Impressions : Revolution 2020 by Chetan Bhagat

REVOLUTION 2020

 

Chetan Bhagat is a modernist writer , in simple terms , his writings reflect the social upheaval post 1991.
It may be presumed that pre 1991, India was a liberal communistic social economy and with the collapse of USSR , a new world order emerged which changed the status quo of the patriarchal society long enmeshed in the cultural fabric of India. Revolution 2020 mirrors this change , which in a very brief time of 20 years, has went through a very rapid  and successive cultural and ethical mini revolutions.

The opening of the Indian Economy and end of licensing Raj meant that people for the first time in their life were more freer to pursue dreams since independence. The skewed ratio for a common man to have a shot at the riches were now more favourable than it had been earlier in the past. The story mirrors those aspirations in a comical narrative and records change of vicissitudes of fortune that the protagonists find themselves in and stands tribute to the infinite possibilities that the common people of India is now faced with in their lives.

ANALYSIS
 The story centers around five primary characters, Aarti, Gopal, Raghav, Shukla and Baba(Gopal's ailing Father).

The main setting is the holy city of Varanasi and the story is told as a flashback through the eyes of Gopal to the author in a hospital after regaining consciousness from a drunken stupor at his home.

GOPAL

The character of Gopal is well sketched out, and Mr. Chetan has clothed him in flesh and blood adding more teeth to his character than any other in the book. It is primarily around him that the story evolves and stirringly revolves. Aarti is the soul of this story and the prime motivating reasons for Gopal to embark on a lifelong quest for her love that had started in his childhood.
The character mirrors the majority of people in India and can therefore be readily identified by anybody as to be his own.

In him, Mr Chetan has tried to convey that what an aspiring student goes through if he/she somehow doesn't end up qualifying to premier educational institutions in India, the myth that these Institutes have created for themselves in the minds of students and parents alike and how it is being perceived as being a shortcut way to riches. The desire to land the coveted seat runs too high and Gopal is swept off his feet in this mad rush all the time pinning for the love of Aarti and jealous of his once best friend's success. He perceives that getting into the hallowed halls of any IIT , would make his beloved fall in love with him again, therefore the decisions of Gopal , goes down many level which is quite effectively brought out by the author and gets you hooked  and immersed into the story. What follows next effectively mirrors the hapless drowning of multitude of students who are forced to pursue a dream not of their own liking and eventually throw in the towel after a brief struggle.

Further down the narrative, we behold the epic failure of Gopal and when the magnitude of his failure sinks in,he decides to somehow fulfill the dream of his father. The prose of Chetan Bhagat delicately captures
the burden that most parents thrust onto the shoulders of their children of their own unfulfilled dreams and achievements and we see a young Gopal rushing off to fulfill it without having the maturity to understand the complexity of this decision or its consequences. A chanced encounter with a suave marketing executive, suddenly see the luck changes in his favour for the first time and we are treated to the complex business of setting up a college in India. The labyrinthine laws which are malleable enough with the right amount of cash and persuasion never ceases to amaze the reader and one finds Gopal again swept off into the maelstrom of hyperactivity of setting up a college , slowly making inroads into the life of his beloved and making cat footed efforts of tearing her away from the object of her affections.

Somehow Gopal's college gets inaugurated and he settles down to run it all the same time trying ways to get closer to Aarti. After many encounters he manages to quite a major degree to change the perception of Aarti about Raghav. Love can make people do silly things and try harder when the odds are stacked against you. We see Gopal incessantly making the effort and are treated to some very good conversations which shows the deep insecurities that women in India live in with all the time.

The jealously so strongly felt for Raghav for stealing away the love of his life has slowly,with time, metamorphosed into revenge and with Aarti safely secured, Gopal is impulsed in getting even with Raghav. Basically , deep down , Gopal is fighting a duel with himself, he cannot let go of his past failure of not able to break into the ranks of IIT  and holding a lifelong grudge against his friend. Now that he has won back some respect for himself , he tries to face his own guilt , rather the guilt which he owns to his father. But the encounter with Raghav changes psychologically and emotionally and the sense of grudge and feelings of revenge gives way to respect.
This change of outlook in life and the sense that he should do something to change the tide of corruption , as his bitter experience while setting up the college, Gopal decides that the right course that needs to be followed is to take a step back from the life of his beloved , whom he chased for his entire life, and let the affections of his once estranged friend grow back into her. Here I wish Mr Chetan Bhagat should have contrived a better alibi rather than sticking and glorifying a cliche.

