'Half a life' is one of the books which took me so many days to complete, not because of the complexities of the writing or the intricate meaning of the words and the plot handled by the author but because of the simple reason, I didnt get much time to read. There could be multiple reasons for it but when I finished the book in a month, I became numb. I was very angry with myself to have completed the book. I had been in a vaccum for some days till I started reading the next book. It might have taken me a month to complete this book but whenever I started reading, from wherever I had left, I could get into the writing of V.S.Naipaul before I could complete the first two lines. That was the knack of writing of this Nobel laureate of Indian lineage.
Coming to the context of the book, this was a story which was odd and at the same time very close to everyone. I would say, in my aggressive mind, this was the story of everyone. The title itself is telling the story, 'Half a life'. It was the story of an Indian in the mid 20th century who wanted to become a revolutionist in his own terms but never fully understood the meaning of revolution and who had wanted to sling mud at his own past but didnt know what to do when the same predicaments of the past hit him. This was the story of a rationalist who didnt know that his life was not always carried by his rationalistic thoughts.
Willie Somerset Chandran, named after the great writer Somerset Maugham ( I wish I could have read some of his writings before reading this book, but nevertheless, will try to read him in some time) was the son of a social outcast who later became a mystic and who had lived a curious life which was funny in a way. Chandran was given his eduction in an English missionary school whose core principles he had began to hate when he was at his secondary grade. He grew up with the principle of not to become like his father who, according to him was a pessimist and an illiterate who didn't have enough courage to face the world with all its worldly meanings.
After coming to London to pursue his higher studies, he was mesmerised by the city but at the same time his heart and mind were wandering elsewhere. May be all of us in our waking hours doing the same thing. Thinking about something which we like but wont add any meaning to our life at that time and space. I am also one of them. A compulsive dreamer like Chandran. He had a close encounter on the first day itself with Krishna Menon who was then the high commissioner to UK and an representative for India in United Nations and who was there at that time in London to give a speech about the equality of rights for the coloured people in Africa and elsewhere. He didn't give much importance for that matter at that time. Later he realised that he, in London, was not different from those coloured people seeking Asylum in different countries.
As with most of Indians at that time, Sex outside marriage was a taboo for him. But his sexual craving made him break that taboo and he was caught in many hilarious but funny situations. His tryst with the book writing with the stories that start in a random place and time made me write my first short story 'The Marriage Fever'. Naipaul's humourical sense was more evident in those short stories. As Khaled Hossaini in his book 'Kite Runner' wrote, the essential part of a short story is the irony it contains, Chandran's stories were full of ironies, humour and the societal menace.
It was the time of cultural upheaval in London where the coloured people were fighting for their rights and that was the time for Chandran to become involved in this revolution in his own way. So when he had seen Ana, he knew that his future would be in her place, in Africa. They got married and went to live in her estate in Africa. The London life was over for him and he had no repentence or remorse for marrying that girl. They were head over heals for each other at that time.
The later part of the book dealt with the African life of Chandran. Somewhat his life came to a full circle when he landed in that imperialistic country. The unrest Africa was always giving him some rest to his mind, thanks to his African wife Ana. He was always thinking out of place in that place. The Portuguese colonialism and the mixed race people in that part of Africa reminded him constantly of his homeland. He was there because he didn't have any other place to go. When he encountered girls of 11 and 12 years of age and who had just came to puberty and who had putting their tiny nipples to the mouths of the random people, made him think that Sex was not that he had experienced before. After that he was on a rampage and involved full flegedly to satisfy his bodily needs.
Finally when he left Africa leaving his wife Ana who had lived with him for almost 20 years, he thought that Africa was not the place he had wanted to live. Now he was homeless and directionless like millions of people around the world. He thought that marrying an African woman would give a sense of meaning to his revolutionistic ideas but after he had lived his life, he thought that he had made some blunder.
I am not sure what Naipaul wanted to tell by this Novel but as with all the great writers, he put the onus on the reader's perception. Sometimes I thought to myself that as like Willie Chandran, am also a revolutionist who doesn't know what is revolution. Is revolution has a definition? Or is it abstract as most of the things in this world. As George Bernard Shaw has said,"You'll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race". I am what Willie Chandran wanted in his life and am not sure what he wanted or I want in my life. My own Wilde has put it in different words, 'Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious'. Patriotism and the revolution go hand in hand. One is relying on the other to support one's cause. Finally, I would want to quote the Lenin's words which I read recently, 'There are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks where decades happen'. Is it so? May be. Without the 1857 mutiny, we are not what we are now. May be I will lose interest in these things when I find them meaningful. Meaningless life makes our world meaningful, in a perceptional way. May be like me, many around the world lives only Half their life.
