Positive Overtones

The God of Small Things written by Arundati Roy in 1997 centres around the unfortunate events faced by the Syrian Catholic Ipe family. The grandmother Mammachi is a half-blind aged woman who is immensely fond of her Anglophile sib Chacko. Chacko, the Oxford boy, is an overly-proud man believing himself to be an enlightened man after his brief academic stint at England. Margaret Kochamma is Chacko’s ex-wife who comes down with her daughter Sophie during the Christmas holidays after losing her husband, Joe. Baby Kochamma is Mammachi’s ex-nun sister who converted to Catholicism out of her love for a Catholic missionary. Estha and Rahel, the two central characters are two ‘inseparable’ twins born out of a broken marriage and living with their mother Ammu. The narration in the books shuttles between the past and present yet revealing the various evils that are still practiced in society. The plot consists of two recurring themes: caste and love. Caste: This forms the main theme t...

Arun (name deliberately changed) had been an avid follower of the Game of Thrones series from the day of its inception. After following the episodes, week in and week out, he was all the more eager to see what happens at the series finale. However, he was disappointed as it had not reached his expectations. Over the past few months, there have been many cases just like Arun who have been disappointed with the series finale of the recently concluded Game of Thrones series. Many of them had even fallen into depression because they did not know what to do after the series ended. They were left with absolutely no motivation to do anything else because of their addiction to the famous TV series. Recently, in Goa, there was an event organized to help these people to come out of depression. But the fundamental question we could ask ourselves is, “Will this solve the underlying problem?” I would say no as the matter one needs to investigate a little further. Most people get addicted to ...