The Inscrutable Americans

I picked up Anurag Mathur's best-selling book on Saturday. And finished it by Sunday. Anurag's writing is hilarious at points, his use of unmistakably Indian English accurate to the last detail. Poor Gopal, you keep thinking, as you follows his travails as a student in Eversville. I chuckled over almost every page - there is a heroism about Gopal that contradicts his apparent vulnerabilities and frailties with the English language. Gopal remains undeniably patriotic to his last drop of hair oil.

Some of the Gopalisms are worth reading all over again. American football, muses Gopal, has "very little to do with the foot and nothing at all to do with the ball." He never does solve the mystery of "vegetarian cats" and his attempts to indulge his lust in the land of free love are comical.

I can't fault this novel for sheer reading pleasure - what I did find mildly disturbing is that America does manage to change our "strictly vegetarian and Coke-drinking" Gopal to devouring hamburgers and beers faster than his grandmother can change her sari! And...like many an Indian guy, America's open in-your-face sexual romps beguile poor Gopal - he becomes obsessed with one idea - to lose his virginity, doesn't matter to who, love be damned! And if you are curious to know if he does, well I am not going to reveal the secret.

My take: Entertaining and never to be taken too seriously.