Sunday, April 25, 2021

Interpreter of Maladies

 


This is one of those books I had heard a lot about, but sadly, it failed to meet my expectations.

 

Each story in Interpreter of Maladies gives a perspective of the immigrant life of Indian Americans as well as their Indian counterparts in the 1970s and 80s. The stories are set in a time when maids could walk into your house anytime and play with your kids, a time when landlines were a sign of luxury and people still cooked with kerosene. However, there isn’t a lot of variety in the stories. In all the stories based in America, the women are always at the mercy of men, constantly in the kitchen cooking fish or curries, while the men themselves are, more often than not, college professors. I understand this must have been the predominant scene of Indian immigrants to the USA during the 70s and 80s, but as a reader, I would have liked to see some diversity in this collection of nine stories, which gets a bit too predictable at times.

 

While I am aware, intellectually, that these stories are supposed to make me feel something, something deep and soulful, but in all honesty the stories hardly touched me and had no effect on me whatsoever. When I read of a father watching his country broken and tattered in the war, with no clue about the fate of his wife and daughters, I wanted to feel his pain. When I read of a couple reconciling after a long silence, I wanted to wipe their tears and lend a shoulder. But the author never gives you that opportunity to completely connect with the characters. The stories end just when you want them to begin; want them to be explored further. Reading this book felt like words being interpreted in my mind, and that is all.

 

The only thing I liked about the book is that it gave me the immigrant Indian perspective of the state of affairs during the 70s in which the stories are set. We don’t fight wars with our neighbors anymore, and though we hear a lot of rhetoric in the media, wars are avoided as much as possible. My generation has no experience of what it means to watch your country crumbling down on TV millions of miles away. We do not know the longing one feels while waiting for years before they have saved enough for a visit to their homeland. But these things have changed so much now, that many a times I felt a generation gap while reading the stories, whether they were the ones based in America or the ones based in Bengal.

 

There is no doubt Jhumpa Lahari's writing skills are admirable and distinct. She describes every scene beautifully, and makes you feel like you are there, in the centerstage of her story. However, I wish she explored the human nature and relationships more in depth, the way she does with the surroundings. I wish she took one step further and implored each character a little more, dug deeper into the intricacies of their thoughts, so that the stories didn’t feel empty and the writing impassive. 

Friday, April 2, 2021

Sapiens

 

 

I adore fiction and classics and hence rarely go to the nonfiction section of the bookstore. A talk by Yuval Noah Harari, the author of this book, got me interested in the history of homo sapiens and eager to learn more, I picked up this nonfiction to read. And boy! true to its popularity, this book kept me engaged until the last word.

 

Most of what we know about our ancestors is based on textbooks we studied way back in school. Keeping ourselves up to date with latest scientific discoveries requires us to regularly read journals and papers, which, honestly, none of us have the time or an appetite for. This is one of the reasons for the immense popularity of this book; it’s a comprehension study of our history written in less than 500 pages, meticulously divided into chapters, and in a simple language sans the technical jargons. The book covers not just our biological evolution, but also the evolution of our social culture and norms, the gender norms, the development of religions and ideologies, of the economy, capitalism, money, and all the things that define us as a species.

 Moreover, it isn’t just a book of facts, rather, it’s insightful, making you pause and ponder on the consequences of our actions, both past and present. It reflects how our dominance has influenced and shaped the world of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Accurate comparisons of the way of life of our ancestors with that of our current lifestyle help us understand the rationale behind illogical decisions back then, and why we so fervently continue to do the same even now.

 The author provides us with the ability to distinguish fact from fiction, and to think for ourselves. Fact is the physical evidence of our ancestors from bones to artifacts found across the globe. However, the deductions and conclusions could very well be fiction, as a lot it depends on the historian’s and archaeologist’s own beliefs and prejudices. The author certainly does not suggest we dismiss all scientific studies, but he does tell us to be aware that there’s after all only so much one can deduce about an entire culture and people from just sticks and stones. 

 The book compels us to observe and consider everything around us, and question if the things we regard as imperative to our lives are really worth our immense time and effort, and whether these values we hold so close are significant from evolutionary perspective or are they mere myths created by us to keep us from truly evolving. The book also makes us realise that homo sapiens penchant for cruelty and complete disregard for others is not a new trait. The only difference between then and now is that earlier he didn’t care much for nature or animals; now he doesn’t care much for anyone expect himself. It surely looks like our evolution’s sole purpose is to cater to our ego. For instance, when you learn that our species’ cultural development supersedes that of our DNA, and then look around at the mess we have havocked on the world, you can’t help but wonder if we are evolving in the right way.

 It takes a certain amount of grit and courage to read about the disastrous effect of humans on the earth, a large heart to take complete responsibility for it and a sensible mind to stop us from going down that path again. I was surprised to learn about the violence streak of our ancestors. If you thought we humans are destroying the world today, you will be surprised to know that this isn’t something new for our species. From time immemorial, we have been wreaking havoc every place we have set foot on. From large mammals such as mammoths to small birds such as dodo, we have been the primary cause for their extinction. I wonder, will we learn now at least?

 For someone like me who had been under the impression that domestication of animals was a step towards the progress of human life, courtesy our school textbooks, looking at domestication from the point of view of animals was a much-needed lesson indeed. Up until now, I had never given much attention to veganism, but the details of domestication, the cycle of castrating males, caging young ones and keeping the females permanently pregnant, has made me realise that veganism is a serious matter and probably necessary for our species’ survival.

 Fortunately for the readers, the author does not shy away from stating things as they are, pointing out the difference between biological order and orders created by us, which include both democracy and dictatorship. He is been able to successfully correlate the past facts to our present actions, and explain logically why we behave, feel and think the way we do. He aptly and elaborately explains how the social diseases that plague our society today, from racial discrimination to gender bias to casteism, were created by people and added to the society’s narrative, and the reason why we haven’t yet been able to break free from these inhumane narratives, and are, on the contrary, aiding to its propagation. Understanding how different religions and ideologies came into being certainly helped me understand why there’s so much conflict in the world today and why intolerance is growing.

 One cannot escape the author’s personal belief and emphasis of science over religion, modern technology over old traditions, which peek here and there in an otherwise unbiased book. This, however, was a minor concern for me. But a point where I strongly disagreed with the author was his praise for the explore and conquer mindset of western Europeans. I agree that Europeans must be hailed for putting the Americas, Australia and New Zealand on the map, but we must also not forget the numerous native populations decimated and thrown right off the map during this process. I am sure had the aboriginals of Australia, citizens of Aztec and Inca and the indigenous people of Tasmania given a choice between the ‘explorative’ Europeans and the ‘mind your own business’ Indian, Chinese, Persians, and Ottomans, they would have surely picked the latter. For, as an Indian, the technological benefit brought to us by the British in no way justifies or compensates for the atrocities committed by them on my ancestors.

That said, being aware of our own history is important, especially, to humble our ego, and make us realise that we are in fact not very different from other animals, and definitely not that ‘special’. And with history, biology, sociology, psychology, economics filling the pages of this magnificent book, it is imminent that we make use of this abundance of information available to us.

So, run and pick this book off the shelf and have a great read!