<p>The Virgins<br />Siddharth Tripathi<br />Fingerprint<br />2013, pp 320<br />250<br /><br />Avid readers of fiction have different ways to tell if they have liked a story. However, the commonest among them is to see if the characters of the book remain in memory long after the last page has been turned. <br /><br />That’s one of the successes of debutant author Siddharth Tripathi. The protagonists, antagonists and even minor characters he fleshes out in The Virgins remain in your thoughts long after the book has been read. <br /><br />For a first-time writer, Tripathi’s prose is lucid enough to show promise of greater things to come. There is more than a hint of style in how he develops his characters and dispenses information to his readers, and that further whets the readers’ appetite. And then, there’s the story itself. The way he builds it bears the hallmark of a master storyteller just beginning to come into his own.<br /><br />The three people around whom the narrative revolves are Varanasi-residents Pinku, Guggi and Bhandu — their real names are rarely of use or consequence in the book. The story begins with Guggi and Bhandu abandoning a hapless Pinku in front of a girls’ hostel, to be chased and beaten by a cop, after Guggi tries to attract the girls’ attention by shouting at them his “introduction”.<br /><br />As things move forward, we learn that Pinku is one of the elder siblings of a family whose head had deserted it years ago, only to return later and mooch off his wife and son’s earnings. And this wasn’t even the first time he had been abandoned thus. On an earlier occasion, when Guggi had deserted him while trying to steal a flowerpot, he had taken the rap, but not without falling for the young girl of that house.<br /><br />Bhandu, on the other hand, is battling to score some good marks in his board exams, especially because his mother is a professor, and despite his parents separation amid reports of his father’s adultery. He also wants to score the family-abandoning American woman who frequents one of the holy city’s ghats, but she doesn’t even seem to know he exists.<br /><br />Finally, there’s Guggi, whose outrageous — and often criminally-minded — plans, each of which he chooses to describe as “sexpot” for some reason, cause him enormous glee, but spell doom for friends who dare to accompany him. The son of a corrupt IAS officer who gets cut down to size, Guggi goes to great lengths to take over the protection racket — yes, the students need protection, if not from one another, then from outside forces who take sides in quarrels.<br /><br /> Guggi’s actions form a major theme of the story, but also notable in the narrative is the treatment of student politics and an undercurrent of violence that seems omnipresent in all walks of life in parts of Uttar Pradesh. <br /><br />Also noteworthy is Tripathi’s development of minor characters and his effort to showcase different aspects of human nature through them. One can’t help but feel sad for the fate of the peaceful tea-stall owner, who can do precious little to stop one or more of his rich customers from leering at or harassing his teenage daughter.<br /><br />All in all, The Virgins may not be the best debut novel of recent times, but is definitely jostling to climb up. One can indeed expect much bigger things from Tripathi.<br /><br /></p>
<p>The Virgins<br />Siddharth Tripathi<br />Fingerprint<br />2013, pp 320<br />250<br /><br />Avid readers of fiction have different ways to tell if they have liked a story. However, the commonest among them is to see if the characters of the book remain in memory long after the last page has been turned. <br /><br />That’s one of the successes of debutant author Siddharth Tripathi. The protagonists, antagonists and even minor characters he fleshes out in The Virgins remain in your thoughts long after the book has been read. <br /><br />For a first-time writer, Tripathi’s prose is lucid enough to show promise of greater things to come. There is more than a hint of style in how he develops his characters and dispenses information to his readers, and that further whets the readers’ appetite. And then, there’s the story itself. The way he builds it bears the hallmark of a master storyteller just beginning to come into his own.<br /><br />The three people around whom the narrative revolves are Varanasi-residents Pinku, Guggi and Bhandu — their real names are rarely of use or consequence in the book. The story begins with Guggi and Bhandu abandoning a hapless Pinku in front of a girls’ hostel, to be chased and beaten by a cop, after Guggi tries to attract the girls’ attention by shouting at them his “introduction”.<br /><br />As things move forward, we learn that Pinku is one of the elder siblings of a family whose head had deserted it years ago, only to return later and mooch off his wife and son’s earnings. And this wasn’t even the first time he had been abandoned thus. On an earlier occasion, when Guggi had deserted him while trying to steal a flowerpot, he had taken the rap, but not without falling for the young girl of that house.<br /><br />Bhandu, on the other hand, is battling to score some good marks in his board exams, especially because his mother is a professor, and despite his parents separation amid reports of his father’s adultery. He also wants to score the family-abandoning American woman who frequents one of the holy city’s ghats, but she doesn’t even seem to know he exists.<br /><br />Finally, there’s Guggi, whose outrageous — and often criminally-minded — plans, each of which he chooses to describe as “sexpot” for some reason, cause him enormous glee, but spell doom for friends who dare to accompany him. The son of a corrupt IAS officer who gets cut down to size, Guggi goes to great lengths to take over the protection racket — yes, the students need protection, if not from one another, then from outside forces who take sides in quarrels.<br /><br /> Guggi’s actions form a major theme of the story, but also notable in the narrative is the treatment of student politics and an undercurrent of violence that seems omnipresent in all walks of life in parts of Uttar Pradesh. <br /><br />Also noteworthy is Tripathi’s development of minor characters and his effort to showcase different aspects of human nature through them. One can’t help but feel sad for the fate of the peaceful tea-stall owner, who can do precious little to stop one or more of his rich customers from leering at or harassing his teenage daughter.<br /><br />All in all, The Virgins may not be the best debut novel of recent times, but is definitely jostling to climb up. One can indeed expect much bigger things from Tripathi.<br /><br /></p>