The premise to make his plan work is ordinary which we still so often see in Bollywood masala films , of sacrificing the most cherished of one's values for the greater good thereby making a show of one's altruistic side of one's pathetic selves. I feel the shoddy plan of Gopal to drive away Aarti into the life of Raghav could have been more innovative and original and therefore consider it to be the low point of the entire book. In the end Gopal is back to square one emotionally trying to find solace in alcohol for his self inflicted wound which is seconded as good by the author. Perhaps Mr Chetan Bhagat has a moral obligation of letting the generation of Youngsters who believe in his words that it isn't a crime to hold onto values and one is perfectly moral of not sacrificing it for the greater good. It is the weakness of Gopal as a person which made him step back and passed up the gauntlet to his  friend whom he found far more capable than him to be the agent of change that he years but lacks the courage to do it himself.

AARTI

She reminds me of  'lara' of  Dr. Zhivago but heavily toned down in beauty and appeal. Not for even once , Mr Chetan refers to her physical beauty and so one is left to imagine as one pleases. There is not a single direct premise of her goodness or chastity that will get Gopal hooked onto her. So in a sense Mr Chetan has perhaps deliberately avoids the physical description of each of his creations and in doing so he has made it a tale of generic characters that one can easily identify with ,without being typecast to be someone else.
Aarti is fashioned generically without special attributes , coasting , like many of her generations , through choices . Had Mr Chetan was solely interested to expose or show the scourge of corruption that seeped into one's life as a de-facto truth , Aarti could have been done away with without her being so intense and enchanting. Aarti steps in to fill this would have been a void in narration does so beautifully without coming across a bitch. She surrenders to powerful men , men who lust ,long and cherish her. You are treated to her insecurities , her aspirations , her loneliness and her expectations which mirror the average girl next door but she is educated , ambitious and intelligent and like the modern generation of her times still subservient to her family wishes and to generic Indian sensibilities and traditional values. So in a sense SHE is much more that what meets the eye. Aarti is the epitome of Indian cultural and traditional values regarding women. The patriarchal values have slowly given way to accommodate an educated girl, freedom to pursue her dreams and tolerance of her sexual needs. So Aarti is an embodiment of partially free women of India obedient enough to uphold the traditional values of a patriarchal society and intelligent enough to pursue one' desires and dreams.

In all Aarti stands out as the glue which holds together the framework of the narrative and it wouldn't have been far fetched if the Novella would have been renamed as "Aarti".

RAGHAV

Well you now have guessed it , the entire revolution is resting on the shoulders of Raghav and the author intends to start a revolution and subjectively and objectively uses the character to further his arguments. Raghav is a engineer turned journalist with a peculiar kind of firebrand journalism that we one saw in the initial publications of Al Jazeera.
Like any idealist , the system isn't very kind of his particular taste in exposing corruption and thus begins his quest for understanding of his self. The author could have infused much more passion into the character but perhaps it was beyond the scope of the novella. Therefore it  becomes an exercise of self indulgence and I'm sorry Mr. Chetan Bhagat it doesn't work. The character fall flat with a bloodied nose to show for itself.
The narrative is lopsided because it is being recounted by Gopal, so all the characters that grace this novel are recounted as what they mean to Gopal. So the characters are the projections of Gopal only and how he perceives them to be is the essence of the novella. Sadly the Author could have taken the liberty to make his characters to be more authentic and hard hitting. Perhaps Mr. Bhagat is in need to exercise his grey cells more often and his future efforts should be rich in imagination not some run of the mill work that is dismissed to obscurity as soon as it published.

SHUKLA

The premise of the character of Shukla shows promise but is fizzled away to just being a angry reactionary voice over telephone. It could have been more dark which would had made his fall from grace that more gratifying. When Shukla falls to shame one wonders that he wasn't perhaps the epicenter of corruption but just a pawn in larger scheme of things. Raghav in his zealous mission of getting rid India of corruption brings down Shukla but the satisfaction & the significance of his achievement isn't monumental and in the end it doesn't stir much emotion in you & one feels a sense of vacuum and often wonders why?

In all I would have preferred Mr Bhagat to have waited enough for the story to have matured in his head before dishing it out to his fans. Like any good work of literature or fiction , it pays, if the premise and facts are researched thoroughly , an area in which we observe Mr Chetan to falter on quite a few occasions.
Nonetheless , it is good passive read and the dull witted jokes will keep you hooked on a dull rainy Sunday afternoon.

