Vivek Shanbhag (1) (1963–)
Author of Ghachar Ghochar
Works by Vivek Shanbhag
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Ghachar Ghochar: A Novel by Vivek Shanbhag
Those who have regularly interacted with me on my Facebook group, Readers Forever!, know that I do not have a preference for contemporary Indian authors. Forget preference, I don't even consider their books worth reading. Before you get all riled up by this admission, please note that I don't include expats such as Jhumpa Lahiri or Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, senior storytellers such as Sudha Murty or Ruskin Bond and classic masters such as Rabindranath Tagore or Satyajit Ray in this category. What I mean is the likes of Chetan Bhagat (I blame him and him alone for the plethora of B-grade books in the market!), Durjoy Datta, Ravinder Singh, Savi Sharma and others of this ilk.
An unfortunate side-effect of this closeminded bias was that I missed out on some genuinely good books just because of their authors being modern Indians. To remedy this lacuna, I shortlisted some positively-reviewed Indian books and decided to try them out. The very first book in this category has been "Ghachar Ghochar" and boy! What a ride it has been!
Vivek Shanbag is a famed storyteller in Kannada. Ghachar Ghochar was originally published in Kannada itself, and now it has been masterfully translated by Srinath Perur. I do consider the translator's job as very essential because he needs to retain the original meaning and nuance without killing anything in the translation. And Srinath Perur has done a superb job indeed! Perfect language and grammar without interfering with the flow of the original narrative!
Ghachar Ghochar contains the reminiscences of a man about his family before and after they came into money. Each chapter deals with a specific family member and yet, throws light on the family as a whole.
The book is not a typical progressive story but is very meandering in style. Events occur but don't lead to one another directly. It's upto us to figure out the connection between the various occurrences. Also, consider yourself warned: it has an open ending, which really caught me by surprise. I thought my book had some pages missing! This book was so reminiscent of a Murakami work where the flow goes at its own pace and the interpretation & conclusion is entirely dependent on the reader...
I would not recommend this book to everyone. But if you like a book that makes you think about the purpose behind a particular event's mention in the story, a book that causes you to be alert while reading it so as to not miss out on any nuance, a book that stays with you after its last page making you wonder what the author actually intended, and a book that reveals all its tangled threads to be essential to the master narrative long after you've closed it, Ghachar Ghochar is the book for you. Even the book cover is absolutely perfect, which you'll realise only after reading it.
********************************************
Join me on the Facebook group, "Readers Forever!", for more reviews and other book-related discussions and fun.… (more)
An unfortunate side-effect of this closeminded bias was that I missed out on some genuinely good books just because of their authors being modern Indians. To remedy this lacuna, I shortlisted some positively-reviewed Indian books and decided to try them out. The very first book in this category has been "Ghachar Ghochar" and boy! What a ride it has been!
Vivek Shanbag is a famed storyteller in Kannada. Ghachar Ghochar was originally published in Kannada itself, and now it has been masterfully translated by Srinath Perur. I do consider the translator's job as very essential because he needs to retain the original meaning and nuance without killing anything in the translation. And Srinath Perur has done a superb job indeed! Perfect language and grammar without interfering with the flow of the original narrative!
Ghachar Ghochar contains the reminiscences of a man about his family before and after they came into money. Each chapter deals with a specific family member and yet, throws light on the family as a whole.
The book is not a typical progressive story but is very meandering in style. Events occur but don't lead to one another directly. It's upto us to figure out the connection between the various occurrences. Also, consider yourself warned: it has an open ending, which really caught me by surprise. I thought my book had some pages missing! This book was so reminiscent of a Murakami work where the flow goes at its own pace and the interpretation & conclusion is entirely dependent on the reader...
I would not recommend this book to everyone. But if you like a book that makes you think about the purpose behind a particular event's mention in the story, a book that causes you to be alert while reading it so as to not miss out on any nuance, a book that stays with you after its last page making you wonder what the author actually intended, and a book that reveals all its tangled threads to be essential to the master narrative long after you've closed it, Ghachar Ghochar is the book for you. Even the book cover is absolutely perfect, which you'll realise only after reading it.
********************************************
Join me on the Facebook group, "Readers Forever!", for more reviews and other book-related discussions and fun.… (more)
Longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award and nominated for the 2018 BTBA Best Translated Book Award, Ghachar Ghockar — a colloquial phrase that means 'entangled' is a deceptively simple novella about a rags-to-riches family in India.
