Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard: Chapter 6

27/9/13

Summary:

The following day, Sampath's family leaves to attend another wedding, leaving him behind to avoid any embarrassment he could cause at the party. As soon as the rest of the family leaves, Sampath runs off  away from his home, to catch a bus where he rides past the outskirts of his hazy town. When an old woman sits next to him on the bus and starts a small conversation with Sampath, he feels overwhelmed and jumps out of the bus. He races like a maniac into an old orchard, until he finds a tree that looks inviting. He climbs it and settles in. Soon, he realizes that he is surrounded by a  guava orchard, part of the university research reserve. Sampath feels completely himself and at the right place at last. He feels stripped off of stress and commotion, which is exactly what he was looking for. Sampath feels relaxed and at home and falls asleep in the branches of the tree.



Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard: Chapter 5

22/9/13

 

 

Summary:

 

A few months later, the entire post office was put on duty at Mr. DPS's house to help with his daughter's wedding. Marigolds and chillies were being hung on the doorway, trees were being draped with party lights, and tender goats were being fetched for the biryani. In the midst of all the chaos and madness, Sampath is assigned the job of filling glasses with sherbet. As always, Sampath gets bored with his tedious task and starts wandering around the house. He looks through doors and cupboards, and comes across a room full of finery. He could see fine peacock silk, and rosy satin and saris of every shade of color imaginable. He finds a box of jewelry and gets dazzled by the different pearls and stones and accessories it contained. He lights a candle and looks at himself at the mirror, feeling carried away. He goes out and dances up and down in front of the marriage tent. He jumps into the fountain and starts disrobing himself, as the audience shriek. His boss fires him on the spot. At home, his father is furious about the whole incidence, and wants him to find another job immediately. Sampath feels so trapped and manipulated in a life he hates. Looking at a guava his mom gives him, he longs and aches for freedom.

 

Opinion:

 

To be honest, Sampath seems like a really psychotic and unusual character. His behavior at the wedding party is something that no one would even think of doing, but for a person like Sampath, it doesn't seem too abnormal.

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard: Chapter 4

14/9/13

English: Literature

Sampath bicycles off to work in the morning traffic of Shahkot. Sampath drops Pinky off so she can get on the public bus. She removes her hair pin to have it as a weapon against men who might hassle her. The post office is a very gloomy building where Sampath crawls under the barbed wire fence to get in. He stops to hear the flirting between two workers in the postal office, Mr. Gupta and Miss Jyostsna, attracted by Jyostsna's red toe nails. She describes an incident that happened with the Cinema Monkey which ripped her clothes and ran off with her peanut cone. Then the two speak about the wedding of the boss' daughter, where they get interrupted by their boss. Later on, Sampath attempts to add up the wedding accounts, but all the bills look alike and his mind gets dizzy. Sampath soon starts zoning out instead of sorting of the letters which is what he's actually suppose to do. At the end of the day, Sampath is yelled at for not finishing his work. 

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard: Chapter 3

Reshmi

7/9/13

Summary:

Mr. Chawla starts his day out by doing morning exercises. He's forty years old and is the head clerk at the Reserve Bank of Shahkot. He yells at his family and overwhelms them with orders as he gets ready for the day. Pinky, bored from her father's newspaper readings about politics, asks him read the story about the Cinema Monkey who harrasses ladies, and steals their food outside the cinema. Later, Mr Chawla lectures Sampath on how to be a successful man. Sampath and his mother Kulfi, seem totally uninvolved while Mr. Chawla and Ammaji argue about Sampath's future. 

Opinion:

It is revealed in this chapter that Sampath is very ignorant and has very little to say. His life is exactly the opposite of what his father's ideal young man's life should be. Sampath seems to be lost in his own world, just like his mother.  

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard: Chapter 2

Reshmi

29/8/13

English: Literature

Summary:

Twenty years have passed. Sampath has grown into a scrawny and oversensitive young man, unable to sleep with the loud breathing of his family around him. Sharing the one ceiling fan with his father, mother, grandmother Ammaji and his sister, Pinky, he is suffocated by the lack of air that reaches him. He rushes to the roof of the house where it’s just as hot as it is inside. He walks back and forth all night, singing and wishing he had somewhere else to go. When dawn breaks and the town starts to come to life again, he sees his father come out with a yoga mat. His grandmother notices Sampath’s tiredness and worries about the amount of sleep he’s got.

Opinion:

I found this chapter a bit tedious and unexciting.

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard: Chapter 1

7/24/13

English-Literature

Summary: 

There is a massive heat wave in the small Punjab town of Shahkot, India. People from all over the country are making proposals to induce the monsoon. The situation gets worse and worse and finally gets to the point where famine relief camps have to be set up. Hope for monsoon has completely vanished. And in the midst of all the madness and heat, the newly-wed, twenty-one year old Kulfi Chawla is pregnant, growing incredibly large as the days go by. As the drought gets worse, she gets bigger and hungrier, but none of the relief planes coming with supplies reach them. Kulfi is extremely hungry and she’s literally selling everything in the house for food. She is so obsessed with food and delicacies that she starts to draw pictures of them on the walls, and when her drawings had taken over each and every blank space in the house, Sampath is born. It is also the day the monsoon rains finally shower upon Shahkot. At the same time, a Swedish relief plane drops a crate right in front of the Chawla house with all kinds of food in it. Everyone assured Kulfi that her son was destined for greatness and fortune and that led to naming him, Sampath, good fortune.

My Opinion:
The first chapter was packed with a lot vivid details that painted a clear picture in my mind. Although I didn't really like how the book started out, it got better towards the end of the chapter, like every other book that starts out boring but gradually becomes exciting as you read more and more.