Things Fall Apart

Individuals, Corporations, Countries, Ideologies, Civilizations – Who can resist the mighty winds of change? The British Empire which ruled the world for centuries is now long forgotten. Russia, the intimidating edifice of communism is today in shambles. Indeed, things do fall apart. Here is an effort to present one of the greatest African novels – Things Fall Apart (TFA) by Chinua Achebe.

Background:
First published in 1958, TFA is one of the first English novels to be written by an African author. It is also the first novel which tells the story of Africa from the perspective of an African tribesman. Earlier works by European authors like Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad are considered to be superficial lacking a true understanding of this great land.

The title is taken from W. B. Yeats’ poem, “The Second Coming”. An excerpt is presented below:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

Chinua Achebe was born into a Christian family of Igbo heritage. His father had converted to Christianity while some other relatives were still Igbo. In this way he got an opportunity to closely observe two cultures – at home he grew up reading the bible and singing hymns while at his uncle’s place he celebrated “pagan” festivals.

Introduction:
The story tracks the entire life of Okonkwo, a powerful and strong man who belongs to the Igbo tribe. He is a living legend in the nine villages of Umuofia known throughout for his strength and success. The book covers his rise to fame and his ultimate down fall.

An unparalleled characteristic of the book is the insights it provides into African culture and tradition. It has detailed and charming descriptions of Igbo life, their family structure, rituals, beliefs, their oracles and medicine men. It is an exotic journey into the heart of African civilization.

The Beginning:
Okonkwo is born to Unoka, a lazy coward man without any titles. He looks down upon his father and is determined to write a different story for his own life. He is ambitious and with great hardships realizes his dream to be become a prominent member of his tribe.

Okonkwo – The man
As a result of an internal feud with another village, Okonkwo’s village is paid with the tribute of a young boy. Okonkwo is asked to take care of this boy until a further decision is taken. He raises the kid, who used to call him father, as his own son. After a few years the village oracle decides that the boy should be killed. The men of the village gather to lead the boy, who is unaware of his ill fate, towards the forest where he is to be eventually executed. As the executioners approach the boy, he senses that something is wrong and runs towards Okonkwo for safety crying out “Father”. At that instant, with one powerful blow his own “father” puts him to death. This is Okonkwo for you. His father because he held no titles was called agbala, which is the Igbo word for a woman. Okonkwo is desperate to prove he is a man.

The Nemesis
As time passes Okonkwo faces several hardships and is even banished from his village for many years. Slowly, the world around him starts changing. The Christian missionaries are coming. They have a mission – The salvation of the savages of the dark-continent. Okonkwo is proud of his Igbo traditions, culture and society. He is a mute spectator to the subjugation and humiliation of his people and their beliefs. How does the mighty Okonkwo face this nemesis? I guess, those who haven’t already read the book will have to read it.

One Very Funny Man

As my critics have......er....criticised me and my style of humor I have decided to leave the job to the experts. You just have to check out Dave Barry. Especially this and his biography.

Tremblement de Terre

If you ascribe the odd title above to an irreversible process of brain degeneration which started when I was dropped on my head when I was a 2 year old baby and I have now reached the last stage where patients start typing rubbish you are entirely incorrect. Actually, its French. Now French they tell me is the official language of some country called France. I was quite taken aback by this having always believed that they only spoke Bangladeshi there. Yeah, so what does this “Tremblement de Terre” actually mean you ask me? As the readers of this blog are from all corners of the world I will go with the assumption that your IQ is roughly the same as an average American and given that their brilliant president George W. Bush is considered as one of the leading intellectuals of that country even the most patriot of Americans will have to concede that it isn’t much to be proud of. The word earthquake belonging to the family of multi-syllable words at which all Americans reach out for Picture Dictionaries especially made for young orangutans facing severe learning disabilities we will for their benefit explain the term. It’s a dangerous and highly infectious disease which is spreading thanks to birds across continents and “threatens to be a threat” to human civilization. Ummm….maybe I might have just mixed up a few things here or there.. …They tell us that this “Tremblement de Terre” paid a visit to Gujarat last night at around 11:51 pm. Of course, the left and congress have blamed this TDT on Narendra Mmodi’s fascist policies and anti-muslim agenda and Modi not to be left behind is said to have blamed the U.C. Banerjee committee’s report.

IIM Kozhikode Interview

I know it’s a stale event by now but one has to do one’s duty towards the blog.

The interview panel comprised of two senior gentlemen – one with a really really long hair cut and a beard to match and another pretty decent looking normal chap. The one overwhelmingly obvious difference between them being their hairstyle we will call them Long Hair (LH) and Short Hair (SH). It turns out that SH is a PhD in economics (I found this out after the interview from the website.) I will go by the name of Poor Candidate (PC)

PC: Good afternoon, Sirs.

LH & SH: Good afternoon. Take a seat.

SH: Are you tired? You have been waiting for quite some time now.

PC: No sir.

LH: Aditya, we have been asking everyone to tell us something about themselves, family etc. Why don’t you tell us something about yourself.

PC: Some fundas about how great I am ….something about the family

LH: What is graphology? (I had mentioned it)

PC: Handwriting analysis, etc…..controversial subject….

SH: Can you analyze my handwriting for me? I will write down something….

PC: Sure sir.

SH: (writes down a few sentences) Here it is

PC: Talk about a few traits I could notice

LH: Why have your results gone down since 10^th standard?

PC: I talk about relative performance etc.

LH: You like to surf the internet….Have you heard of pagal guy?

SH: (To LH) What? What is it?

LH: Why don’t you tell him about it?

PC: Website for MBA aspirants, etc. …..more than 50K members…

LH: Have you studied anything about accounting?

PC: No sir

LH: Any subject related to economics?

PC: Sir, we had economics and business management.

LH: Business management, eh? Hmm….Did you study anything about motivation?

PC: No sir

SH: How do you think we can increase worker productivity?

PC: Something about imparting skills, better work environment, better salaries

LH: Have you read the Gita?

PC: No sir. The only thing I know about it is what I have seen in the Mahabharat televison serial.

SH: (Smiling)..Aaah…That was all about arrows flying from here to there…

PC: (Smiling broadly)…Yes of course, sir…I don’t have any philosophical insights into it…

LH: Do you think it’s a philosophical or a religious text?

PC: I haven’t read it so wouldn’t be able to say anything…

LH: (cuts me short) But still you can say something..

PC: I think it’s a little bit of both…

SH: It’s a nice thing you have done the French language course. In this globalised world knowing a foreign language will be helpful to you…

PC: Thank you sir

SH: We have an exchange program with European School of Business, Paris wherein six students from our institute go there and an equal number come here….

LH: We are asking everyone to speak a few minutes about any topic…You can choose a topic if you want to…Okay, we will give you one…Speak on “How can India win more medals at the Olympics”

PC: touch a few points about professionalizing sports bodies, infrastructure and support for players…give a few examples about problems of nepotism etc…and fail to mention obvious things about changing our perception towards sports as a career, etc…

LH: What do you think about the group discussion today?

PC: (relunctantly) It was a nice GD..

LH: Do you think you had direction?

PC: (Smiling) Sir, we had only a few points and were just trying to say the same things in different ways

LH: (Smiling) Maybe you lacked wisdom…(Laughs)….(The topic of the GD was “Seek wisdom, not knowledge.)

LH & SH: Thank You and Best of Luck.

I understand that the above is a skewed view of how the interview unfolded as I have not given my answers in detail….but I am feeling too lazy to think about what I spoke exactly and type it out….