SENSE AND SENSIBILITIES : WHAT IS THE CHOICE FOR MAN ?

The unspooling of these thoughts are intended not for projecting yet another dimension of the on going recession in the world economy. They are meant not for suggesting remedies to the sinking economy, either. The inspiration behind these stray thoughts lies in the reading of two novels recently by this Blogger. Though both the novels have been authored by Indian writers, their form, content, narrative style and treatment of the novel are exclusively mutual and independent. One is an epistolary novel, the narration of which has been done in the form of a letter written by its protagonist . The other one is the story of the protagonist told from the mouth of his close friend.

Despite distinctive variance in these areas, the common theme around which the fulcrum of beehive of characters move around, is one and the same – that of modern civilization whose shaky structure has been built on the foundation of the concept of materialism, thereby burying the spiritual quest as relics of the past.

Let me let the cat out of the bag to break the suspense. The first novel is “The White Tiger” authored by Aravind Adiga, an Indian writer in English. The book is his debut venture, however to be honored with the prestigious ‘Man Booker’ award for the year 2008. The other novel is “The Strange case of Billy Biswas” by Arun Joshi, a brilliant scholar of rare sensibilities and intellectual capabilities like his protagonist, Billy, in the novel. The whole novel of Joshi is like a philosophical treatise on modern civilization and man’s inability and incapacity to rise from the embers of sufferings fuelled by his total leaning towards materialistic interests, thereby burying the spiritual quest as an unwanted baggage of the past.

Since these two novels have dealt with the strengths or otherwise of the modern civilization and materialistic interests in their common theme and since the globalized economy of the present day has capital-centric boulders of foundation to hold the super structure of commodity-making machine, devoid of spiritual interests, we shall stray a little and try to understand the basic causes underlying the on going crisis in the world economy.

Economic pundits are still pulling their sleeves up. An understanding of the anatomy of the under belly of the deep economic slump, is still elusive. Bail-outs may help see through safe passage of tottering business corporations to safer shores for probable rebuilding but we have no idea who is going to bail out man from the abyss of his greed for materialistic-oriented life, devoid of happiness to his soul. The greed of man has gone to such unfathomable level that it seems to have left deep scars on the Mother Earth by his continued exploitation of the planet, without abatement. We have emission-ed and blackened the world with enough carbon to hurt our hearts, globalized poverty from scattered confines, have subjugated humanity under the weight of disposable commodities to the infinitive number.

No doubt, capital-centric economic model has come into being in the conducting of world economic affairs. With the advancement of technology, reversal to labour-centric economic concept has become the most despised idea in the sweep of globalized economy. All economic endeavors that deserved to be directed towards the achieving of maximum good to maximum number of people, seem to be failing. Human interest is considered to be ultimate goal of all human endeavors – be it innovation in economics or science or technology. But human interests themselves have been destined to recede to the level of acquiring all the garbage of gadgets being churned out by technology without leaving scope even for simple happiness, which otherwise would be possible even without such heaps of gadgets. Did not Henry Thoreau prove that he was able to experience maximum happiness by being one with Nature and his Walden Pond ?

Wealth creation objectives, steeped of materialistic interests and greed, have pushed man’s quest for spiritual wealth to the deep abyss of non-recovery. In the endless urge to make wealth and more money, man appears to be steering his endeavor wagon on the over-inflated wheels of greed to be ruptured any moment. That is why we have witnessed bursting of housing bubbles, bankruptcies of banks and falling grandeur of financial institutions.

Aravind Adiga’s protagonist Balram Halwai in his novel ‘The White Tiger’ is the embodiment of modern man. In his dictionary, the word “crime’ has a definite place but not the word “punishment”. He is conscious of his subservient position in the class strata but he does not want his crime to prick his conscience. He slits his master’s throat with a broken piece of glass from an empty but costly whisky bottle – a symbol of vagaries of the moneyed society. He grabs from his master’s car a bag full money in currencies of higher denominations and throws his master’s blood stained body in the road side bushes. He then goes to Bangalore with the stolen money to be become an entrepreneur and owner of a fleet of Qualis, transporting in them employees of call-centers working under different time zones and at odd hours at night. His bribing of police officials to hide his identity as a killer, he feels, is part of his entrepreneurial duty and he does not feel shy of his action. Though the novel tries to portray the protagonist as a product of class struggle prevailing in India, in a larger sense, he is also a victim of modern civilization which revolves around “a peg of money” (quoted from Arun Joshi’s novel, ‘The strange case of Billy Biswas’).

On the other hand, Arun Joshi’s protagonist Billy Biswas, unlike Adiga’s protagonist Balram Halwai who is a thick-skinned fellow bothering nothing other than becoming rich, is an intellectual individual. Billy is the son a Supreme Court Judge and is sent to America to pursue a course in Engineering but Billy comes out with doctorate in Anthropology. He is traumatized by the modern civilization and its all round vagaries. He comes back to India not to pursue a profession commensurate with his education qualification. His relationship with his wife is one of misunderstanding and unpalatable. Though his relationship with a Swedish psychiatrist in America is one of intellectual relationship, he is unable to cope with the surrounding situations. To him, his friend Romy, his wife and his girl friend in Bombay are all products of modern civilization. His heart and soul are running backwards to join the world of primitiveness. He runs to Mykala forests in central India to be identified one with a tribal group. His relationship with the tribal girl Bilasia is one of supreme mingling with the almighty. He finds the right place for inquiring into his soul’s purpose. Though, ultimately gets killed by the police in their attempts to capture him, he is considered as god reincarnation of the tribal group amidst whom he made a real living and understands the meaning of his life.

If Adiga’s protagonist is symbol of sensuousness, Joshi’s protagonist is an embodiment of finer sensibilities and intellectual superiority. There is an under current of the philosophy of existentialism running through the whole novel of Joshi. Ideas of Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus find subtle references then and there. Beyond everything, there is an under current of Indian philosophy running through the whole novel. For Joshi, the concept of ‘East is east; the west is west and never the twain shall meet’ is true and complete.

In these troubled times, will man, like Joshi’s protagonist Billy, take time to see inwards into his soul to identify what went wrong with him and the world than committing himself to become Balram Halwais of Aravind Adiga with all the attendant superficial richness and happiness?

It is now Bye from Chandru till next blogging.