Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose! The more things change the more they remain the same. It doesn't matter where you live, how much you earn, what you do. The vacuousness and lack of purpose that can pervade our lives, will do so, irrespective. Neither in excess, nor in deprivation or denial, is there happiness or peace of mind.
The first half of the book deals with life in a small, slow town in India, with rigid parents and well-drafted routines while the other half deals with "rule-less' life in suburban US.
The more detailed, "Indian half" deals with an orthodox family in a small provincial town. A partly successful, proud father, who goes through life, with set patterns and no passion. A mother who goes along with her husband, doing what is supposedly right and expected of her, curbing and killing all her innate desires. Three children. The eldest, Uma, clumsy and "Forrest Gumpish". The middle daughter Aruna, pretty, ambitious and smart, but eventually also a victim of her choices. The last, a son, Arun, on whom the parents put all their dreams and energies. All of them along with members of their extended family go through some form of deprivation - of will, of fun, of passion and of love.
The second half deals with Arun, who finds his way to the US, on a scholarship, having being forced by his father to "mug" his way through school and college. There, he finds solitude to be his best friend. Quirkily, even this desire to be alone, does not get fulfilled to the extent he wants. Unlike life in India, in the US he finds a world of excesses - of food, of body and of non-interference, both parental and otherwise. Through his eyes we see the Patton family - a "barbecuing", disappointed father, a nervous, uncertain, wannabe vegetarian mother, a body-obsessed, jock son and a bulimic, neurotic daughter. All of them go through some form of corruption - of will, of fun, of passion and of love. | |
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