Emotions, decadence and what have you….
Anika Saba is touched by love and ambition
Revolution 2020Chetan Bhagat For change we need revolution. A real revolution can only happen when people ask themselves- what is my sacrifice?--these words carry profound meaning at a time like ours when the people of our country are actually rooting for a revolution. That is why, probably, they keep coming to mind from a book I recently read: Revolution 2020 by Chetan Bhagat. Though there are sparks of revolution, the book is not all about it. It is actually a love story. That same old story—two boys, one girl—so how does one sing this age old love triangle in new tunes? First, make it look authentic—a true story; second, mix it with other elements—Love, Corruption, Ambition—which is the subtitle of the book. We wonder why people keep on writing the same stories; maybe because the same things keep on happening. No matter how much times have changed and humans have civilized, the basics remain the same. Love is the most fundamental instinct of human nature. Guess that is why,every story is a love story, whether that love is for our nation, our mother or a special someone. The pulse of the book, however, is not love, nor revolution. To me, it is Gopal, the protagonist. He is the driving force of the novel—everything happens to him and we see everything through his eyes. He falls in love but is driven by ambition and gets mixed with corruption. Through all of these ups and downs in life, we see the hardships of an average Indian boy as he battles the outrageous systems of education and politics. We can easily relate to them because a similar kind of competition and corruption exists in our country too. In no other part of the world perhaps is education sold and bought in such manner as in this sub-continent. It is harrowing, sometimes heartbreaking, to read of and realize the sacrifices and the trauma that the people of our nations make and endure in the name of certificates and degrees. Reality is harsh, society is cruel. They stamp the innocence out of sweet children and turn us into corrupt adults. The same thing happens with Gopal. His love story resonates with our emotions, corruption parallels our decadence and ambition echoes our greed. However, these are aspects that we can relate with many characters in many novels. So what is special about this book? The brilliance lies in the connection we make with the characters. I don't know how many people will agree with me on this but I believe it is the most important factor. If we are not intrigued by the protagonist, we will not want to make the journey with him. Since the story is the same, the one thing that separates his story from everyone else's is him, here Gopal. Bhagat definitely wins maximum points for drawing out Gopal's character so well. It is because of this that we feel sympathy when he is hurt, we feel joy when he is happy, we feel angry when he is bad, simply saying, we feel for him in every page of the book. It is not the macrocosm of Varanasi, where the scene is set, or India, but the microcosm of Gopal, the person, which holds our attention, touches our hearts and leaves an impression. Finally, the icing on the cake is Bhagat's writing style. In narration, the diction and syntax are so familiar to our usage that the reading becomes effortless. The dialogues are also catchy and free-flowing like our everyday conversations. This does not mean that it is without thought and sophistication. Simple lines carry beautiful meanings which we know but forget and Bhagat reminds us of: It is amazing how the brain will connect one thought to another until it gets where it wants to be. His simple straightforward style is probably the reason he has become so popular, especially among the youth. He has struck a chord with today's generation which wants to read novels where not only the stories but even the essence feels familiar. Though this kind of down-to-earth writing is common in the West, it has not flourished in the East till recently. For example, in our country, we have had Humayun Ahmed and we have Zafar Iqbal, but where are their counterparts in English? There are hardly any, but in India the revolution has started and Bhagat is one of the pioneers. In the last two years, I have read the likes of Arundhati Roy and Salman Rushdie, who are award winning writers. However, their content and style are heavy and far removed for young people like us. As much as enlightening it is to read postcolonial literature, Bhagat felt closer to the heart. He was like a breath of the same old air that we breathe everyday but fresher. If anyone thinks that the youth factor is a drawback because it narrows down the appeal then I would like to remind the person that there is a huge population of young people in the sub-continent who are hungry for such books which are malleable to our tastes and thirst. A big part of the fondness also arises from the fact that it vouches us with the conviction that even we can write such stories. 'Sad like life' that is what I told a friend after reading it. I cannot say 'tragic' because it is not a literary classic. It is not grand but it has sensible story-telling and pragmatic proximity—the synthesis of the two makes it quite great. Anika Saba is a critic.
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