Hello Everyone,
I am Hinaba Sarvaiya, a student of the English Department at MKBUniversity. This blog is given by our prof. Dr. Dilip Barad sir. This blog is about Arundhati Roy's novel "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness".
“There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.”
―Arundhati Roy
About Author:-
Arundhati Roy exhibits amazing ingenuity in crafting a literary diary for the people who exist on the fringes of Indian society. After the remarkable success of her debut novel The God of Small Things (1997), Roy continued writing non-fictional works that were quite provocative and radical in nature. She often contemplates on the issues of national importance. She is a novelist, a feminist, a literary activist and an ardent environmentalist.
The Careerist
The boy had always wanted to make something of himself. He invited four militants for dinner and slipped sleeping pills into their food. Once they had fallen asleep he called the army. They killed the militants and burned down the house. The army had promised the boy two canals of land and one hundred and fifty thousand rupees. They gave him only fifty thousand and accommodated him in quarters just outside an army camp. They told him that if he wanted a permanent job with them instead of being just a daily wage worker he would have to get them two foreign militants. He managed to get them one ‘live’ Pakistani but was having trouble finding another. ‘Unfortunately these days business is bad,’ he told PI.‘Things have become such that you cannot any longer just kill someone and pretend he’s a foreign militant. So my job cannot be made permanent.’PI asked him, if there was a referendum whom he would vote for, India or Pakistan?‘Pakistan of course.’‘Why?’‘Because it is our Mulk (country). But Pakistan militants can’t help us in this way. If I can kill them and get a good job it helps me.’He told PI that when Kashmir became a part of Pakistan, he (PI) would not be able to survive in it. But he (the boy) would. But that, he said, was just a theoretical matter. Because he would be killed shortly.
Q 1: Who did the boy expect to be killed by?
(a) The army
(b) Militants
(c) Pakistanis
(d) Owners of the house that was burned.
Ans(b) Militants
The Nobel Prize Winner
Manohar Mattoo was a Kashmiri Pandit who stayed on in the Valley even after all the other Hindus had gone. He was secretly tired of and deeply hurt by the barbs from his Muslim friends who said that all Hindus in Kashmir were actually, in one way or another, agents of the Indian Occupation Forces. Manohar had participated in all the anti-India protests, and had shouted Azadi! louder than everybody else. But nothing seemed to help. At one point he had even contemplated taking up arms and joining the Hizb, but eventually he decided against it. One day an old school friend of his, Aziz Mohammed, an intelligence officer,visited him at home to tell him that he was worried for him. He said that he had seen his(Mattoo’s) surveillance file. It suggested that he be put under watch because he displayed ‘anti-national tendencies’.When he heard the news Mattoo beamed and felt his chest swell with pride.
Q 1: Why was Mattoo shot?
(a) Because he was a Hindu
(b) Because he wanted Azadi
(c) Because he won the Nobel Prize
(d) None of the above
(e) All of the above.
Ans(a) Because he was a Hindu
Q 2: Who could the unknown gunman have been?
(a) An Islamist militant who thought all kafirs should be killed
(b) An agent of the Occupation who wanted people to think that all
(c) Neither of the above
(d) Someone who wanted everyone to go crazy trying to figure it out.
Ans(a) Islamist militants thought that all kafirs should be killed
The characters of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness :-
Khwabgah - Jantar Mantar - Jannat Guest House / Graveyard - Kashmir.
Kulsoom Bi, Saeeda, Bismillah, Ziauddin - the blind Imam, Gudiya & Bulbul, Bombay Silk, Jahanara Begum, Mulaqat Ali, Anjum/Aftab, Ahlam Baiji, Mary, Razia, Nimmo Gorakhpuri, Mr. Aggarwal, Tubby Old Gandhian, Manipur Nationalists, Bhopalis, Protest to make Hindi as National Language, Jannat Guest House / Graveyard - Saddam Hussein, Mr. Gupta, Captain Amrik Singh, ACP Pinky Sodhi, Balbir Sodhi, Jalil Qadri, Musa Yeswi, Gulrez, King Aurangzeb, Abhaychand, Hazrat Sarmad, Zainab, Changez Khan, Borte Khatun, Sakim, Sangeeta Madam, Sherawat, Dr, Azad, Gujrat ka Lalla, Trapped Rabbit, Biplab Das Gupta, Charerupa, Rabia and Ania, Hariharan Nagarjun, S, Tillotama, Maryam Ipe, Arifa, Jebeen , Baby - Jebeen(The second Udaya), Khadijha, Aijaz, Revathy.
