Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard - Kiran Desai

All those of you who are sick and tired of reading  that heavy serious stuff, here is some relief for you. Novels generally dont make me laugh(cry: maybe sometimes) but this one did. I was actually laughing when I read this.

I'll not spoil your fun by narrating the story here but for all those who are curious here's a slight hint. Its a story about a guy called Sampath who has been a faliure all through his life and shows unusal tendencies since birth. The story actually starts when our dear Sampath suddenly jumps up a tree and decides to stay there.The story becomes exciting when all the people (including his family) starts believing that he has extraordinary powers and he is termed as god's messenger.

The story is well written and the writer manges to grip the reader with funnt incidents.The story includes many funny characters (including Sampath ofcourse) like Sampaths sister Pinky who bites the icecream vendor and the official who has a list of his private body parts for each day which he has to clean up when he bathes(like the back of his ear lobe on monday.. what were you thinking?? ;) ).

Then comes the monkeys who create havoc in the lives of people but Sampath is unaffected by them because he considers them his own.The whole story is the surrounded around these monkeys and how the people try to get rid of them.In the end the reader is left with a smile on his face.After reading the book it may look like a nonsensical Govinda movie without any head or tail but i'll say it is worth a read!! Happy reading or should I say Happy smiling :)

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I always wanted to read stuff that everyone else reads...so that I can be the one in the crowd...happily debating the pros and the cons of famous bestseller...but then god has his own plans for me..he decided that I have to be swim against the tide...''read books that no one reads or reads and forgets'' ...so here I am...writing a review on one such book...this book is written by an Indian...I love reading them...nothing patriotic in that...somehow I relate to them better...coming back to the author...she is Kiran Desai...she is the winner of 1998 Betty Trask Prize for this book... good well deserved prize...I can say that after reading the book:)

To begin with...the book is hilarious...it is a satire woven around Sampath Chawla and his family...Sampath being the hero of the book and the story...is a nobody who one day decides to go against the crowd... .( that sounds like me !!!).. he is a dreamer who just wishes to take a break from the regular humdrum...he is a bored post-office clerk who has no aspirations and ambitions...thankfully no talents to brag about as well...that makes him idle, good for nothing son who is regularly given a dose by his father for being a worthless son...

I will not divulge much about the story except the main idea...Sampath Chawla decided one day to embark a guava tree..reasons unknown still...the book revolves around the chaos that this mindless decision leads to...the story has other characters which add to the humor quotient... his dad ( typical middle class working dad), mom (Kulfi...is her name...here is the twist...she has a family history of being different...that is being eccentric..do not blame poor Sampath for all the hoo hala...), grandmom ( she is the only one who acts normal..she is our own dadi who has an opinion about everything to anything...) and his sister ( Pinky...how very original and different:)) )... the other lead stars are the monkeys on top of the guava tree who have high spirits...as in...they drink to remain in high spirits...cheers to that !!!

The story is eccentric to say the least...the humor is subtle sometimes and sometimes it is on your face...that makes the book slightly ''hatke'' and worth a read...it is mindless, mischievous,charming and thought provoking at times... based in a make belief village ''Shahkot''... you can just relate to the everyday activities of everyone...some of the incidents remind you of your own time, some incidents you just gape at...others you read and forget...

The book is a must read for people who have a taste for something different or who doesn't have a taste at all....pick your choice!!! read it and you will enjoy..simple language makes it easy to read and understand...the only drawback is the climax...it leaves you asking for more...I had to read it twice to make sense...but yes, thankfully I did.... the books sometimes makes you think...the age old myths, the hermits in mountains...the sermons given so frequently...you can easily comprehend it all...

Lastly, thank you god for making me swim against the tide...but I would also like to swim with the tide...i would like to be one in the million crowd...saying the same things as everyone is saying...

till then...

Keep writing !!!

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“...Sampath Chawla, born in a time of drought into a family not quite like other families, in a town not quite like other towns.”

In her debut novel, Kiran Desai talks about life’s everyday problems, including love and family relationships, in a very comical, yet engrossing manner. The story is set in an imaginary town called Shahkot somewhere in Northern India.

In a time of a terrible drought, Sampath Chawla- is born. At first, he is a total failure in life. He struggles to pass school, then struggles at his job, and then is fired by his boss. The only things that he is good at are daydreaming, and singing to himself. He also has to cope with his strange family-- his father, Mr. Chawala, Kulfi, his mother, Ammaji, and Pinky, his sister.

Desai has done an excellent job of delineating her characters. Each of them are colorful and hilarious in their own manner. A closer look at the characters:

Mr. Chawla--he is the head of the family, worries about Sampath’s future and about making money.

Kulfi---one of my favorite characters in this novel. She is eccentric, and is obsessed about strange foods and making exotic meals for her son.

