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A review by namakurhea
English, August: An Indian Story by Upamanyu Chatterjee
4.0
I couldn’t recall why I bought the book. If you observe my book purchases for a while, you would know I am very biased towards literature from the Southern hemisphere so I believe that was also the case with this one. It’s been gathering dust for a while in my library so I need to thank @alienkeren for nudging me to finally pick it up.
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We follow Agastya Sen, an educated Bengali-Goanese elite who passed the Indian Civil Services Exam and is posted as an IAS officer to Madna, a remote Indian town where temperature gets crazy hot. To be an IAS (Indian Administrative Services) officer is to be a movie star. So one would expect that he would be excited to start such a career. Turns out, nope!! He had his qualms about going to Madna and when he finally arrived, the qualms did not get away and became a full-blown quarter life crisis. His body was in Madna but his head was always somewhere else. Was he just being ungrateful and picky? If not this job, then what else does he want to do anyway?
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The story struck a personal chord with me since for a few years (and especially lately), I’ve been feeling the same way: aways looking outside. However, if you ask me, well what do you want to do instead? I probably will not have an answer.
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OK SPOILER alert now: the story did not get resolved.. like a lot of things in life, I guess. Life is a journey they say and perhaps the point of it all is to continue showing up everyday even though we haven’t figured it out all yet and to do so with grace.
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Highly recommended!! Please also read @alienkeren ‘s review of it. I always love seeing how different people would pick up different themes depending on the current season of their lives. Also, Merry Christmas and happy holidays🎄
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We follow Agastya Sen, an educated Bengali-Goanese elite who passed the Indian Civil Services Exam and is posted as an IAS officer to Madna, a remote Indian town where temperature gets crazy hot. To be an IAS (Indian Administrative Services) officer is to be a movie star. So one would expect that he would be excited to start such a career. Turns out, nope!! He had his qualms about going to Madna and when he finally arrived, the qualms did not get away and became a full-blown quarter life crisis. His body was in Madna but his head was always somewhere else. Was he just being ungrateful and picky? If not this job, then what else does he want to do anyway?
.
The story struck a personal chord with me since for a few years (and especially lately), I’ve been feeling the same way: aways looking outside. However, if you ask me, well what do you want to do instead? I probably will not have an answer.
.
OK SPOILER alert now: the story did not get resolved.. like a lot of things in life, I guess. Life is a journey they say and perhaps the point of it all is to continue showing up everyday even though we haven’t figured it out all yet and to do so with grace.
.
Highly recommended!! Please also read @alienkeren ‘s review of it. I always love seeing how different people would pick up different themes depending on the current season of their lives. Also, Merry Christmas and happy holidays🎄