel a day before she is found dead in the grizzly hotel room. She loved her children the best, but because of the consequences of her actions, both Rahel and Estha grow up to be the kind of people, broken from within. There was no grief displayed by either of them when Ammu passes away, alone and loveless.
Gayatri leaves to Bali with Walter Spies and Beryl De Zoete, both of who had passionately independent personalities. They never relied on others and made their own decisions and plans. Beryl leaves to Egypt, being the nomad she was, Walter however stays with Gayatri until his imprisonment and subsequent death from the bombings of the war. Gayatri aches to go back to her son Myshkin and even before her plans roll out into a motion, she falls sick. She dies of Typhoid, alone and loveless.
In life, in death, in happpiness and pain, In love and in agony, both women suffered. While I have listed the similarities out for you, I do think, if circumstances were any favorable for each of the women, I would imagine, the American - returned Ammu to be gallivanting through life in her rock band t-shirts and ripped jeans, reading world literature, listening to her favorite music on her Vinyl player, while Gayatri would be cruising literally to different places in pursuit of art, painting every element of her favorite places in microscopic detail.
I have to say, I read a bit of Naipaul, Rushdie, Adiga and Kiran Desai, but I could never find any book whose prose quality was as good as Arundhati Roy's. Her trademark is giving life to minutest things (or should I call them small things?), which otherwise seem like ordinary things in an ordinary life. The only book that came a close second in this department to me is All the Lives we never lived. I am glad I found Anuradha Roy. I found The Ministy of Atmost Happiness to be utter disappointing and lost all hopes of finding another master piece of a book, now with Anuradha Roy's many books, I am again filled with excitement to explore fiction. Hopefully there are many more books with Ammus and Gayatris, when I find them, rest assured they will get their own real estate on this blog :).
The first two times I'd read the story, they were in shattered-battered copies from libraries. This time, I finally decided to own a copy because I want to start a tradition of reading it once every decade of my life. I was searching for it at a local bookstore, where the books were arranged by the first alphabet of the Author's names. I did locate The God of Small Things easily and I noticed that by its side, lied a glaringly colorful hard-bound book. At first glance, I read the author name as Arundhati Roy so I immediately picked it up to know more. I searched for it on Goodreads wondering why I hadnt heard of "All the lives we never lived" by Arundhati Roy and as I read, I realized it was by a different author by the name of Anuradha Roy. Since I always judge a book by its cover, I had an incredible need to purchase the book with a magnificent cover art. And what more, the author like the former Roy was also nominated for a Booker.
"In my childhood, I was known as the boy whose mother had run off with an Englishman", read the brief. My need to possess the book had intensified and it goes without saying, I went home with both the books, excited for weekends to arrive so I could finish them in one go.
And as promised to myself, I did read them over two weekends. After finishing both the books, I couldnt help but notice the striking similarities between the unintended protagonists, Ammu of The God of Small Things and Gayatri of All the Lives we Never Lived. I have an inherent bias where I always have more adulation and interest to the works of female artists than the male ones. When I read books too, the same applies.
In a gist, here is what Ammu and Gayatri are all about, they are both born rebels who make it their life's mission to pursue what suits them the best , even if this best was against all the rules laid down by a social construct. Both women are inherently confident that the decisions they make for themselves would serve their souls well than the paths their family/society at large would have defined from the different eras these books are from. Upon closely observing the characters, I could find the following similarities -
1. The passion to be free -
Ammu marries a Bengali man and moves away from her fulminate family, just so she could be unchained from the shackles of playing a role of an conventional house wife.
Gayatri abandons her family, just so she could provide wings to her passions of living a life filled with art.
2. Separated from their kids on account of their choices -
Both women have kids they were undeniably close with, but being the victims of circumstances, are distanced from their children.
Ammu's short-lived affair with Velutha and his subsequent death brought shame to her family and because of this incident, Chakko and Mammachi assume responsibility of Rahel and Ammu's ex husband, the responsibility of Estha.
Gayatri, suffocated by Nek's masked restrictions (providing freedom to her only when it suited him), abandons Myskhin as an unintentional dire step towards travelling to Bali and painting there for a living.
3. Falling in love with the outcasts
Ammu and Gayatri both married their husbands in the face of hopelessness and found true love in outcasts.
Ammu's whole life comes crashing down because of an affair she has with the pariah Velutha. She finds herself full of life and deeply in love with The God of Small Things. Their whirlwind romance was uninhibated only in parts, in their secret place of randezvous. Roy writes beautifully about their love, I was almost moved to tears when their forbidden love is exposed.
Gayatri falls in love with her neighbour Brijen, while being married to Nek Chand. She realizes that the parts of her which were long dead inside her, came to life with Brijen around. He sang songs for her and she lied wide awake on her bed until he was done to start her day.
4. Lonely, loveless deaths
Ammu meets Rahel a day before she is found dead in the grizzly hotel room. She loved her children the best, but because of the consequences of her actions, both Rahel and Estha grow up to be the kind of people, broken from within. There was no grief displayed by either of them when Ammu passes away, alone and loveless.
Gayatri leaves to Bali with Walter Spies and Beryl De Zoete, both of who had passionately independent personalities. They never relied on others and made their own decisions and plans. Beryl leaves to Egypt, being the nomad she was, Walter however stays with Gayatri until his imprisonment and subsequent death from the bombings of the war. Gayatri aches to go back to her son Myshkin and even before her plans roll out into a motion, she falls sick. She dies of Typhoid, alone and loveless.
In life, in death, in happpiness and pain, In love and in agony, both women suffered. While I have listed the similarities out for you, I do think, if circumstances were any favorable for each of the women, I would imagine, the American - returned Ammu to be gallivanting through life in her rock band t-shirts and ripped jeans, reading world literature, listening to her favorite music on her Vinyl player, while Gayatri would be cruising literally to different places in pursuit of art, painting every element of her favorite places in microscopic detail.
I have to say, I read a bit of Naipaul, Rushdie, Adiga and Kiran Desai, but I could never find any book whose prose quality was as good as Arundhati Roy's. Her trademark is giving life to minutest things (or should I call them small things?), which otherwise seem like ordinary things in an ordinary life. The only book that came a close second in this department to me is All the Lives we never lived. I am glad I found Anuradha Roy. I found The Ministy of Atmost Happiness to be utter disappointing and lost all hopes of finding another master piece of a book, now with Anuradha Roy's many books, I am again filled with excitement to explore fiction. Hopefully there are many more books with Ammus and Gayatris, when I find them, rest assured they will get their own real estate on this blog :).
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