Sunday, November 28, 2010

The inscrutable Americans by Anurag Mathur

It’s a fiction written with full humor and is quiet palpable. I fully enjoyed till the end.

He has written so impeccably and with so much grace that you wunt stop reading it till the end.

I happened to choose this book because its first page was so enthralling and started with the line “Beloved younger brother”.

The book start with an Indian student named Gopal a small town boy from Madhya Pradesh going USA to study Chemical Engineering, a one year course so that he can make his oil company flourish. As he is a hardcore vegetarian, teetotaler a devout Brahmin and comes from high strata, he encounters many petty problems as he lands in America. His accent is jocular. He had his own conviction to see Americans from a different angle. He misunderstands many things American says like “Watch your ass” or “Take it easy dude”.

Once he was offered orange juice or milk, he preferred orange juice because of the religious status of American cows. This made me laugh till the core. It is written really mirthfully.

There he meets a stupefying character Randy who was his guide in USA. He showed Gopal a different America which he hasn’t seen before. Randy was his motivator, he used to accompany Gopal wherever he went. There are sometimes uproarious moments in Gopal and Randy’s conversations.

He never missed writing letter to his brother and family while his stay in USA to tell them how is doing, what are the problems he is facing, whether he is abiding by all the things told by mother. In a letter he talks about his studies in America where he mentions that Americans are having all facilities but standard is not as high as in India.

He is very skeptical about American girls. Randy’s main attention is to make Gopal fiddle with girls which he always refrained because he thought that his family would not like it. Till the end Gopal doesn’t abdicate and remains a virgin and feels himself as a wise but with sad face.

The book unfolds with change in Gopal’s beviour as he learns things about US.

The one thing that it lacked that writer didn’t depict his study part for which he has flown to USA.

Overall it is entertaining book. You would not feel bored as the story line is witty and capricious.

P.S.: it is a fun book but without any learning. :D

Signing off
Anil Anuragi
Good night X

1 comment:

Renu said...

I liked this book for simple narration and some very funny but true things.What that boy faces..specially that incident about washing machines is so true but so difficult to imagin for the people who are born in modern India.