Book Review: The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee

When I picked up to read 'The Lives of Others' by Neel Mukherjee last month, I had little familiarity with the author's work except for some of his columns I had previously read on the guardian. After reading the book in about a week's time, I am glad I chose this one from the wide selection of unread books available before me, for this might be the best modern literature in English centered around Bengal that I've read after Amitav Ghosh's 'The Calcutta Chromosomes'. Mukherjee's book was shortlisted as a finalist for the 2014 Man Booker Prize, which it didn't win, but that's hardly a deterrent for not reading this fantastic novel.

The book is set in 1960s Bengal and unravels the story of an upper middle-class Bengali business family. This is a joint family, one in which all immediate family members share a common ancestral roof over their heads even when they are as different from one another as possible in their educational, financial or social status . As is often wont in this sort of dysfunctional families, the almost claustrophobic confines of the home breeds all sorts of animosity, affection, complexity and discordance within the family members. Mukherjee explores these relationships with care and depth, straddling the line of subtlety and vivid imaginary beautifully. In the end, it is left to the readers to make of the characters what they will; Mukherjee, thankfully, doesn't categorize them into absolute saints or sinners.

I suppose Supratik Ghosh could be called the protagonist of the novel, the son of an affluent businessman, student in a prestigious Calcutta institution, believer in Maoist politics, comrade of a Naxalite party. Supratik abandons his plush Calcutta residence, much to the overwhelming grief of his doting mother- the matriarch of the family, and joins his fellow comrades as part of an organized Naxalite movement in rural Bengal. He ingratiates himself with poor farmers who are perilously in debt to a few rich and cruel landowners, toiling alongside them in the paddy fields, eating meagerly, carefully hiding himself and his comrades from the watchful eyes of the police. He indoctrinates the villagers into the Maoist philosophy and hatches plans for Naxalite reprisals that are so violent in nature that they do not befit someone with his bourgeois social status. Part of the novel contains letters written by Supratik (it is later revealed to whom) in first-person; the other parts are written as third-person encounters with Supratik's other family members. Mukherjee unravels the hardships, loyalty and grit of the Maoist revolutionaries in depth. Unlike the feeble attempt made by Jhumpa Lahiri to highlight the Maoist revolution in Bengal in her last book 'The Lowland', Mukherjee portrays an accurate picture of famine-ridden Bengal plagued with political insurgence and violent student uprisings.

Living in a multi-storied (residents of each storey belong to a different social stratum) house in South Calcutta are an assortment of characters, Supratik's relatives in the big joint business family which has now fallen on somewhat bad times. Mukherjee cultivates the familial relations well, digging deep into the eventual decay of the family business and the erosion of hierarchical power that sets into motion all sorts of trouble at home. The author succeeds very well in weaving these characters and revealing the complicated nature of relationship between them: an unmarried sister pines so badly for the affection of his brother that she slits her wrists when she hears that her sister-in-law has given birth, an old servant of the family is mistreated and framed by a family member who is ironically working for the liberation of the oppressed, a young widow in the family is relegated to live among servants for no fault of her own. Mukherjee's writing, especially in the context of his sketching the Ghosh family, reminds me of the great Bengali novelist Bimal Mitra, and I can't think of any higher praise.

Even though Mukherjee's novel unravels as a dismal, violent, morbid saga of post-independent Calcutta, there is still some hope in the form of Sona, the prodigious son of an ill-treated, poor, widowed mother, a boy genius, a maths whizkid. Sona's story serves as a comforting reminder that even in dark and desolate times, there is still a shimmer of hope, waiting to be rekindled with the help of some unlikely yet benevolent do-gooders, as has been known to happen so often in Calcutta all the while. To his credit, Mukherjee spares no details in his depiction of Sona's mathematical capabilities, devoting many pages to abstract maths. Sona, the reader of this review will be happy to know, builds for himself and his mother a far better future than what his relatives living in his grim ancestral home could have ever imagined.

Film Review: Locke

If watching Sin City is akin to reading a Frank Miller comic book on screen, watching Locke comes very close to reading an Arthur Miller novel. The movie captures the series of events on a fateful night in the life of Ivan Locke, a dedicated construction worker and family man. Locke has received a potentially life-altering phone call that night, following which he has to drive to London from his hometown Birmingham, an action that sets into motion a chain of events that turns his life upside down. Almost the entire movie is filmed inside the confinement of Locke's BMW, from which he is making and receiving a series of phone calls to hold it all together. Locke is on a mission, one that is fueled partly by his dogged commitment to his work and partly by an intrinsic sense of morality and masculinity. He is determined to do the right thing, even at a great personal and professional loss.

Tom Hardy, who plays Ivan Locke, is the only on-screen actor seen in this movie. There are other people with whom he talks to on his car phone, voiced by several notable actors including the talented Olivia Colman and Andrew Scott (who played Moriarty in the recent BBC adaptation of Sherlock). In what is probably one of the best roles in his acting life, Hardy delivers a superbly compelling performance in the lead role. Mark my words: Tom Hardy is a brilliant, amazing actor. No praise can be enough for the way he effortlessly overcomes the claustrophobic restraint of the inside of his car and unravels the destiny of a man whose world can come crumbling down in a matter of a few hours. This is not a movie to everybody's liking, but try this one out: you might be pleasantly surprised.

The Problem with Digital Devices in University Classrooms

I had the great pleasure of teaching a final year undergraduate course this Winter at the University of Calgary. After I was able to shed off the jittery stiffness that is bound to accompany the first few lectures delivered by a new instructor, I started becoming more aware of my students' activities in the classroom. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have taught students who not only showed up to each class in large numbers (kind of rare for a final year course, I have been informed) but also listened and participated in class with full concentration.

However, I could not help but notice the proliferation of digital devices- laptops, ultrabooks, tablet PCs, smartphones, what have you- that were used inside the classroom throughout the entire course. Now, while it would be imprudent to deny the benefits of using laptops in class, I think there needs to be a critical revision of rules for the proper usage of these devices inside classrooms. Going by my experience (admittedly, very limited), I have every reason to believe that in some cases, especially in those courses involving heavy usage of the board for explaining mathematical concepts that demand undivided attention from students, digital devices with network connectivity can cause more harm than good. Not only can distractions like instant messaging severely spoil the class environment for a teacher who is in the middle of solving a lengthy mathematical problem on board, it can also greatly impede the learning process for a student, now that the ability to multitask while studying has been seriously questioned in reports such as this. It is time some universities, at least those who still believe in the sanctity of a proper education, look into this matter with more seriousness.

Hello, again

I have abandoned my earlier blog that was hosted on the wordpress platform, mostly due to cost-related reasons. Hopefully, this platform will provide a far better blogging experience.

I have also decided that posts here will be way much shorter and far more frequent than they previously were, mostly for my own benefit. The idea is to write more, but without the superfluousness generally associated with my usual writings. Let's see how that goes.