Agastya Sen, nicknamed August by his school friends, is a young civil servant who has been posted as the assistant commissioner under training in a small provincial town called Madna. Born in Calcutta to a hindu father and Christian mother, he lives a metropolitan life till he joins the Indian Administrative Services. It becomes clear right in the first two pages itself that he is not a person who is meant to be in this service, deemed to be one of the most prestigious professions in India. A man, whose mind is most of the times dominated by the thoughts of women and sex, who is addicted to marijuana and would rather love to be an actor in a porn film than a civil servant, gives us the feeling that he is not cut out for the position of an IAS officer. But as the story unfolds, we realize he is like any other common man, who took up this job because of parental pressure and is trying to find a place for himself in this vast hinterland.
The story opens with Agastya discussing about his posting at Madna with his school-friend, Dhrubo, another person given to drugs, sex and women. His posting at Madna as a trainee is supposed to be a time for him to learn about district administration, but he, very conveniently spends it associating with people like Sathe, a cartoonist for the local newspaper, with no specific agenda in life; Shankar, his neighbor, mostly drunk and the police superintendent, who arranges porn movies for him. He is working under the district collector Srivastav, but spends most of his time understanding the lifestyles of these bureaucrats, their spouses and kids. He has a keen eye for detail, and tries to observe each and every thing about his superiors. Sex and marijuana are on his mind all the time, and we get to see a lot of it through the language used by the author.
Chatterjee, an IAS officer-turned-author, has given us a very humorous yet dark description of the bureaucracy in India. Agastya gradually learns the intricacies of his job, and settles down, though with reluctance. Every aspect of being an IAS trainee has been intelligently probed by the author. He takes us inside the mind of a bureaucrat, and tries to show that they are no extraordinary beings, but very much vulnerable to all kinds of human fallacies. While the language used by the author is comic and at times crazy, the story leaves us with many questions about the concerns of youth during the 1980’s, when there weren’t many job opportunites for them and they usually tried their luck at everything, hoping that something will surely click. A job in the civil services was everyone’s dream. Agastya, on the other hand, is debating whether he should stay in this job or not. Chatterjee describes the life of a trainee from a completely new perspective,giving it an unusual punch and making this story worth reading and remembering.
By Meenakshi
The author I believe has tried to touch many aspects in this single book. While we see the troubles of the youth and their restlessness with their professions, we also see the inefficiency of the Indian bureaucracy and their indifference to the problems of the multitudes. Since the author also was an IAS officer, it is rightful to presume that it was a firsthand account of the administrative circle of India.
ReplyDeleteThe author has tried to show a generation of Indians already influenced by the western culture. The novel is filled with its prejudices. We see the narrators exclaim on seeing the cleanliness in the tribal landscape, and in his childhood, assuming that Anglo-Indians all failed in their subjects. But they are only few and i suppose we could forgive the narrator for them.
The novel is written in satirical tone. Though it is introspective, and eventually shows August, aka Agastya rethinking his future, the satire builds around the ignorance of the narrator to his surroundings. We are also shown the post-Raj effects on the bureaucracy, in the likes of Srivastava.
The novel in hindsight also comments on the naxalism in India, which seemed a little out of context. We are shown the government’s perspective of the naxal aandolan, and August seems to be mocking the movement. But once again, we can let go off our narrator since he is giving us an insight into the workings of the government and we can’t assume him to be completely impartial.
All in all, the novel was an entertaining read, thought provoking and humorous at the same time.