Serious Men

Ayyan looked with eyes that did not know how to show a cultured indifference. He often told Oja, 'If you stare long enough at serious people they will begin to appear comical.'

Serious Men is the debut novel of Manu Joseph ,former editor of The Times Of India. 
As I try to interpret the story,it appears to me that it highlights some very prominent emotions and philosophy of mankind in general ,though, in a very engaging and at times funny route. On a precise viewpoint the story is based on the backdrop of two society -India's  large lower middle class, which still mostly consists of lower castes, and secondly the well to do educated scientific people.

The protagonist, Ayyan Mani, is a person belonging to low caste or Dalit and works as  a personal assistant  to the Head of Institute of Theory and Research, Arvind Acharya,a Brahmin. Now here I would like to mention the basic psychology of Ayyan Mani as this psychology only is the whole driving force of story. Ayyan Mani lives in a small room in a very old chawl with his wife and a ten year old son and leads a very ordinary life just like a typical poor, middle class Indian  but his ambitions and  desires were not as small as his current reality.He blames his poor up bringing and lack of opportunities (in a peculiar way he relate it with his caste which is quite true ) , for his misery as  he never believe or shows   any lack of confidence in his own abilities.

So this whole situation triggers something in him to try  to get out of the melancholic dull life as he ,somewhere inside, have always believed that, had he been born in some well to do family,he would have been at top. To avoid his dull life he choses his son ,and through his uncanny wiles , make him popular as a wonder boy ,a genius .Although the situation goes out of control towards the end but he handles it in a very tactful manner and this faux pass only, connect his story with the other central character Arvind Acharya in the climax.

Arvind Acharya is a proud ,confident ,even arrogant kind of person who is a great physicist and  has ideas very different from his other colleagues.He believes  that alien microbes falls continuously on outer atmosphere of the earth and aims  to catch the samples by sending gas balloons. Almost all other scientist in the institute do not believe in it but due to the kind of stature Acharya has, among the scientific community across the globe ,no one dare to take him by head. Nambodri is a fellow scientist and college mate of Acharya but has been shown to be always envious of him ,whether it be for his genius or his stature.

Arvind Acharya has been shhown as a very powerful character who kind of have strong  beliefs and likes and dislikes but ultimately fails to the age old reason of a man's downfall ,that is to say, a woman's infatuation. Oparna Goshmaulik, is  a beautiful ,young and talented astrobiologist who has recently joined the institute and has been drawing attention from almost all persons in there. Oparna leads the story of Acharya further , as she fell in love with him,drawn by his strong endearing persona and ultimately leading to his downfall. Acharya's initial resistance finally surrenders to his hormones and before he realizes his mistake it has been too late. When he tries to get back to normal life again, a wounded Oparna ruins him and his career.

A little insight in Oparna's character tells us that she represents a particular section of woman who has some basic traits such as strong likeness for a man of strong control and then deriving great pleasure by controlling him .


"Oparna thought Basu was an endearing formidable man.Then she realized that she felt that way because he was reading out the words of a man who really was"

These lines clearly shows her likeness for Acharya's strong  personality even when she is actually trying to ruin him .After ruining his target she vanishes from the scene. This fact represents her another quality of moving on with life. Her character can be best perceived by following lines :

"She would wander through life beseeching men to love her,frighten them with the intensity of her affection,marry one whose smell she could tolerate,and then resume the search for love.And she would suffer the loneliness of affairs. And  on some mornings, in front of men who thanked their luck for such an easy fling,she would endure the shame of putting on her clothes.somehow more demeaning than undressing for them.She would wander this way everyday of her life until she found shelter in the peace of age."

Other characters such as Mani's wife Oja ,his son Adi and Acharya's wife Lavanya are not so central but give some crucial insights about the characters of Mani and Acharya. like Acharya's indifferent attitude towards his wife portrays him as someone always lost in his own train of thoughts ,while Ayyan's  behaviour towards Oja reveals a guilt of  his,a guilt of not providing her with a good life ,as he wanted to.

In the climax  how the fate of Acharya and Ayyan Mani has been related seems somewhat like a bollywood movie but is quite captivating . After reading the novel you realize that what has actually lend the freshness to the simple plot is the way the author has used the typical characters in a different yet realistic touch.

Ayyan, inspite of being a lower caste poor man,has been shown to be quite confident of his abilities and shrewdness and not someone to be pity on ,as revealed from a line given below which he tells to Dr Nambodri .

" My IQ is 148,Sir. What is yours?"


. His anger against high castes people is also something portrayed in a very realistic way.The morning  invented quotes which he used to write everyday at institute reveals his anger and  also his wit.

"Reservations for the low castes in colleges is a very unfair system.To compensate,let us offer the Brahmins the right to be treated as animals for 3,000 years and at the end of it let's give them a 15 percent reservation - Vallumpuri John"
"
Over all  the novel has quite succeeded in taking a controversial topic such as caste as background an yet  giving a funny touch to it ,even while revealing the anger of protagonist . The debut novel of Mani Joseph definitely leave  the readers wanting for more