Coming to the context of the book, this was a story which was odd and at the same time very close to everyone. I would say, in my aggressive mind, this was the story of everyone. The title itself is telling the story, 'Half a life'. It was the story of an Indian in the mid 20th century who wanted to become a revolutionist in his own terms but never fully understood the meaning of revolution and who had wanted to sling mud at his own past but didnt know what to do when the same predicaments of the past hit him. This was the story of a rationalist who didnt know that his life was not always carried by his rationalistic thoughts.
Willie Somerset Chandran, named after the great writer Somerset Maugham ( I wish I could have read some of his writings before reading this book, but nevertheless, will try to read him in some time) was the son of a social outcast who later became a mystic and who had lived a curious life which was funny in a way. Chandran was given his eduction in an English missionary school whose core principles he had began to hate when he was at his secondary grade. He grew up with the principle of not to become like his father who, according to him was a pessimist and an illiterate who didn't have enough courage to face the world with all its worldly meanings.
After coming to London to pursue his higher studies, he was mesmerised by the city but at the same time his heart and mind were wandering elsewhere. May be all of us in our waking hours doing the same thing. Thinking about something which we like but wont add any meaning to our life at that time and space. I am also one of them. A compulsive dreamer like Chandran. He had a close encounter on the first day itself with Krishna Menon who was then the high commissioner to UK and an representative for India in United Nations and who was there at that time in London to give a speech about the equality of rights for the coloured people in Africa and elsewhere. He didn't give much importance for that matter at that time. Later he realised that he, in London, was not different from those coloured people seeking Asylum in different countries.
As with most of Indians at that time, Sex outside marriage was a taboo for him. But his sexual craving made him break that taboo and he was caught in many hilarious but funny situations. His tryst with the book writing with the stories that start in a random place and time made me write my first short story 'The Marriage Fever'. Naipaul's humourical sense was more evident in those short stories. As Khaled Hossaini in his book 'Kite Runner' wrote, the essential part of a short story is the irony it contains, Chandran's stories were full of ironies, humour and the societal menace.
It was the time of cultural upheaval in London where the coloured people were fighting for their rights and that was the time for Chandran to become involved in this revolution in his own way. So when he had seen Ana, he knew that his future would be in her place, in Africa. They got married and went to live in her estate in Africa. The London life was over for him and he had no repentence or remorse for marrying that girl. They were head over heals for each other at that time.
The later part of the book dealt with the African life of Chandran. Somewhat his life came to a full circle when he landed in that imperialistic country. The unrest Africa was always giving him some rest to his mind, thanks to his African wife Ana. He was always thinking out of place in that place. The Portuguese colonialism and the mixed race people in that part of Africa reminded him constantly of his homeland. He was there because he didn't have any other place to go. When he encountered girls of 11 and 12 years of age and who had just came to puberty and who had putting their tiny nipples to the mouths of the random people, made him think that Sex was not that he had experienced before. After that he was on a rampage and involved full flegedly to satisfy his bodily needs.
Finally when he left Africa leaving his wife Ana who had lived with him for almost 20 years, he thought that Africa was not the place he had wanted to live. Now he was homeless and directionless like millions of people around the world. He thought that marrying an African woman would give a sense of meaning to his revolutionistic ideas but after he had lived his life, he thought that he had made some blunder.
I am not sure what Naipaul wanted to tell by this Novel but as with all the great writers, he put the onus on the reader's perception. Sometimes I thought to myself that as like Willie Chandran, am also a revolutionist who doesn't know what is revolution. Is revolution has a definition? Or is it abstract as most of the things in this world. As George Bernard Shaw has said,"You'll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race". I am what Willie Chandran wanted in his life and am not sure what he wanted or I want in my life. My own Wilde has put it in different words, 'Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious'. Patriotism and the revolution go hand in hand. One is relying on the other to support one's cause. Finally, I would want to quote the Lenin's words which I read recently, 'There are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks where decades happen'. Is it so? May be. Without the 1857 mutiny, we are not what we are now. May be I will lose interest in these things when I find them meaningful. Meaningless life makes our world meaningful, in a perceptional way. May be like me, many around the world lives only Half their life.
