Here's a kind of paperback fiction that shows up every few years and captures the world's imagination
Here's a kind of paperback fiction that shows up every few years and captures the world's imagination. The most recent one, Eat, Pray, Love -- a memoir by a divorced woman called Elizabeth Gilbert, has driven movie star Julia Roberts (who plays the author) to Hinduism. One can safely assume that unlike becoming a Benedictine monk, which demands a vow of silence for several years, or Sunni Islam, which is aided by enrollment at a Madrassa, becoming a Hindu in California does not require cumbersome penance. In fact, it requires a visit to an 'ashram' (however that is interpreted in suburban Los Angeles, usually with spa architecture) where you are presented an orange shawl-ish thing that you wear and look serene. Hindu, done.
Now, not to be facetious about Ms. Roberts' intentions, but many cynics have claimed her calling is oddly well-timed with the movie's promotion where her character visits an ashram in India (and is picked up by a dashing man, which frankly, should happen more at ashrams). It fits in well with the relaxed image of Hinduism in western liberal thought (yoga, Kama Sutra, 60s music, Vishnu T-shirts) which then fits in well with an idea in the book itself, and in books like these, that contain a frightening three word sentence -- self-healing journey.
Immediately, one thinks of river trips, spas in Kerala, music involving some sort of dropping water, mud massages, someone whispering nonsense like "to become whole, release the sum of your parts". Hindus cannot be far away. West of the Suez Canal, the word does not evoke Nitin Gadkari sweating at BJP rallies.
Typically, books like these involve a character, usually the author, facing a life-altering event like divorce, revolution in the home country, or the death of a pet, then travel to that strange, exotic, wild place (Indonesia, India, Italy in Elizabeth Gilbert's case, all reachable on Singapore Airlines) for, and here comes another frightening word -- self-improvement.
Kite Runner by Khalid Husseini was another one from sometime ago. A favourite at airports, it gave people sitting in skyscrapers and subways in important western capitals, comfort, insight and familiarity -- a protagonist, American-Afghan, journeyed into Taliban-riddled Afghanistan, bombs everywhere, to, as the back-cover says, "find his country and through it, himself". The cheeky reader may say well, his country is pretty prominent on any map and what does finding himself mean? For that matter, what does getting lost with himself mean? The earnest reader sees a story of a troubled place described as imagined, where a man meets meets good people, bad people, random morality is spewed ("The real Afganisthan is inside you") and he leaves with his thinking changed. "I am wrong about everything", thinks the reader, and immediately leaves his/her stable job, gets on a plane to some place that represents their Afghanistan (which is really inside them, they'll find out) and life imitates art.
Many say the Guru of this kind of fiction is Brazilian Paolo Coelho, the modern-day travelling prophet whose protagonist goes through the Middle East (not Dubai, the medieval one) in search of a gem, which he realises from random wisdom given to him along the way ("A search is only a question") is, less relevant than the journey. Like molding metal, our hero's mind moulds (Alchemist, see).u00a0
The Alchemist has made sure very few emails are now sent without someone using a totally irrelevant quote at the bottom of their name. I received a message about courier delivery recently. It was from Girish Patnaik, Area Manager. It read: "Sir, your package C214JJ will be delivered 8/18" followed by, "Life does not look back" -- Paolo Coehlo.u00a0
Anuvab Pal is a Mumbai-based playwright and screenwriter. His plays in Mumbai include Chaos Theory and screenplays for Loins of Punjab Presents (co-written) and The President is Coming. He is currently working on a book on the Bollywood film Disco Dancer for Harper Collins, out later this year.u00a0 Reach him at www.anuvabpal.com
