Been There Bungled That by Paddy Rangappa

Been There Bungled That is a fictionalized autobiographical story stretched across almost 300 pages. They endeavour to put together snippets and anecdotes from the protagonist Jagannath Srinivasan's life. With a first-person narrative, it is a collection of unconnected short pieces more reminiscent of a blog or column than a book/novel.

Jagannath Srinivasan, fondly referred to as Jags (not Jughead), drifts through life in benign autopilot... armed with the impressive combo of IIT-IIM degrees.

Like millions of Indians he studied engineering - not out of interest, but because he took the entrance examination and secured admission. Rote learning played the all-important role. Soon the natural progression to Amul country follows - to fortify him with degree #2 (~ while also applying for an MS degree in the US - just in case). Thereupon, he embarks on a rudderless career journey... with carefully worded versions of resume - each expressing his boundless passion for banking, consulting, marketing and advertising. He finally settles for whichever offer comes his way ~ based on herd mentality or peer perception, i.e. whichever is more coveted by others. For example, banks and consulting firms come to campus on day 1, which means they are ranked higher. Even the best marketing jobs are all on day 2.

Highly confused and upwardly mobile, he is easily swayed by things he reads, people he meets, and advice he actively seeks and receives. Except sane ones of course, such as the ones offered by (his father's friend) Dr Sidelinger Wakefield (a professor at Brown University) and later from his wife, Vidya. Both counsel reflection - to discover and identify what he wishes to do. ~ These sorts of advice he instantly disregards - since their source(s) are ignorant of the managerial decision making process - that requires one to start at ground zero, which is data collection. This insight helps Jags to make discerning (in Jags' view) shifts from engineering to consultancy to advertising to marketing to banking - by trimming one to three years on the typical career curve.

Here is a snippet - Jags' discussion with Dr. Wakefield:

'You're studying engineering now, right?' I nodded. 'Why?'

'Thats easy,' I said. 'I passed the JEE - the Joint Entrance Exam. ... I did badly in the medical college entrance test.'

'What?! You actually wanted to be a doctor?'

'Of course not,' I said. 'Why do you ask?'

'Because you took the medical college entrance test. You just told me!' The professor was getting agitated and his voice was rising.

'Yes, I did,' I replied soothingly. 'But that was only as a back-up. I was not serious.'

The professor shook his head in bewilderment. 'Ok, so you really wanted to do engineering but just for fun, took the medical college test too. I understand - or at least I think I do...'

Dr. Wakefield is even more puzzled to know that Jags chose his area of specialization based on its relative popularity and the popularity of the institute.

'Yes, but it's not just the relative popularity of the specialization and the institute separately. It's the combination that's important. ... It's very complicated,' I said smugly. ('And therefore beyond your comprehension,' I added, but only to myself.)

'I'm not going to try to follow that,' said Wakefield. ('Exactly,' I said, again to myself.)

There's the bit about a strict professor (Prof. Thampi) and his charming daughter (Vidya) whom he eventually marries - whiff of '3 Idiots'.

My twopenceworth: The chapter titles including the chance meeting with Vidya while trying to submit a late assignment: 'Submitting the POM report... and meeting someone' - reveals too much, and dilutes the charm of the following pages. It somewhat interferes with (read: diminishes) the readers' interest.

Inside jokes about copywriters, bankers, consultants, brand managers etc pepper the book. There are anecdotes regarding Jags' travails on foreign shores. However, none of them can be called fresh or original. In humour writing, especially one with large dollops of perceptive satire, novelty makes all the difference. It is also advisable to eschew unnecessary meanderings... that alters the flavour and wearies the readers' mind. Reading becomes a chore then. With humour or satire that is a no no.

Using lots of very short chapters creates an impression in the reader of very rapid pace and lots of movement. For some genres (such as thrillers), this accelerated pace is exactly the effect that a reader wants. The same may or may not be applicable to other genres, such as humour or satire. Here the quality of writing makes all the difference. Having longer chapters doesn't quite preclude fast-paced movement, but it does allow for more breathing space and a sense of scope and continuity.

Been There Bungled That has been compared to Wodehouse... and this piqued my expectations. But after plodding through the frequent and needless winding of nearly 300 pages, the content leaves me quite wooden. It neither makes nor leaves an impact. Besides, it is Jags narrating the story, talking about himself, or explaining his points of view. The rest of the characters appear quite abrupt.

