Book Review: Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag

Vivek Shanbhag who is also regarded as Indian Chekhov is an Indian story writer who has written this short novella in Kannada. This book was well appreciated in South India and was therefore demanded to be translated in English. Srinath Perur has stunningly did justice to this work.

This book is a petite one comprsing approximately of 100 pages. It will hardly take an hour or so to reach its culmination point.

Ghachar Ghochar is a fictional story which beautifully describes the everyday scuffles and tussles in a middle class family in the city of Bangalore. The narrator refused to reveal his name throughout the journey of this novella-which is very relatable to most of the Indian households. Narrator lived in a joint family setup with his parents, uncle Chikkappa, divorced sister Malati and his wife Anita.

His wife Anita is potrayed as a non-conformist and almost always antagonistic to the orthodox and conventional thinking of his in-laws family. This sudden rise in money is credited to Uncle Chikkappa who set forth the idea of ‘Sona masala’ business into action and reality making him worthy of the lion’s share. Anita was the sole member who had guts enough to bulldoze the double standards of this family with her vitriol utter.

The Narrator who mostly prefered to be muted and voiceless to all this odious gibberish, regularly goes to a Coffee house for there he somehow gets solace from the waiter Vincent.

The story has an open ending which I kind of dislike because it leaves you clueless and offers a room big enough to be lost with your own lingering thoughts.

To me it seemed as if Anita has been murdered by uncle Chikkappa with the support of other family members(as uncle Kattappa did in Bahubali, now you can understand why I was so restless to write this review in particular). But there can be multifarious interpretations at the end leaving you curious and impatient to know that exact heroic conclusion and only to one’s dismay, the end does not allow you to feel relish.

I did not enjoy this book so much so for the fact that it did not do justice to its grand ratings, atleast for me. But i was also not discontented as this book prompted me to reflect upon the barbarous cons that sudden wealth brings along with benevolent pros. Also, the lucid way of unraveling the story is delightful.

If anyone has read this book already or is intented to read in the near future i would love to know your part of the story and interpretation of it.