|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The long reverie of Partha
Sarma
First-time novelist, C. Sriram, was born in 1974 in Vishakhapatnam. He has a master’s degree in communication from the University of Hyderabad. His novel is a dark exploration of a young man who is jobless and constantly trying to evade the queries about his status from those around him. Partha, the main lead, is in a fix about his situation and the sense of responsibility towards his family sometimes surfaces and leaves him miserable. His preoccupation with finding faults with everything the normal world deems important and necessary leaves him feeling every bit an outsider. Partha sums up his state of mind best when he says that he seeks out solitariness in the crowded city but is unable to be by himself in the sparseness of a little hill-station. The idea of a routine desk-job doesn’t appeal to him. He sees life beyond interviews, jobs, girlfriends and the like. Hence, the first swirls of love unsettle him. He finds it difficult to acknowledge that he could be in danger of riding the same bandwagon that so infuriates him. While he is busy declaring other people’s behaviour as ‘senile and boisterous’, his own state of mind is anything but normal. Be it his rage at the interview that his father had "arranged" or his anxiety at the prospect of watching a movie with his secret love, his responses are exaggerated. Akanksha’s character, on the other hand, is full of poise and a resilience that sees her through bad patches, an optimist who sees the proverbial silver lining. Partha’s friends Shaurabh and Amrita are worldly wise whereas Ahmadi Sahib and Kaushik are so wrapped up in their own stream of thoughts that they leave no space for opinions of others. To Partha they all are annoying but he keeps returning to them. Sriram painstakingly develops the character of each and every player in great detail. From their appearance to their mannerisms, the characters are etched so deftly that they almost materialise before the eyes. The liberalisation of the
younger generation and the desperate bid by the parents to keep up their
rhythm is interesting. It is illustrated in the episode when Akanksha’s
parents try to accept her dating and when all else fails, try to coax
her into marrying a suitable boy. Though the handling of the subject is
different and not at all movie-like, it becomes too gloomy and starts to
ham at times. Partha’s journals seem to stretch into pages. To Sriram’s
credit, he effectively brings out the two extremes, pessimism and
optimism, rather well and goes on to prove that opposites attract.
|
A
pessimist is a man who thinks everybody as nasty as himself, and hates
them for it. George Bernard Shaw was right in thinking so; as a man who
always thinks the glass is half empty cannot think of another being
worthy. The ego of a pessimist is ever so fragile that having it
battered again and again does nothing to improve self-esteem. Such a
person sees no good in nature and no humour in any day-to-day
happenings. And to be oblivious to all around you deadens the spirit and
the person is no more than a walking corpse. Only love can then redeem
the state of affairs.