However, the book is genuinely funny in bits and parts; for instance, when Jags' mother wants to have a serious discussion, he coveys it with "So I did the South Indian equivalent of laying down my fork and spoon: I stopped mashing rice with my fingers and gave her my full attention."

The jacket cover is attractive. The author is observant and a decent raconteur, apart from having a good hand at humour and insightful satire (including a dash of gentle snarkiness). What's missing is some sharp editing to curb the debutant author's prodigal instincts.


Details of the book: Been There Bungled That/ Author: Paddy Rangappa/ Publisher: Ebury Press, an imprint of Random House India/ Binding: Paperback/ Language: English/ Publishing Date: Nov. 2013/ Genre: Humour/ ISBN-10: 978-8-184-00433-5/ ISBN-13: 9788184004335/ Pages: 300/ Price: INR 250.

Picture: The book jacket cover of Been There Bungled That. Courtesy: randomhouse.

Train To Delhi

A Note on the author: Shiv K. Kumar (born August 16, 1921) is a distinguished poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright, translator, academic and critic. He has published thirteen volumes of poetry, five novels, two collections of short stories, a play and a dozen books on literary criticism. Following stints as a lecturer and as programme officer at the All India Radio, he obtained his doctorate in English Literature from the University of Cambridge (~ here he was also tutored by the influential British critic F.R. Leavis). Kumar has been an academic, teaching British and American literature in India and abroad, for about four decades. In 1978, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL), London. ~ Several of his poems and short stories have been broadcast over the BBC, and published in various widely-read journals, newspapers and magazines - like the New York Times, Poetry Review (London), Western Humanities Review, among others. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1987. In 2001, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to literature.

Train To Delhi is portrayed as a "rollicking journey set in Delhi of 1947". [The novel was first published in 1998 as A River with Three Banks.] 

It recounts the tale of Gautam Mehta, a journalist in Delhi (assistant editor of The Challenge) - and the novel's quick-witted protagonist, alongside enameled snuffboxes, and hobson-jobson conversations ~ as India made its tryst with destiny.

Mehta arranges a quick divorce from his adulterous wife ~ by convincing a naïve Bishop and converting to Christianity. [However, during the simple ceremony, and before Father Jones sprinkles holy water on his head and shoulders, Gautam is particularly touched by a passage from Joshua in which Moses asks his followers to cross the river Jordan into the land of new promise. "Wasn't he too about to cross over to freedom!" He is also struck by the dignified manner in which the ceremony was conducted - including the bishop's prayer wishing him happiness - nobody was "mumbling incomprehensibly all the time."] ~ The Delhi of 1947 is chaotic and restless; despite the proficient Commissioner Thornton at the helm, there is considerable lawlessness. Gautam finds a dead man, and learns that the deceased was in search of his abducted daughter Haseena who had been kidnapped in Allahabad, and sold into flesh trade (in Delhi). This disturbs him, especially since he finds a striking resemblance between the deceased, Abdul Rahim, and his own father, Shamlal Mehta, ("the same arched eyebrows, the same chiseled chin and nose.") ~ Later, after sharing a bottle of champagne and some pakoras, followed by a supper of seekh kebab, raita, nan and some fried chicken at the Neel Kamal, his best friend Berry (Birendra Dhawan) suggests availing the services of a lady of the night to celebrate Gautam's divorce. Sensing his hesitancy, Berry playfully teases him as 'Knight-saviour' and 'Gautam Buddha'. ~ Somewhat reluctantly, Gautam negotiates with the pimp... and ends up (at the Bridge Hotel, run in close partnership with Neel Kamal) with a hauntingly beautiful Muslim woman of quiet dignity - Haseena. ~ Gallant Gautam introduces himself and informs her about the deceased man. Thereupon, they embark on an elaborate plan - to help the damsel in distress escape the clutches of the pimp (which the protagonist-hero compares to a concentration camp). With the help of Berry - who by now has adopted Haseena as his sister-in-law - they manage to get away from the villain/pimp (who is in hot pursuit) and are soon on the train to Allahabad to see her family. The rest of the story involves Gautam explaining the situation to his family, meeting Haseena's family (and asking their permission for marriage ~ in the process becoming Saleem Gautam); his one-on-one with the villain/pimp; their attempts to steer clear of the discord and antagonism; Gautam attending Gandhiji's meetings and prayers (concluded with a rhythmical hand-clapping and head-swaying to the Ramdhun); Berry's dalliances; snippets of the twilight of the Raj, and so on. Gautam - with the help of Berry's British connections - also arranges for (expedites the process, that is) the immigration papers... of Haseena's family (her mother - Begum Rahim and younger sister - Salma), and then escorts them safely to Wagah. Haseena, of course, stays back. (However, given the disquiet, they all travel up to Wagah under assumed names: Begum Rahim as mataji and Salma as Durga, while Haseena and Gautam sees them off as Seema and Gautam respectively.) ~ All in all, the novel ends on a strong note of spiritual universalism, optimism and humanism ~ that of a people having a definite past, their present somewhat disturbed by partition (of the sub-continent)... but that the future is possible.

