Book: The Ministry
of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
Publisher:
Penguin Random House
ISBN:
978-0-670-08963-5
Genre:
Fiction
Pages: 435
Rating: 3.5/5
Intriguing
writing style, random moments, political influences and strong characters to
sway your visions!
When you
pick up a book from a shelf and decide to read it you treat it like a baby!
Caress it everywhere you take it, rest it on your lap or a clean table and read
it meticulously with utmost dedication. Of course for a reader a book is the
best friend who completes their need.
And if I try to view it from a writer’s prospective, I cannot fathom how a writer would have taken care of her baby while nurturing it for 20 years before presenting it to the world. Arundhati Roy having won acclamations for her Booker Prize Winner The God Of Small Things has been the heart of readers. And it is with The Ministry of Utmost Happiness that she tried to serve her days and night of thinking to us all. I wouldn’t say I waited twenty years, but yes was definitely calling for a read that compares to The God of Small Things.
And if I try to view it from a writer’s prospective, I cannot fathom how a writer would have taken care of her baby while nurturing it for 20 years before presenting it to the world. Arundhati Roy having won acclamations for her Booker Prize Winner The God Of Small Things has been the heart of readers. And it is with The Ministry of Utmost Happiness that she tried to serve her days and night of thinking to us all. I wouldn’t say I waited twenty years, but yes was definitely calling for a read that compares to The God of Small Things.
Turning the
pages of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness I was made to meet Anjum a born Aftab
and a Hijra who later joins the Hijra community and Tilotamma who apparently
absconds with one of the children that Anjum adopted. The story of the two
characters revolves around the political set up of the country and the changes
that they come through the political events. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
captures the political essence of the country through the decades so much that
it gets too much for a reader to digest in a book. The twenty years of writer’s
involvement into political writings and movements are clearly visible in her
writing and somewhere in the central peripheral makes the reader keep down the
book for mental peace.
As much as
one would want to relate to Tilotamma or feel the abrupt environment or beliefs
that Anjum is treated to, the background changes makes it hard to be completely
emotional or completely political. The Indian politics from the time of
cultural and regional riots, the Bhopal Toxic gas disaster of 1984, The 2002
Gujarat Riots, rapes, mutilations, the Anti-corruption movements and even the Anna
Hazzare rising has been given a mention in the book. The sad part however is
that like The God of Small Things was an intense take on the personal despair
and had a lot of details on the emotional losses while The Ministry of Utmost
Happiness struggles to jump from feelings of violence, ridiculousness, self
pity, personal fights, political turmoil and tragedies of the nation.
After having
loved The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, this one was not as celebrated
as I had wished I would! Definitely a new form of writing which might take time
to be accepted but this book revokes the old writing style bringing poetry,
politics, personal story and despair together to form a shift in the reader’s
brain every few pages!
The Ministry
of Utmost Happiness took a few more evenings, a lot more coffee and a thorough
thinking before I could digest the story completely! A good read if you want to
spend some time with the pages that set a new form of writing.
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Roy didn't win a Nobel Prize for God of Small Things. She won the Booker Prize.
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