BOOK TALK: THE MINISTRY OF UTMOST HAPPINESS
27 July 2017—School of Business Studies and
Social Sciences, Christ University
The
discussion was held at the Christ University BGR Campus Library on 27 July 2017
from 3:45 to 5:00 p.m. The gathering was welcomed by Dr Meghna Mudaliar who
gave a general introduction to the book and author commenting the brave tone of
Roy’s to discuss various controversial topics in her novel through a poetic
language and style, as “we say things in literature which we can’t say in
public.” The opening pages of the novel were read out to the audience to
appreciate and to enjoy the language, imagery, thought and content of Roy’s
writing. The poetic-prose of the chapter was accentuated by the circle.
The first
topic of discussion was presented by Shivani Kuthe of 1 MA ECS on “The
Non-Linear Narrative of The Ministry of
Utmost Happiness”. The speaker pointed out how fragmented the narration and
storyline was, thus bringing through these shattered stories several
protagonists. The novel is a recollection of memories. She mentioned the
critique of Nilanjana Roy on the novel as an “elegy to the bulldozed world.”
These shattered pieces slowly become everything. The poetic language was again
cited with reference to the tone of compassion by quoting from Naomi Shihab
Nye’s poem ‘Kindness’ through which Nye highlights the need to understand
sorrow and pain as equally important as the need for kindness, as also seen in
Roy’s book.
Prakriti
Arora of 1 MA ECS was the second speaker of the Book Talk on “Twisted Politics
and the Quest for Identity.” She called the novel the baby of Roy’s twenty
years of experience. She noted the trace of political events in the novel from
the Gujarat riots to the Kashmir issue. She tried to trace these political
events not subjectively but through the tone of the author. The discussion was
on the quest of identity of the marginalised voices. The choice of a
transgender character as the protagonist was discussed. The remark on the
poetic verse in the novel was reemphasized and the address by Arora ended with
her reading her favourite lines from the novel and appreciating the language
and style of Roy.
3 BA English
Honour’s Yashwant Singh Panwar took an interesting topic of “Borders: Physical,
Metaphorical and Philosophical.” In his talk he gave examples of events and
characters to brief his topic. He took
characters like Anjum, Saddam Hussain and Tilottama to show the different
manifestations of borders. In Anjum the border of religion breaks in the haveli
Khwabgah, the place of dreams. In Saddam Hussain caste as a barrier is shed off
by the witnessing of the murder of his father. In Tilo, Panwar traced the
autobiographical connection with the author. He mentioned many personal
experiences of the author seen in various characters of the novel. The
importance of animals was also highlighted with the reference to Roy calling
herself a stray dog. He also took notice of the shattered and scattered
narrative of the novel.
The talk
concluded with Dr Meghna referring to the novel as beyond categorisation of
genres and commenting on the play of language by Arundhati Roy. Dr Meghna
mentioned the works and language of Shashi Tharoor, who emphasises not just the
‘what’ and ‘why’ of the story but the ‘how’ as well, thus providing an
additional dimension to our readings of The
Ministry of Utmost Happiness. The Book Talk closed its session with some of
the audience pointing their views and reading lines from the work.
—Report by Sheetal S Kumar, 1 MA
English with Cultural Studies. Photography by Gokul Jayan, 1 MA English with
Cultural Studies.
.JPG)
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