BABA

Perhaps He is the most important character which influeneces the storyline significantly that sets the pace and the unfolding events. He towers in the sense that he sends his hungry son to the same school also attended by the Daughter of a top bereaucrat. Gopal was conceived much later in his life for by the time Gopal passes out of school , he stands retired and ill.
The force fullness of the character becomes evident when on his insistence Gopal unwillingly  travels to Kota for the coaching class to take another shot at IITJEE even sacrificing his health to fund the studies of his son. This is the best character created by MR Chetan Bhagat in this novella and effectively shows the sad state of affairs in sub-urban,rural and urban India where the performance counts and the success in one life is determined by its results. It aslo brings out that to what great lengths parents can go to fund the causes that they believe in.
BABA is believable , bewildering,melancholic ,hateful and compassionate all at the same time to his only son.
So BABA is a quintessal Indian post liberalization, and the only means to alleviate their engulfing poverty lies in the belief of his son cracking the IITJEE. What a skewed logic!, but a bitter truth nonetheless.

FINAL WORD

Rent the book , if you haven't yet bought it or spend it on something else. It is a light read and would not appeal to cerebral or intellectual bent of mind. Otherwise, if haven't yet planned to read it, might as well skip the trouble and I gurantee you wouldn't miss much.

For the Chetan Bhagat Fans , finally the magic is weening off. Commercially, Revolution-2020 might have braved the tide of failure by sheer marketing gimmicks, but if such futile exercises continue, his wildly raving female fans might feel let down along with a multitude of readers who have taken a liking for his easy prose and simple compelling story lines of his earlier accomplishments.

Au Revoir.

Essential Tips for Instant Improvement for Taking Better Photographs

This article is solely intended for a novice shooter like me. iT discusses proven tricks to improve and consistently produce better photographs for those who are not that much into technical jagrons and who strive to improve their skills and aesthetics of their photos instantly.

So you have brought a dslr or a bridge and is excited to begin the quest in photography. You now hope, with the gear in your hand, it will show you the way for taking great pictures and, you rush out into the street or to your garden and begin shooting. The first shots come out , it isn't so exciting , it kinda looks bland and devoid of  any excitement. Well amigos , it helps to know your gear in and out but it ALSO helps tremendously if you first know some essential tricks.

For an amateur , there are volumes of info. out there with valuable advices from the pros , the guys who have been in the trenches for years. .
Well, you now take in the info but not quite satisfied, you browse on , hoping that instead of everthing being so verbose , a consise edition of the essentials might help. Well , help is on the way, just read on.

There are four Parts to a photo, they are;

1) Composition.

2) Mood.

3) Viewers eye of Interest and,

4) Light

The following paragraphs briefly discusses each of the above points and offers invaluable tips for getting it right, without much hassle;

1) COMPOSITION :

A novice usually shoots in 3:2 frame ratio  and therefore composing one's subject isn't much of a hassle, what matters is that how one composes it. There are few basic guidelines that might help.

a) Compose with the primary subject with the main theme that you have in mind.( Ask these question: 1.Who is this about?; 2. What is such interesting about it?; 3. Who should be the prime concern in my photograph?  and if the answers corresponds or is about a single object or person then you have chosen your subject)

ABOVE: The prime concern in the photo was the beautiful flower not the crow in the foreground. The interesting thing about the Rose was the loveliness of the light falling on it.

b) Judge if the main subject relates correctly with others and is consistent with your theme.( Ask these questions : 1. What/Who makes my subject better to look at?; 2. Does my subject has any importance to be associated with other objects/people in the photo?; 3. Does it enhance the beauty or importance of my subject? and the choices that you now make will make it an even more stronger image.)

ABOVE: The subject is the bird and unless it is sucking the nectar out of the flower it wouldn't be so much interesting to behold.

c) Expose the subject correctly first and everthing else should complement it without taking precedence.( 1. Is my subject lighted up and all details about it/him/her is visible in a normal way?; 2. In relation to my subject does the background appear too bright or too dark? ; 3. Should I recompose my shot and from a different angle to minimize glare?. Just think a little bit in depth and you shall have the answer. )

d) Try avoiding too much of negative space i.e try keeping in the photo as much of "ACTION" as possible , try  framing your photo completely without giving up space where nothing happens ie used space within the frame shot.( Trying thinking about these : 1. How balanced is my shot?; 2. Does the larger portion of the photo capture/show action? ; 3. If my larger part of my photo doesn't exhibit any action, should it be included and what purpose would it solve? . Unless you have considerable degree of understanding negative space compositions , try avoiding it in you photos. )