Anjum is born intersex and lives as a Muslim hijra, who lives in the Khwabgah for many years before leaving and eventually founding the Jannat Guest House. On her visit to a Gujarati shrine, Anjum gets caught in a massacre of Hindu pilgrims and subsequent government reprisals against Muslims. She is anxious about the future of her own community, especially the new generation. She was born as Aftab, the long-awaited son of Jahanara Begum and Mulaqat Ali.
Mulaqat Ali is the husband of Jahanara Begum and the father of Aftab. He is a hakim, a doctor of herbal medicine, and a lover of poetry. Ali is the direct descendant of Mongol Emperor Changez Khan – through the emperor's second-born son, Chagatai.
Zainab is a three-year-old girl whom Anjum picks up on the steps of the Jama Masjid. Zainab is brought up at Khwabgah and later goes on to become a fashion designer who marries Saddam.
Saddam Hussein (Dayachand) is one of the guests at the Jannat Guest House. He was originally named Dayachand but named himself after Saddam Hussain after seeing a video of his execution. Saddam works odd jobs – in a mortuary, as a helper in a shop, a bus conductor, selling newspapers at the New Delhi railway station, as a bricklayer on a construction site and as a security guard. Saddam wants to avenge his father's death by killing Sehrawat, the Station House Officer of the Dulina police station.
Dr. Azad Bharatiya is one of the many protestors near Jantar Mantar. He continues his 10-year fast and runs a newsletter called "News & Views".
S. Tilottama is a student at the Architecture School who is estranged from her Syrian Christian mother, Mariyam Ipe. Tilo becomes friends with three men – Musa Yewsi, Nagaraj Hariharan and Biplab Dasgupta, whom she meets while working on sets and lighting design for the play directed by David Quartermaine.
Nagaraj Hariharan is cast as Norman in the play. He later becomes a top-notch journalist who works in Kashmir. Tilo marries Naga as suggested by Musa for strategic reasons and later abandons him.
Biplab Dasgupta was to play the role of Garson Hobart in Norman, Is That You?. He later works for the Intelligence Bureau as Deputy Station Head for. Biplab secretly loves Tilo and rents her room after she walks out on Naga.
Musa Yeswi (Commander Gulrez) is a reticent Kashmiri man who is classmates with Tilo in Architecture School and later her boyfriend. Musa later returns to his homeland to become a militant and fight for Azadi. Musa marries Arifa and fathers Miss Jebeen the First.
Begum Arifa Yeswi is the wife of Musa Yeswi. Musa meets Arifa in a stationery shop where a grenade explosion takes place.
Major Amrik Singh is a military officer in charge of counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir. He murders Jalib Qadri, a well-known lawyer and human rights activist and subsequently seeks asylum in the US claiming to be the victim of the tortures he has inflicted on others.
Comrade Revathy is a Maoist from East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh who is raped and tortured by policeman. She's the mother of Udaya (Miss Jebeen the Second). Revathy leaves Udaya in Jantar Mantar.
Jahanara Begum – Mother of Aftab (Anjum). Dotes on him and takes him to the dargah of Hazrat Sarmad Shaheed. Even after Aftab moves to Khwabgah, she continues to send a hot meal every day.
Ahlam Baji – The midwife who delivers Aftab and who, during her last days, grows disoriented. She's buried in Jahanara Begum's family graveyard.
Ustad Hameed Khan – Musician who taught Aftab Hindustani classical music. Aftab eventually stops going to the music classes due to snickering and teasing from other children.
Imam Ziauddin – The blind imam who accompanies Anjum in the graveyard and once led the prayers at Fatehpuri Masjid
Kulsoom Bi –Ustad, guru of Khwabgah
Saeeda–The new face of Khwabgah after Anjum and is soon to take over as the ustad
Zakir Mian – Proprietor and Managing Director of A-1 Flower. He travels with Anjum.
Begum Zeenat Kauser – Anjum's aunt and Mulaqat Ali's older sister.
Begum Renata Mumtaj – Belly dancer from Romania who grew up in Bucharest dreaming of India and its classical dancing forms. She's buried in Jannat after her death.
Roshan Lal – Headwaiter of Rosebud Rest-O-Bar
Mr. D. D. Gupta – An old client of Anjum who is a building contractor. He moves to Baghdad to capitalize on the escalating demand for concrete blast walls.
Loveleen Singh – Wife of Amrik Singh. She's a victim of domestic violence.
ACP Pinky Sodhi – Assistant Commandant and brutal interrogator who worked with Amrik Singh.
Balbir Singh Sodhi – ACP Pinky Sodhi's brother. A senior police officer who had been shot down by militants in Sopore.