Ammaji---Mr. Chawla’s mother. She secretly enjoys her revered position in the household, while complaining about the lack of attention being paid to her.

Pinky---Sampath’s younger sister, who is annoyed by the other members of the family, thinks she has an acute sense of fashion, and is in love with the Hungry Hop Kwality ice cream boy.

To escape from the worries of the world, and of course, his family, Sampath finds solitude by climbing an old guava tree in a deserted orchard, outside the city. Since he used to be a postal worker (and read everyone’s letters) before being fired, he finds it easy to pose as a clairvoyant sage and soon gains respect from the people of Shahkot. People come from all over India and Sampath is known as the “Baba”.

His family, seeing this opportunity as being financially helpful, advertise Sampath’s name and sell his pictures. Soon, a bunch of drunken monkeys appear at the scene and add to the overall comic effect. However, the monkeys are out of control and threaten the town’s peaceful existence.

The people of the town, inlcuding a spy who wants to prove Sampath as a fraud, come up with different (but all equally hilarious) plans to get rid of the monkeys that put poor Sampath in dilemma. The ending is somewhat abrupt, and the only part of the book which could have been better.

This novel is filled with numerous hilarious events. There are also great quotes and plot is well developed. There are some serious messages that Desai skillfully interweaves subtly within the comic plot. However, as I said, the ending could have been better. The language is not hard to understand, and it is pretty short. Other than that, I would recommend this unique novel to everyone.

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HULLABALOO IN THE GUAVA ORCHARD BY KIRAN DESAI – A REVIEW

India has often been depicted as a mystic land of Sadhus, strange magic charms, spicy exotic cuisine and intricate religious rituals by the West. Kiran Desai’s absorbing book is a brilliant satire that makes light of these theories in a comical manner. A satire that has social, political, economical, filial and even spiritual dimensions wrapped in layers of absurd humor with a dash of fantasy, the book raises some significant questions on the world and it’s mad ways that applies not only to the fictitious town of Shahkot, but equally to any other part of India.

The plot is simple - Sampath Chawla, the main protagonist is a dull young man whose absolute lack of common sense and ambition is made up for by his fertile imagination and deliriously free spirit that lead him to seek asylum in a guava tree in an abandoned guava orchard when he feels that life is going out of control.

But madness is almost a hereditary trait of the Chawla family – Sampath’s mother Kulfi is obsessed with food in it’s various forms, his ambitious father Mr.Chawla is obsessed with money and his sister Pinky is a droll and foolish girl infatuated with the Hungry Hop Kwality ice cream boy.

Having spent his days as a post office clerk reading the town’s incoming mail, Sampath finds it easy to pose as a clairvoyant holy man, a situation of which his family promptly takes advantage. He is joined by a group of monkeys on the treetop and earns the title of ‘Monkey Baba’ - Devotees start flocking to Shahkot to see the ‘Baba’ and Mr.Chawla seizes the opportunity to make some fast money out of the situation. But things take a crazy turn as the monkeys turn alcoholic, and pose a threat to the devotees’ conglomeration as well as Sampath’s family camping at the foot of the tree.

Different people offer a variety of solutions for eliminating the monkey menace and Sampath finds himself in an obscure predicament. Things take an even more bizarre and outlandish turn as Pinky plans to elope with the ice cream boy, and Kulfi gets determined to catch and cook a monkey before they are chased away. All these events and more culminate in an extremely amusing medley of a climax, and an abrupt ending that has shades of fantasy.

Amidst such fun-filled incidents and vivid descriptions of sporadic monsoons arriving late on summer-exhausted Shahkot, idyllic orchards bordering the hills outside the town and fantastic cooking with never-heard-of recipes, Ms.Desai brings out the various hues and flavours of human character. Several thought-provoking messages are dispersed throughout the book in a subtle manner making it much more than a simple light-hearted comedy.

Ms.Desai has a remarkable gift for humour that sparkles throughout the book – The sections highlighting the desirable qualities of an Indian bride, Pinky’s and Ammaji’s adventure with the notorious cinema monkey that takes them both a merry chase around the streets holding ice creams and Ammaji’s dentures in tow and Pinky’s ludicrous affair with Hungry Hop among others are sure to have the reader in splits of laughter.

A protagonist with a difference who seeks nothing except solitude in a shady spot, his eccentric family members, hypochondriac officials, prosaic civil servants, lackadaisical postmasters, a bunch of gullible ‘devotees’ and a group of alcoholic monkeys together create an extremely delightful tale that transports the reader to a world where life is slow, time moves at its own pace and yet reflects the vagaries of existence in the present day with all of it’s plastic nuances.

Note: I had written the above review in Meghdutam - https:// https://meghdutam.com/

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