e) If you have your shot in focus and is locked on, don't just press the trigger, it pays off ,esp shooting pets and children, to have patience for one cannot be too certain of what they might do in the next few

moments. ( 1. Do you anticipate that an interesting behavior would soon recur in/with your subject? ; 2. Is my framed subject is very active for exhibiting dramatic behavior? ; 3. Should I capture it or should I capture with all the drama that brings out something unique about my subject?.  It is infinitely possible that subjects which are very active and show dramatic display of various poses/stances that is unique and non-repeatable. )

f) If the subject has been shot to death before e,g a popular place or a landmark , try shooting in an unusual angle or try other place to shoot it that is not too common. In this way your shot preserves its originality and shows the object/place in a different light. ( Try answering these questions first , 1. Has it been shot before the way I'm going to shoot? ; 2. How does my shot make it unique or should I try shooting from another view point/place? ; 3. How do I want it show up in my image or should I try shooting it from any other angle? )

g) At the outset of your photographic journey try following the the 1/3rd rule for you find your clicks are that much praiseworthy and appear as slick. ( What is this?. The 1/3rd rule requires that you first divide your frame of composition into three equal zones both vertically and horizontally and put your subject in the 1/3rd part of the it and then compose. )

I have found that a budding photographer always seeks and values good feedback that repose in him the faith in his/her abilities of seeing things creatively. Creativity at the most nascent stage is unprotected and most be nurtured with great care. So you my budding ace photographer don't lose heart if one of your clicks or most of your clicks is criticized, take it as a part of your journey to be great. Have faith in your abilities and in your vision and with time and practice, you will find your voice that others look up to for inspiration.

2) MOOD : 

Mood of a photograph might depict any of the abstract human emotions. In some might be pronounced and in others subtle or subdued. A photo may denote or evoke various human emotions  such as Happiness, Sadness, Curiosity, Optimism, Pessimism, Love, Affection, Loneliness, Approval, Exclamations etc in various degrees of expressions. 

It is perfectly O.K to presume that the premise of depicting a photograph that evoke such emotions within the viewer mayn't be human , e.g a solitary tree on a green verdant hill can be photographed to show it being lonely or a overcast cloud can be symbolic of pessimism. So generically speaking the premise of depicting or coloring one's photograph to show or bring forth in the viewer a sense of emotional drama as if feeling the emotions that is intended ,can be said as the MOOD of the photograph.       

Things to Consider when setting the Mood of the Photograph:

1. Setting the Tone: It could be any 'PHASE' of the day or season or a sporting event etc.

2. Check the Lighting in the scene and the angle it hits your subject: Is it diffused light? or an Afterglow?. Is your subject back-lit? or a thin wedge of light just cascading on the frontal part of your subject?. There are various ways by which your photograph can convey the desired emotions. How you interpret it depends on your creative compulsions.

3. Choice of the per-dominant color: Color or rather the effects/transitions of various colors often suggest the creative mood of the photographs. A predominant black in an image is often suggestive of something being 'Hidden' or an implied emotion, that is suggestive in addition to feel of the photograph. Every color can convey meanings that may or mayn't have been captured within the frames of the image. Colors can be used as an compliment or antagonistic to the predominant feel of the composition. 

4. Age of the Subject : Age Plays an interesting part in one's composition,whether your subject is living or non living or is such, that it gives off the illusion of appearing otherwise , has a direct impact on the feel and mood of the composition. Imagine for instance an Old person sitting on the steps of a porch drinking coffee. Observe the range of emotions it evokes in you/viewer. Now imagine a little girl sitting at the bottom of the old person's legs coveting the hot coffee. Does your emotions get a little bit richer?. Now imagine that little girl is holding a similar cup but it is filled with milk. So basically one can add many depths or layers in one's photo and set the mood for it. The above example may mean a sense of longing, serenity, youthfulness , childhood or a combination of all four primary emotions. 

Therefore contrasting age group often highlight the mood of the photograph.

3. VIEWERS EYE OF INTEREST:  

The heading refers to the "Area" within the photograph which is of primal consequence. It is where the central theme and the central mood of the picture emerge outwards and spill over into the viewers eye.

As one's skills increases over time , capturing the viewers eye of interest for a dramatic picture composition may be one's prime concern of taking a photograph. In photojournalism and in landscape photography , the viewer's eye of interest is the focal point around which every photograph revolves. See any picture of a landscape or that of a flower , the focal point is a subject and the colors that set the focus for the picture.

