Devouring Non-Fictions
Its time to read some non-fiction!
I had read பெண் ஏன் அடிமையானால்? Written by பெரியார் on the month of July before even started reading the Dan Brown Books.
Also, I am not a fanatic of reading Non-Fiction books. So, I decided to start reading non-fiction written by the guy of whose books made me to develop my habit of reading English books. Its Chetan Bhagat!
The story was that I had planned to complete the works of Chetan Bhagat. I had already read 8 of his fiction books from my high school (Starting from Half Girlfriend) till now (to One arranged Murder).
In between I have read 5 Point Someone, 2 States, One Night @ the Call Centre, One Indian Girl, The Girl in Room 105 and 3 Mistakes of my Life.
Only Revolution 2020 was remaining for me to read in his fiction novels collection. In addition to that, he had written 3 more Non-Fiction books too – What Young India Wants, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns and India Positive: New Essays and Selected Columns.
So, I bought all his books from Amazon. Before reading the Dead Zone, I had read his newly released book – One Arranged Murder. I had pre ordered this book one month before its release on 28th September 2020. Surprisingly Chetan Bhagat had signed on the first page of that book.
Chetan Bhagat’s novels gradually changed its genre from young adult love stories to Murder Mysteries. Each novel is laced with his political ideas. (which he had explained heavily in his non-fiction books)
So, One Arranged Murder is a sequel to The Girl in Room 105. I had my contradictions on the political ideas these two books had addressed but, overall, I neither hated nor loved it.
From these two books alone, I can try to know the mind of Chetan Bhagat (If I may say that). From his tweets and some of the articles of his that I read so far, he hates leftists and loves a capitalistic mindset. (Ironically, I don’t agree with the both)
This post might be a rant + my thoughts.
Before that…
I have probably written it a lot of times. Chetan Bhagat is the reason I started reading English novels. It’s not that his writing style was easy to read but the feels it gave me were out of the world.
Okay! That may be an exaggeration. I felt that way mainly because I was in my early teens when I Started reading Chetan bhagat works. As I was fat and gay that time, I didn’t have any practical or experience (yes! That’s the right word to use) of falling in love or something. I was more into porn and the only love feeling I felt was towards by teachers. All I had was dirty (and wet) dreams that involved the process of reproduction (Ahem!) with my schoolteachers. All those Harem thoughts and…
Okay!
No more than that!
The point is – I WAS FAT AND GAY!
And the only love feeling I would get was by watching Romance movies. When I watch a Romance movie, I would have a dream of me being the hero and the teacher mam being the heroine. A budding tale of romance would brew in my dream ending with me and that teacher mam doing nasty stuff.
At this point of time, I watched a Vijay movie called Nanban and came to know that it was a remake of a Bollywood movie called 3 Idiots. Even the Bollywood movie was adapted from a novel written by a contemporary Indian author named Chetan Bhagat!
I watched 3 Idiots and I liked it. So, I planned on reading the book at that time. At those times, I would pick a book in a library and read it. There were neither Amazon nor Flipkart; or any other online website that I could use. (Actually, it was there, but I was not aware of it at that time) So, the only choice for reading a book was either using a library or downloading a free e-book. (Well, it’s a pirated e-book) I could’ve bought the book, but it was easy for me use the former options.
I was a member of my village’s library, but I couldn’t able to find the book there. So, I opted out to download the free e-book from internet. See I was a dumb kid back then (Well still am in some instances) and as a result, I downloaded Half Girlfriend thinking that it was 5 point someone and started reading it!
As I read the novel, I realised it was a different novel, but the setup of the story was what made me to read more. I still remember the names of the couple of that novel – Madhav Jha and Ria Somani. I loved Madhav and Ria as a couple at that time. I was a misogynist piece of shit back then (and still am in some instances), so I loved Madhav’s character so much. It was later, in my college, when I became Madhav for my Ria (Excuse me for the cringe), I realised what a crappy love story it was. But I liked the Madhav after his break-up with Ria. I still like after break-up arc of Madhav.
And then the climax happened, and it was a bliss. I too had a half girlfriend in my college but somehow, she fell in love with me (or so I thought). That climax should’ve happened for me. All it was just a friendly infatuation – nothing more and nothing less.
