On a busy Tuesday evening, we went shopping for semester books in the nearby market in Burdwan, where I used to study for my master’s degree at Burdwan University. Two friends of mine were tagging along as we were from the same city and had the same former college and were batchmates in the graduation. Along the way, we window-shopped through different book stores but the one that we were looking for was only known to the one friend that we were trailing behind. As we arrived at the book store I was fascinated by the number of books that filled the store. There was mostly everything that I have ever heard of; from Shakespeare to Shashi Tharoor, and from Sylvia Plath to Marcus Aurelius. I surfed my eyes from the books on the left where resided children’s books, and I could only identify Tintin and Chacha Choudhury, to the right where there were books from the college syllabus that some of our students might buy. On the left shelf right beside the counter there it was! Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth, written on the binding surface of the book. With a book cover that was simple yet intriguing for me to at least ask the person in charge of the store to hand me the book once, so that I can touch and know what it feels to have something in my hand which looks so good already on the shelf itself. I knew I would want it really bad once I have it in my hands. At this point in my life, I have somewhat lost the interest and patience to read books, but I felt it might come back again as I wanted to read this one very badly. It was the first book I bought in that lot of college books and people that’s how I met your mother.
The book was placed beside Shashi Tharoor’s Why I am a Hindu? The moment I took the book in my hand I had this feeling of finishing it right away. I didn’t read it for like six months or so. I gave in to my habit of playing games all day long without getting any work done. It was a phase where my gave me a hard time. Then it happened. I started the book one day. I read for like hours at stretch, not willing to get up, not wanting the momentum, that I have missed for so long, to stop. I grew fond of the characters in the book, the elder and the younger, all at once. Their journey felt quite something that I would want to experience, their hardships were my hardship-goals, I just wanted to live a life so story-worth. I, then, convinced myself that I was living their life with them. Empathasising with whatever they feel, understanding their mood and mind at all point through the lively description of Jhumpa herself. I finished the book on a sad note of parting ways with the characters that helped me regain my ability to read books in a couple of books, and not disturbing my momentum until I have finished them.
I had a beautiful journey with book, short but still wonderful. Learnt, saw, and experienced so much in just the span of two days. I have, since then, recommended the book to most probably everyone I have known to love reading. It is a happy place of mine. Throughout the book you’ll find characters speaking through their actions and repetitions of those actions symbolise various unspoken dialogues. It is Jhumpa’s fluidity of words and her character’s actions that make the story so smooth and living.
ShahAwaaz 