Arundhati Roy

This blog is a part of my thinking in which we have to answer three questions in small paragraph. click here to read blog.

If you are asked about Arundhati Roy, what will be your answer?
If you are asked about two novels by her, what will be your answer?
If you are asked about the her perspective towards life, what will be your answer?

Arundhati Roy :

She is an Indian writer. Sometimes she write fiction and sometimes non fiction. She write about the world in which she live. She is good observer. Toady, Majoritarianism is rise but she think that she is not part of this because she stand alone with her book. For her, her perspective and her idea is most important thing. She think not as activists but as writer. She believes in living life by breaking rules. When you write something at that time you have to negotiate with people because people's interpretation is also important. But she like to work alone with the minimum amount of negotiation. Her first book "The god of small things" she dedicated to her mother and brother. For her money is something to be shared and as we think that sharing the money is political thing. She believes that India is violent place of women.

The God of small things :

"Who should be loved, and how and how much"

In this novel Roy talk about following contemporary issues.

1. Upper class and lover class or cast (Untouchable)
2. Marxism
3. Social mores and colonial history
4. Forbidding intimacy between different casts
5. Tragic consequences of relationships
6. Environmental damage etc.
7. Cultural Hybridity
God of small things won the Booker prize in 1997. This is a story of wealthy Christian family. In the family there were many characters. Among them Estha and Rahel, both are center character in the novel. So this is a story of two twins brother and sister who are separated for 23 years. Both are living with her mother Ammu. In the town, there were one communist party who talk about poor people and think that rich people are not good. In the novel, Rahel and Estha have close relationship with Velutha who is a worker in their family's pickle factory. Velutha is member of the Untouchable cast. Ammu fall in love with Velutha. But her family think that we are Christian and belong to upper cast so she can not marry him because he belong to lower class, called as Untouchable. So Roy talk about their tragic consequences of their relationship. The book opens at the funeral of the twins half British cousin Sophie after her drowning. Roy also talk about Indira Gandi's Green revolution in the 1960s. When twins return to Ayemenem as adults the consequences of the green revolution are all around them. Roy talk about lower class people and how they force to leave their lands. 
So we can say that Roy is good observer. She observe the contemporary issues. Still in our society, there were problems of cast system.

The Ministry of Utmost happiness :

"How to tell a shattered story?

By slowly becoming everybody.

No.

By slowly becoming everything."

This novel has tow main strands.

1. Anjuma, a Hijra or transwoman
2. Tilo, a thorny and irresistible architect turned activist and three man who fall in love with her
So the name of the protagonist is Anjuma who struggling to make life for herself in Delhi. This is a story of old Delhi. She also talk about Kashmir where war is peace and peace is war. So in the novel she talk about a diverse cast of characters who have been broken by the world they live in and then rescued. In the novel, one word that frequently attaches to Anjuma is "Hijra" which is hindu word translate as hermaphrodite. So basically this is a story of Anjuma and his struggle in the society.

When we read about her life and when we read her novels, we comes to know that she writes what she observe. She always believed that happiness is such an ephemeral thing. She is not writing to earn money but to show how everything is in India. In her novel she talk about contemporary time and some contemporary issues which we can find in her novel. In 'The god of small things' and in 'The Ministry of Utmost happiness', in both novel, she talk about religion and politics, realism, cultural Hybridity etc.