The unnamed narrator begins by explaining his relationship to Vincent, a waiter at the nearby Coffee House, who seems to be a sort of guru who can understand his customers without needing to be told their troubles. Naïvely, he takes a random comment from Vincent as advice and breaks up with his girlfriend Chitra on the strength of it. It turns out that this is typical of our narrator's inability to take responsibility for his own life.
A second reading of this short novel shows just how unreliable he is as a narrator.
(He says) he goes to the Coffee House for a respite from domestic skirmishes.
These skirmishes have come about as the family transitions from poverty into the middle class. The family had been close, had shared what little they had, and had lived in harmony together despite their privations. When Venkatachala, his father’s younger brother took the initiative and started up a spice business, it brought improvements in their standard of living — and joy —that was shared by them all.
[caption id="attachment_127115" align="alignright" width="150"] Chivda, a snack made from fried cashews, golden raisins, rice poha, peanuts and coconut slices.[/caption]
However, because they depend on Chikkappa for their income, this displaces the traditional hierarchy of family relationships. Appa, the traditional head of the family is sidelined...
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/03/01/ghachar-ghochar-2013-by-vivek-shanbhag-trans...… (more)
The unnamed narrator begins by explaining his relationship to Vincent, a waiter at the nearby Coffee House, who seems to be a sort of guru who can understand his customers without needing to be told their troubles. Naïvely, he takes a random comment from Vincent as advice and breaks up with his girlfriend Chitra on the strength of it. It turns out that this is typical of our narrator's inability to take responsibility for his own life.
A second reading of this short novel shows just how unreliable he is as a narrator.
(He says) he goes to the Coffee House for a respite from domestic skirmishes.
These skirmishes have come about as the family transitions from poverty into the middle class. The family had been close, had shared what little they had, and had lived in harmony together despite their privations. When Venkatachala, his father’s younger brother took the initiative and started up a spice business, it brought improvements in their standard of living — and joy —that was shared by them all.
[caption id="attachment_127115" align="alignright" width="150"] Chivda, a snack made from fried cashews, golden raisins, rice poha, peanuts and coconut slices.[/caption]
"Chikkappa* saved for months from his small income before managing to bring cooking gas to our kitchen. Along with it came a table for the stove to rest on. There was such a bustle of excitement and anticipation at home the day gas arrived. The workmen who brought home the cylinder and stove only placed them in the middle of the kitchen, put them together, showed us the flame, and left. We had already decided where to install the stove, but we went over the matter again at some length just to prolong the moment. Amma repeated at least ten times that she’d heard tea could be made in five minutes on a gas stove. She wondered if food cooked standing up would be as tasty. She joked: ‘Don’t ask me for tea again and again simply because it will be quick to make.’ We had a long session about how the gas cylinder ought to be turned on and off to ensure maximum safety. Appa warned Amma: ‘Watch carefully now. You’ll forget everything otherwise.’ And she listened quietly without putting up a fight. Amma had surveyed the neighborhood about its gas usage patterns. She told us how long a cylinder lasted in each neighbour’s house and how it could be stretched. ‘If it’s used only for urgent cooking, it lasts two months,’ she said. ‘Even when it’s run out, it seems you can turn the cylinder upside down and get a little more.’ The inaugural preparation was to be a round of tea. I was sent out to buy some chivda for accompaniment." (p.42)
However, because they depend on Chikkappa for their income, this displaces the traditional hierarchy of family relationships. Appa, the traditional head of the family is sidelined...
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/03/01/ghachar-ghochar-2013-by-vivek-shanbhag-trans...… (more)
I’m sorry, but any book which ends with the words of its title is a recipe for a low score in my opinion - it was a tacky, gimmicky end to a tepid story of an Indian family which left a bad taste in the mouth after a harmless read. In parts, it was an astutely observed family drama, concerning their change of fortunes and rise in social standing. Dynamics consequently changed and the narrator’s reflection on the gains and losses in relation to their new found wealth was the strongest part of the book. Outside of this, mainly concerning plot and resolutions of story arcs, (for want of a better way to describe it) it felt that we were left with endless strands of story left unanswered or unexplored, so much so that it didn’t feel like a narrative device but instead just lazy storytelling or an abandonment of what might’ve been a bigger novel. I guess I just wanted more than a snapshot of their lives. I wanted Shanbhag to tell me what happened: where did his wife go? Did she return? Who was the woman at their door? How did the family learn to live together? The more I think of these questions and lack of answers, the more I feel that a book should do more than this. It had promise, was readable but ultimately disappointed.… (more)
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