Thursday, March 14, 2013

The inscrutable Americans : A book review



The culture of India, has been refined by the many foreign invaders who ruled the country, the most impactful of all had been the British rulers. Our country has imbibed the language, constitution, law, and a lot of cultural facets from them. This has placed us in complete opposition to Americans as far as the lifestyle is concerned.  “The inscrutable Americans” very well reflects this contradiction.
Right from the opening of the faucets, to driving, to parenting, studying etc, everything is a total contradiction from India. This puts the protagonist Gopal through a scramble leading to a series of hilarious events.
A simple, shy and academically inclined Gopal, who comes from a family that has a heritage of successful Hair oil business, learns the differences in the two cultures, lives in the dilemma of how he would possibly survive in this world where beef is type of food and where virginity is a sin.
In the middle of all his outlandish experiences,  his  friend Randy  has swore to fix Gopal’s virginity and get him to experience the sexual pleasures of life, which Gopal has been bereft of, so far.
The book reviews the American culture with the spectacles of an Indian student for whom mere existence in America is a challenge. The book gives an account of battles that Gopal fights against his own insecurities, his family directives and innate culture against the backdrop of racism, in a light-hearted manner.
The humour exudes out of the interpretations and reactions of the naive foreigner Gopal. His perception is penned in the letters he writes to his family in his annihilated version of the English language.
His experience is definitely microcosm of the experiences of an entire section of the Indian youth who have left their country for an opportunity in foreign land and are struggling for survival.

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