ESSENTIAL TIPS:

1.Pay attention to geometry , shapes , lines , circles etc which form a part of a coherent whole.


2.Perspectives of the subject , i.e how the subject is placed within your frame in relation to its background.Shallow depth of background is great for potraits as it gives off  an image in 3D.

3.Center of Action: At the outset , it helps if the center of cynosure is kept as per the 1/3rd rule and with sufficient experience , try breaking it, but initially in your photographic quest , try composing as suggested.

4.Continuity: It is a tricky to put it succintly, but ah!...well lets see.

Continuity may mean differently in different contexts of composition but it does have the same element in them and that is an continuum of the idea and the feel of the theme.Lets explore a little bit in depth,suppose we are shooting a perspective landscape shot involving mountains with a stream , try composing your shot that directs the viewer along the flowlines of the stream ,either upfront or downfront visual. In simple lay man terms shoot it with the stream facing you or flowing away from you , because it invariably draws the eye of the viewer to trace out the picture along those lines.While shooting Indoors ,pay attention to the interior lines/geometry of the place. Those play an important role in stronger images. The curves , the arrangement of furniture , the lights etc all affect the final mage considerably and one would suggest that find shapes to place your subject in or around such that it is a completed whole.

4. LIGHT (Exposure):

Photography is an art of capturing the right amount of light. Modern digital Cameras have an inbuilt exposure reading metering system that infers the amount of light reflected from the subject not the incident light i.e light falling on the subject. The amount of light that is required for correctly exposing a bright object maynot be enought for a darker subject, so it is essential that one subject is propoerly exposed to light.

The following consideration might help expose the subject and bringing out the drama in the photograph.

The essential three parameters are( as you already know) :

1. Aperture

2. Shutter Speed

3. ISO

There is an inherent relationship between the three i.e change in any one affects the other two parameters.

If you are a kind of shooter that shoots in manual mode then this paragraph isn't for you.

There are many modes of shooting that deals dabbling with any one of the parameters or a combination of two or all three.

Lets explore what are those modes of shooting that is available on all dslr's and bridge cameras.

a. AUTO: In this mode of shooting , the camera take care of everything from aperture size , shutter speed , white balance and ISO. This mode is helpful if you have no inclination to fiddle and dabble in various controls and parameters and wish to leave it to the camera. It is useful in quite a few situations where you are not sure about the white balance or the correct ISO settings.

b. Aperture Priority: This mode is very useful for controlling the depth of the field i.e how the background of one's subject would appear. If you wish to have a shallow depth of field then choose the lowest 'f' no. ie 2.8 or lower, however if you want that your background should be detailed and everything is in focus then choose a higher 'f' number i.e f22 -f32.

c. Shutter priority: This mode is useful when one is capturing action or fast moving subjects and wish to freeze the motion and have it in focus. This mode is also useful if one is shooting flowers too. Experiment and learning is the key to fully understand the creative applications of these keys.

d. Professional Mode: In this mode one can toggle between the aperture and shutter speed of the image to be captured. It is favoured mode of shooting for professionals all over the world for this mode allows one to control the aesthetics of the shot without too much worry.

If however you find it there is not enough light then it is better to increase the ISO rather shooting it with a flash because flash renders your subject to look flat but the bad effects from such a light can be lessened if you could set it to fire in "REAR SYNC" rathe than "FRONT SYNC" because setting it in former allows the subject to be photographed at the beginning of the exposure in available light before being compensated by the flash. Also try to direct the flash onto the roof or some indirect reflecting surface such that only smooth light falls on your subject and there is minimum harsh light.

If you are shooting in Manual Mode and unsure what should be the Aperture or Shutter speed that would expose correctly your intended subject then choose the "P" mode , half press the shutter button , take the raeding of the aperture and shutter speed as displayed, move back to manual mode and set in the aperture and shutter speeds as earlier recorded.

In photography one has to be intuitive about light, it is an aquired skill , if shooting outdoors or indoors , correct exposure of one's subject is an added advantage but for a RAW Shooter, it isn't much of a concern. For a RAW shooter it pays if one shoots an underexposed image of half a stop coz the details can be brought out post processing, a luxury which isn't available to JPEG shooters.

EPILOGUE

In the end , I wish to say that no matter what your results has been , just keep trying and improving. There are various many parameters, and with time , sooner or later ,it would dawn on you of using and harnessing them to your benefit and creativity.

Till then, Happy Shutterbugging!.

Adios.