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The great Indian book tour part four |
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13th February 2008 |
The Chennai reading was followed by an intelligent discussion. The perpetrator of this outrage was Arvind Sivaramakrishnan, lecturer in politics and law at Southampton University who is currently guest lecturer at the Asian College of Journalism. Arvind decided to read Above Average from a sociological point of view and raised critical questions about the idea of masculinity raised in the book. It was so refreshing, so surprising, that I was caught unawares. I realized that over the last year since the book has come out I have spent so much time fending off inane questions about "campus novels" and "IIT novels" that I have almost forgotten the questions that drew me into the writing in the first place.
Arvind was particularly interested in talking about the gradual growth of Arindam's self-awareness. He found that very interesting and apt and was not fully convinced, I think, that I had done that deliberately. I had to confess that I hadn't planned it in the beginning but, once I was aware that it was happening, had taken it on wholeheartedly.
The audience rose to challenge. After I talked about how the character of Kanitkar framed a critique of the way professors in India often talk down to students, one person asked me how I was different as a professor. That was a hard question and I tried to answer it by saying that I try never to insult a student or tell them they're stupid. I think this is pretty much true but every day of every semester is an opportunity to slip up on this count, and I can't say for sure that I haven't slipped up in these last three years.
There was a lively discussion of ragging, sexual harassment, men and women in India. I tried to make the point that a genuine engagement with those issues involves trying to understand the development of a person who thinks it is okay to grope a woman in public. Above Average doesn't set out to do that, but it does try to explore the development of men in India, and so, to my mind, is part of that effort.
I left the Nungambakkam Landmark store wishing my book got more readers like Arvind, and that I could do more readings in places where people aren't too lazy to think, where people are willing to look part personalities and personas and engage with ideas. |
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| Prem Devanbu Says |
| 2nd May 2008 |
| Greetings, Amitabha, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Much has changed (specially the dating scene) since the late seventies when I graduated (from Chennai), but the essential anxieties of a young person thrust into a super competitive environment remain intact. Thus, I found a lot in the book that rang clear, and rang true. I wish I could have met Arindam. He's vulnerable, self-aware, and observant; yet he seems somehow to transcend it all, and have a crystal-clear, calibrated, level-headed view of his life path, even as he trudges slowly along its ups and downs. He sees clearly, even as he feels it deeply. I've never met anyone like that, but I'd like to. |
| Amitabha Says |
| 19th February 2008 |
| Hi Anirban, I think "campus novel" is a vague label. The books that come under it are varied and often bear no relationship to each other except that they are all set in campuses. So why the label? Perhaps it is because this label makes the book accessible to a younger audience who want to read about experiences "similar" to their own. A number of such young people who have read Above Average have expressed total puzzlement. They were looking for another Five Point Someone and found something that didn't share any of that books formal or narrative goals. But I think one advantage of the label is that it has brought a set of people to my book who would not ordinarily pick up something marked "literary fiction" because they would think it to be too "intel" and generally inaccessible. I'm fairly certain that many of these people have put down my book, shrugged their shoulders and resumed their wait for the next Chetan Bhagat blockbuster. But there have been some who have found something in there which has touched them or moved them in a way they have not experienced before. And that is a big positive to my mind. Amitabha |
| Anirban Says |
| 17th February 2008 |
| Hi Amitabha, Glad to see you have begun posting on your blog again. Like I had said before, I really liked the novel and just like you mention in the discussion above, there seems to be a completely new genre in India: the "Campus Novel". As you know my novel will also be published by Harper Collins (BTW a small plug for myself at this website http://www.bombayrainsbombaygirls.com )and even though no one has read it or talked to me about it, they are already calling it a 'Campus novel' because the setting is a medical college. I'm not complaining but i'm a little confused about what this genre entails... is it literary or not? Is it dude-lit in disguise? Is it meant to be frothy or filling, shallow or sweet? I mean, would we call Erich Segal's "love story" a campus novel in India? Your thoughts? |
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