Before meeting her in the college, I had read quite a few romance novels (not only of Chetan Bhagat but by Ravinder Singh and other authors) and had acquired the skills of a Cringe-y Romantic Desi.
I interest towards porn were minimalizing; it was not totally gone but, my interest kind of evolved (?) from hard core porn to soft core porn. Even soft corn porn diluted to kissing scenes and lesbian actions. When I think about it, it all because of my sudden interest towards love stories (be it a movie or a novel). I just wanted to dream; to have a soul mate.
Deep down, I just want to be loved.
On the pursuit of reading English books
I started exploring more books. MORE ENGLISH BOOKS to be precise. It was on one of these explorations, I stumbled upon a book series called A Song of Ice and Fire. Through that I came to know about the Game of Throne series in HBO and started watching it. Then it led to Dexter. Then Dexter led to Breaking Bad and so on. My colleges days were filled with TV series.
But I never read the ASOIAF series. I remember downloading it and seeing 5000+ pages in that PDF. I was shocked and decided against reading it. The same happened with Wheel of Time. I even read 10 chapters of Wheel of Time. Because ASOIAF had a TV adaptation and Wheel of Time didn’t had one.
So, I decided to read WOT but, it was too strong for me at that time. I read the first 10 chapters like mugging up for an exam. That made me to stop reading it. It also developed inferiority complex inside me. So, to avoid that, I entertained myself more on watching anime and reading manga.
And reading more of Chetan Bhagat.
After that…
I was not a political guy back then. I didn’t have any views of my own (even now I am the same as my old self in some instances). So, when I started reading Chetan Bhagat’s non-fiction books, I realised that he had views of a right-wing guy. He even goes on and starts criticising India’s socialistic construct as pseudo socialism and wants to have a healthy Capitalism instead.
Sometimes I felt him as a Modi Bhakt but later, I realised that he wants to be a neutral guy. He bashes both Congress and BJP and yet sometimes, he loves Modi’s views.
Whatever may it be, I have learned a lot on GDP growth, GST issue, Rohingya Genocide and more. Though I hated his stand on Ayodhya Ram Temple issue and Reservation (these fucking idiots), I like how he wants demonetisation to be utilised. I am not sure about its feasibility, yet it feels good to read it. It is as follows. (It’s a bit Capitalistic but hey, we should remember what had happened during demonetisation)
In our country, a lot of black money holders have done business for decades in a culture of tax evasion. These people, a few hundred thousand of them, control our economy, creating millions of legitimate jobs and adding billions to the GDP. What do we do in this situation? Suffocate them, and the jobs they create, to death? Or do we live with both the good and the bad they represent, and softly move them towards a cleaner system? Should we teach them a lesson for being bad, and risk businesses shrinking and jobs disappearing? Or should we come up with easier ways to make the transition so that ways of doing business in our country get cleaned up over time?
And the one part of his non-fiction book I loved was his take on WOMEN’S RIGHTS, GAY RIGHTS AND MINORITY RIGHTS. It came as a shock to me because except One Indian Girl, all his novel had dumb and cheesy female lead. It felt ironical that how can a man who writes dumb female personality a lot in his novels can be politically correct when it comes to feminism. But I feel like I know the answer. Misogynists were the people who knows more about feminism and act according to that. But let’s not judge it and let’s see his points as follows.
Why is it that a husband who helps in the kitchen and takes care of the kids is termed ‘amazing’, while when a woman does it, she is merely ‘doing her job’? There was a time when jobs involved high manual labour and perhaps men were more suited to the workplace. Today, it is a different world. How many male readers of this article do a job that a woman can’t do instead? And yet, when a woman sacrifices her dreams and career for a man, it is expected of her. When a man does it, the reaction is somewhere between ‘Has he gone crazy?’ to ‘He is awesome’.
There are hidden messages in the movie, perhaps more than the makers even intended. One, we have trapped our women. We think we care for them, but we suffocate them in the name of security, safety, morality, tradition, or culture. We are not comfortable with an Indian woman expressing herself. A woman must be a good daughter, sister or wife. It isn’t enough for her to be just, well, herself. In some ways, women endure disguised slavery. In the civilized, developed world, where women have choices, they do not choose to live like this. Every girl in India deserves a journey of self-discovery like Rani.
There will a separate post for all the notes I have noted while reading CB’s nonfiction in the next month.
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