Among the secondary cast of characters, Shamlal Mehta (Gautam's father) is relatively well delineated. ~ After his divorce Gautam moves in with his parents, into their small house at Anand Parvat. His father, a former Arya Samaji, initially assumes a somber expression on learning about Gautam's conversion - for the sake of easy divorce. But finally responds (as an indulgent father) with: "Maybe Christ too was a yogi, a real karma yogi," and then proceeds to argue his point. When Gautam counters, "But Christ died on the cross, nailed and bleeding till the end. Stone-dead he was when they pulled him down." Shamlal responds with, "No, my dear, Christ didn't die on the cross," ..."He was left there unconscious by the Romans as 'stone-dead' and buried later. But now I earnestly believe that being a yogi, he had controlled his organs, had sort of anesthetized himself before they nailed him on the cross. And since he went into a deep Samadhi, a yogic trance, he felt no pain - nor did he really die, so, he rose from his grave after a brief spell of what I think was a kind of subterranean meditation. That was the Resurrection!" ~ Shamlal later tells the Bishop (with a straight face) ~ that he has now come to believe in Christ as another manifestation (avatar) of Vishnu.

~ There's the bit about insipid British food - steam-boiled Brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes, and scrambled eggs. An Englishman's perennial obsession with weather too is woven in quite neatly.

'Lovely weather - isn't it? Not too oppressive.'

'Yes, it isn't too sultry.'

'We really don't mind the Indian weather at all,' the major said, ... 'We'd prefer it to the vile British winter - blizzard, mist and smog.'

'Yes, I guess.'

A brief pause.

'It's a great pity we have to leave India,' Foster resumed, rather wistfully...'

'Any other Indians coming?' Berry asked.

'No. Only my compatriots. All packed up to return home - to London, Liverpool, Glasgow...'

'So it's a sort of farewell party.'

'Yes, the play's done.'

'You know, Bob, they did a marvelous job here. I do feel sorry for them. I'm sure they're going to miss this bloody, hot country.'

'Miss?' said Bob, '...they're already feeling very low. A poor life awaits them out there. Meagre pensions, no servants, freezing winters - and the fog, the deadly, yellow fog.'

'Sounds ghastly,' said Berry. 'Then it was better here in spite of the heat and dust.'

'Any time. One can always beat down the heat with ceiling fans, khus-khus, and a little dust doesn't do you much harm,' Bob said, spraying himself with some perfume.'

My twopenceworth: Written with the Partition (which was a rather complex phenomenon) as the temporal setting, the author does try to portray a realistic picture of Allahabad and Delhi of that era. He has also attempted to weave the various aspects of partition (cultural, historical, spiritual, emotional, economic, and so on)... apart from the political/geographic division of the country into the texture of the novel. The Gautam-Haseena track provides a strong romantic tinge/motif through the story - though the eponymous train journey probably is an allegorical one, since in the book it takes up all of ten pages. The novel is more of a novella... and quite crisp; editing is decent, the language is simple and easy to understand, and so the story rolls along quite well, but the narrative sometimes meanders on. Gautam's character is reasonably well-etched, however, there is scope for improvement; the other central character, Haseena, comes across as uni-dimensional - so, plenty of space for improvement here as well; the secondary characters too could have done with some more exploration, fleshing-out and insight ~ to move the story along more succulently and cohesively. Maybe a better mix of drama, history and romance coupled with a sustained flow of satire and comic relief could have turned a great story into a great read.

Details of the book: Train To Delhi/ Author: Shiv K. Kumar/ Publisher: Vintage Classics, an imprint of Random House India/ Binding: Paperback/ Language: English/ Publishing Date: 1998, 2013/ Genre: Fiction/ ISBN-10: 978-81-8400-396-3/ ISBN-13: 9788184003963/ Pages: Approx 250/ Price: INR 299.

Picture: The book jacket cover of Train To Delhi. Courtesy: randomhouse.