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Such a Long Journey is a 1991 novel by Rohinton Mistry. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won several other awards. In 2010 the book made headlines when it was withdrawn from the University of Mumbai's English syllabus after complaints from the family of the Shiv Sena politician Bal Thackeray.[1]
Plot introduction[edit]
Such a Long Journey takes place in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) in the year 1971. The novel's protagonist is a hard-working bank clerk Gustad Noble, a member of the Parsi community and a devoted family man struggling to keep his wife Dilnavaz, and three children out of poverty. But his family begins to fall apart as his eldest son Sohrab refuses to attend the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology to which he has gained admittance and his youngest daughter, Roshan, falls ill. Other conflicts within the novel involve Gustad's ongoing interactions with his eccentric neighbours and his relationship with his close friend and co-worker, Dinshawji. Tehmul, a seemingly unimportant and mentally disabled character, is essential in Gustad's life, as he brings out the tender side of him and represents the innocence of life. A letter that Gustad receives one day from an old friend, Major Bilimoria, slowly draws him into a government deception involving threats, secrecy and large amounts of money. He then, begins the long journey, that sheds new light on all aspects of Gustad's personal and political life. The novel not only follows Gustad's life, but also India's political turmoil under the leadership of Indira Gandhi.
Reception[edit]
When it was published in 1991, it won the Governor General's Award, the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book, and the W.H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award.[2] It was shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize and for the Trillium Award. It has been translated into German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Japanese, Korean and has been made into the 1998 film Such a Long Journey.
Withdrawal from Mumbai University's syllabus[edit]
Such a Long Journey was withdrawn from the syllabus of Mumbai University since it contained, in the perspective of some character in the book, discriminatory and derogatory remarks about Maharashtrians and abusive languages about Bal Thackeray, leader of Shiv Sena, a political party from Maharashtra.
Aditya Thackeray, grandson of Bal Thackeray, a final-year Arts student at St. Xavier's College, complained to the vice chancellor that the book contains abusive language about his grandfather and the Maharashtrian community and demanded its withdrawal from the syllabus.
The book was prescribed for the second year Bachelor of Arts (English) in 2007–08 as an optional text, according to University sources. It was also confirmed that Dr. Rajan Welukar, University of Mumbai's Vice-Chancellor (V-C) used the emergency powers under Section 14 (7) of the Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994, to withdraw the book from the syllabus. Based on a complaint, the Board of Studies (English), which had recommended the book earlier, resolved that it must be withdrawn with effect from September 15.[1]
Following this incidence the book entered public debate. The teachers' union wanted the Vice Chancellor to defend academic freedom,[3][4] claiming that the book was selected for literary reasons. Their point of view was that the author, Rohinton Mistry, did not think poorly of Marathi-speakers, and that the passages were perspectives of a character in the book, namely Kapur.[5] The Chief Minister of MaharashtraAshok Chavan (Member of Congress Party) stated that the book is 'highly abusive and objectionable'.[6] Former Vice-Chancellor of Mumbai University and Member of the Planning Commission of India Bhalchandra Mungekar stated that 'I'm fully convinced, even giving the benefit of the doubt to the book being a piece of fiction, that some sentences are certainly objectionable...there is a difference between dissenting with the political and social philosophy of an individual or organisation, and abusing the individual by name'.[7] Faculty have complained of pressure tactics being used to coerce their support of the vice chancellor's decision.[8] The book is unlikely to be reintroduced in the short term on account of possibility of law and order problems.[9] Mistry has also expressed disappointment in a statement regarding the withdrawal.[10][11]
Characters[edit]Noble family[edit]
Gustad's close friends[edit]
Khodadad Building residents[edit]
Other characters[edit]
– Indira Gandhi (prime minister)
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References[edit]
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Such_a_Long_Journey_(novel)&oldid=922480360'
The story, set in 1971 at the time of the war between India and Pakistan, is based on the novel of the same name by, an Indian now living in Toronto. I haven't read it, but I have read his latest novel, the magnificent A Fine Balance, which has the same ability to see how political issues impact the lives of the ordinary and the obscure.
Mistry's novels have the droll irony of Dickens, as when a legless beggar and a beggarmaster turn out to be brothers, and the beggarmaster is so moved that he buys the beggar a better cart on which to push himself around.' Such a Long Journey' takes place mostly in and around a large apartment complex, its courtyard and the street, which the municipal authorities want to widen so that even more choking diesel fumes can cloud the air. We meet the hero, Gustad , in the process of defending the old concrete wall that protects his courtyard from the street, and later he strikes a bargain with an itinerant artist , who covers the wall with paintings from every conceivable religious tradition, with the thought that all of the groups represented will join in defending the wall.A greater struggle is in store for Gustad. A Parsi whose family has fallen on hard times, works in a bank, and is asked by Major Jimmy , a friend from long ago, to hide and launder some money. The go-between implies these are official Indian government funds being secretly transferred to finance the war against Pakistan in Bangladesh. (The movie doesn't require us to know much about modern history in the subcontinent, since the story works entirely in terms of the personal lives of its characters.) Gustad is a good and earnest man, who has adopted the local idiot as a kind of surrogate son, who is the unofficial mayor of his building, who is always on call to help his neighbors, who dotes on his little daughter, and bursts with pride that his son, Sohrab (Vrajesh Hirjee) has been accepted by the Indian Institute of Technology.
Alas, Sohrad doesn't want to go to IIT; he hates engineering and wants to be an artist, and Gustad implores him to reconsider.Advertisement. Gustad's relationship with his wife has elements of an Indian 'Honeymooners.'
The kitchen is her turf, where she defiantly spends long hours in consultation with a neighbor woman who Gustad considers to be a witch (i.e., she has a different set of superstitions than his own). Their marriage is strong when it needs to be, as when their daughter falls ill with malaria.All of these stories are told against the backdrop of the others who live in the apartment complex, the street vendors outside, and those who are understood to have claims to portions of the courtyard or sidewalk. There is great poverty in India, but because it is so common, it's more of a condition of life than a particular shame, and Gustad is on easy terms with the people who live in, as well as on, his street.Roshan Seth is not a name well known in the West, but his face is familiar; he played Nehru in ',' the heroine's father in ', the father in ',' and it is only poetic justice that he starred in the film of Dickens' Little Dorrit. In this role (which won him a Canadian Genie as the year's best actor), he plays an everyman, an earnest, worried, funny character always skirting on the edge of disaster, exuberantly immersed in his life.
The way he masterminds the defense of the precious wall is brilliant, but the way he deals with its fate is even more touching, because it is simply human.The director, is Icelandic, suggesting the universality of this story; the writer, also wrote 'Mississippi Masala' and 'Salaam Bombay!' . Their film is interesting not simply in terms of its plot (the politics, the money) but because of the medium it moves through-the streets of Bombay. It suggests a society that has more poverty than ours, but is not necessarily poorer, because it has a richer texture of daily life. ' could not be an Indian story; it would be too hard to imagine Indian city dwellers with that much time to brood and isolate.' Such a Long Journey' will run for two weeks and is part of the Shooting Gallery series now playing at Loews Cineplex theaters in 19 cities.Advertisement.
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