Which book-movie was successful in changing your life?

I believe in experiencing a story like I am absorbing it –slowly and with everything that it has to offer. And it’s not always possible with movies. The moving pictures which come and goes are made in such a way that the viewer doesn’t have to pay a lot of attention to get the story or script. It’s already made catchy, attractive, entertaining, and easily comprehensible.

With books, it’s different. There is as much the consumer’s effort that matters as it is the effort of the maker. The reader has to be at leisure and fully engrossed in what she is reading if the full essence of the work needs to be tasted. That’s why I like books more.

Now addressing your question, I have read a lot and a lot of books but there is one book that literally changed my life –and in multiple ways.

The name of that book is The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.

(Courtesy: Storypick)

The book is basically about the prevalent caste system in colonial and post-colonial South India, but it covers the world and a world of emotions.

As suggested by the name, it magnifies the importance of small things in our life. And that’s how I came to realize how the minutest happenings in our lives can make a difference, not only for us but for everyone.

The story of the novel starts with a brother-sister pair, who are meeting each other after years. Both were separated from each other in the childhood, and Arundhati Roy leaves the reason for their separation for later.

That is what I liked (and still cherish) about this novel. It is not set chronologically. It, in fact, tells you that something happened, and then gives you enough time to ponder over all the Hows and Whys when the narrative is relating to some “small thing”, which will contribute something somewhere in the novel.

Being an atheist, it came to me as a happy surprise that how can we make the small incidents of our lives the master of our fate –a position we all have always given to a supreme being called God. I was in awe of this unusual narrative, which is flawless in every way. It’s almost as if Arundhati Roy has mastered the art of storytelling and is playing with the incidents, making the most beautiful game I have ever been into.

My favorite character in the novel is Velutha. He is dark, he is mysterious. And he, despite belonging to a lower caste, is special to the protagonist Ammu, who belongs to an upper caste family. The pair of siblings are her children and she is divorced.

I think by now you have guessed that the main plotline is about a lower caste man and an upper caste woman, which is nothing unusual in the Indian context. What’s extraordinary is the way of telling it.

It helped me change my perspective, both as a writer and a human.