SERIOUS MEN by : Manu Joseph

It is always observed that the novel by the Indinovelists, the protagonist of which belongs to lower class carries the risk of caricature along with it.  Mostly the characters like servant, driver or any other member of lower class is either shown very warm hearted or extremely intelligent and sly. Similar is Manu Joseph’s character Ayyan Mani but in the character and literary execution, his boss Arvind Acharya overshadows him.

 Ayyan Mani –the anti hero of the novel is a Tamil Dalit who lives in Mumbai’s chawl. Working in the Institute of Theory and Research as a Personal Assistant to its director, Arvind Acharya, Mani is the man who dares to think beyond his grim circumstances. For this he weaves a plan that involves turning his son Adi into a genius at least for a short span of time. He feeds his son formidable questions to pose at school so that he can be proved as a genius. The staff of his son’s school is deceived into believing that Adi is a genius that even includes bigoted Christian Headmistress, sister chastity and soon the deception starts getting out of hand. 

While Acharya is a head astronomer at the Institute of Theory and Research is a brilliant and a self absorbed man who is carried away by his own genius that proves as his saving grace at the end. Joseph’s book shines the brightest at the point when Acharya’s life crumbles into a sad heap as he was accused of fudging the scientific data.

 ‘Serious Men’ is a smart novel in which Joseph has very intelligently and brilliantly captured the social tension in the post mandal India and racial as well as class divisions that alarm and frighten the Brahmins. The book falls into the category of ‘must reads’ as it continuously explores the many different areas of small politics around us whether it’s between the small man in a chawl and the more laid back one, between the poor but brilliant boy in school and the more prosperous ones.

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