Fact & Fiction :
2002 Godhra riots- Gujarat
Trauma to Anjum; their visit to Gujarat
lynching of Dalits (lower class) in Una Gujarat
Dayachand’s father’s killing in Haryana for taking a dead animal’s skin
Gulf war between Iraq and America
Hanging of Saddam Hussein by America
Inspiration for Dayachand to adopt the name, Saddam Hussein
Anna Hazare movement 2011-12
Tubby Gandhian at Jantar Mantar in TV and news
All the Jantar Mantar protests
A group from Jantar Mantar guest house visit Jantar Mantar
The madness of adopting names
Dr. Azad Bharti
Naxalite Maoist movement
Letter from Revathy
Sanjay Gandhi and Emergency
Narendra Modi is known as Gujarat ka Lalla.
Plot Overview of this novel:-
Aftab is a hermaphrodite born in Old Delhi and raised as a boy. However, Aftab is never comfortable with this and when he reaches adulthood, he opts for gender reassignment surgery. Aftab is reborn as Anjum, a glamorous woman whose affectionate, outgoing manner quickly ingratiates her with many members of the community. Eighteen and independent for the first time, Anjum finds a home with the residents of the place called Khwaboah, meaning "House of Dreams." This is a community of non-conformists, many who are either intersex or transgender like Anjum. Calling it home, she remains there for thirty years, during which time she becomes a mother figure to a little girl named Zainab and raises her to adulthood. However, when she is forty-six, she survives a massacre in Ahmedabad and decides to leave the Khwabgan. She moves into a local cemetery transforming it into a guesthouse that she names Jannat, or "Paradise." She opens a funeral services company catering to marginalized and persecuted groups. One day, a baby was found at an observatory in Delhi. Anjum takes the child in, but she disappears one day. Anjum tracks the baby down to the house of the woman who took her.
The narrative then shifts to the story of S. Tilottama, called "Tilo" for short, the woman who took the baby. The story flashes back to her college days, her narrative spliced together with the stories of two men who loved her during these years. One is an old bureaucrat called Garson Hobart, the other, a mainstream journalist named Naga whom she eventually marries. Tilo, a dark-skinned, smart woman, had been close to architecture student Musa Yeswi in university. After university. Musa and Tilo reconnected shortly after his wife died. However, Musa became involved with the Kashmiri separatist movement advocating for independence for the Muslim región at the border of Pakistan. Musa and his friend, Commander Gulrez, raise the attention of Indian bureaucrats led by the ruthless Major Amrik Singh. Singh, known for torturing his suspects brutally, captures Musa and Gulrez. Musa manages to escape, but Gulrez is killed as Tilo watches. Shaken and realizing how close she came to being caught up in an extremely dangerous plot, Tilo decides to play it safe and marry Naga. Fourteen years later, they divorce and Tilo rents an apartment from Garson Hobart. They reconnect, but she soon disappears again with the baby from the observatory. She has named the baby Miss Jebeen the Second, after Musa's slain daughter. Anjum finds her, and invites both of them to move into the Jannat guesthouse With her.
The narrative then flashes back to show how Miss Jebeen the First died, in the conflict of 1990s Kashmir. She and Musa's wife, Arifa are shot by soldiers on Major Singh's orders. Although Major Singh later tries to make peace with Musa by paying him off, Musa angrily rejects him and goes undercover. We also see more of the night Gulrez died, and it is revealed that Tilo was pregnant when she escaped Kashmir and married Naga. However, she chooses to have an abortion. Back in the present, the residents of Jannat celebrate Zainab's wedding to fellow resident Saddam. One day, they receive a letter written by Miss Jebeen the Second's mother. A member of the Communist party, Comrade Maase Revathy was raped, and although she could not care for her child, she reveals she named her Udaya. The residents of Jannat agree to name the child Miss Udaya Jebeen, to honor both parents' wishes. The book ends as Garson Hobart reads through Tila's documents, realizing that he now sides with her on Kashmir Musa arrives at his apartment, and they talk about Kashmir, with Musa saving that the conflict will make the country explode one day. Musa joins Tila at Jannat for the night but leaves to rejoin the fight in Kashmir, where he's killed. Anjum takes Miss Udaya Jebeen for a walk around Delhi in the last scene, while a small dung beetle observes the world around.
Write about any one theme or character of the novel with the help of Chat OpenAI GPT. Ask to Chat GPT and put a screenshot as well as copy-paste the answer generated by this response generator.
I have to take one theme of this novel that is 'Ghost of Capitalism' and I have to find this result in ChatGPT.
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is a novel by Indian author Arundhati Roy. The novel explores a wide range of themes, including politics, love, and identity. Somecritics have interpreted the novel as a commentary on the effects of capitalism on Indian society, with the "ghost of capitalism" being a metaphor for the destructive impact of economic and societal changes on individuals and communities. However, it is important to note that the novel is a work of fiction and the themes and interpretations may vary depending on the reader.
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