On Reading 'Half Girlfriend' - A Critique

On Reading ‘Half Girlfriend’: A Critique. The writer of ‘Half Girlfriend’ has caricatured almost the whole of Bihar by introducing a character – Madhav – originally hailed from the hinterland of Patna, but might be said as a representative of any district of Bihar – call him a typical ‘Bihari’ - who happened to be from anywhere of the interior of Musahari or Motihari; Chhapra or Madhopura. The story moves around two main characters, another Delhiite girl, who under certain circumstances becomes his friend – both school fellows - and are proud of being Stephanians. The writer has specifically tried to define the concept of half girlfriend. But it is a confused word and may be interpreted in different ways. The term half brother or half sister is quite prevalent, but concepts like half married and half widowed are of recent origin. In the same way, half girlfriend in its origin, is a recent term, and is liable to be vaguely interpreted by the author himself. In any case, half girlfriend is not very attractive title of the book. Dear author, girlfriend is a value loaded word. It means many things to many persons. It is hope for life. Possession of it is the creation of life, dispossessing means death. Don’t vivisect it by making half or a quarter of it. Love is not surgically operated as you have done. Like his other stories, the writer had again tried to be autobiographical and could not detach himself from the story. A good writer dominates his writings through his thoughts, words and style, and not as a person or a character. Have you ever heard Shakespeare appearing in any of his plays? It is another point that you are trying to set a new trend in writing. Well and good. Your marketing management training has lured you to do so. It is possible this fine story may land you some day in the sphere of acting as a Bollywood star. But this self characterization has its own limits. When the imagination fails a writer, what is left is autobiographical form of writing. You might not be aware of it, but you must be losing some inner talent as a writer in a slow process. A writer must move out of his own orbit. How can a writer expand his horizon unless he changes the orbit? The story of half girlfriend is primarily written for teenagers who accept any form or style of writing without any comment, if it suits their sense of sex and love. They are governed by these basic instincts without any thoughtful provocation. But the writer of half girlfriend does not want to go beyond it. A boy meets girl; they are separated for good. But they meet again only to get separated. They ultimately come together. The concept of half girlfriend is smashed somewhere in the very process of narration only to be converted into a type of live-in relationship – half married, half divorced and a child in between. The writer seems to be a protagonist of new social order – changing the mindset - of young generation. Very subtly he had introduced father- daughter bitter chocolate relationship and also tried to open the path of divorce and re-marriage. In the age of shrinking world and having acquired advanced technical skill, one can hope to serve two Hemispheres together – East and West. It is a sea change from rural Bihar to New York, shuttling almost at will. The writer seems to be weak in style of his narration and describing the story. He seldom tries to read the situation minutely. His expression lacks the literary charm. He does not touch the line of a novelist. He goes on adding one book after another but simply remains a story teller. He is good in making a plot – a fine story – but he is always in hurry to create events, and developing the story, and by doing so he leaves behind much valuable aspect of literary element that goes through the process of a masterly expression of thought and style. He is in no way being called a novelist in literary parlance. The writer claims to be a catalyst of change. But in what way he thinks so? What has he given to the society through his language? He is getting more and more debased in the use of words. His diction is simply getting horrible. ‘Deti hai to de varna kat le’. What does this mean? Mr. Writer, please keep in mind that whatever be the stature of a woman in society - she must be dealt with dignity. Even prostitutes have their self respect. Are you going to elevate womankind with such a language? As a writer you cannot absolve the responsibility. These are not Madhav’s words. This is the writer’s Hindi – not Bihari (Bhojpuri) language – but pure and simple Punjabi-Hindi mixed dialect. This very sentence makes the book a trash. And the word F**king has been so profusely used in the book that it has become the catchword – rather a password – of the book, half girlfriend, without using that you cannot enter into the text to read the sublime passages. ‘F**k or get f**ked’ is the message teenagers can receive from your book. And here in this book you have used abusive word Ch***a also. How nice of you Mr. Writer, to think of changing the society in this way! If you want to become a good novelist you have to mend your language. You have to develop a literary style of creativity with a deep sense of expression which is pleasing to mind and soul. You never try to describe landscape; never try to form images through words; never write passages to beautify text. Bare story surrounded by events with common narration does not make a novel. A novel is a form of writing which requires the creativity of an artist, profoundness of a linguist and perfection of a writer who is able to describe the quality of observation through the choice of his words, easily to be moulded at his command. He must have the sensitivity of revelation and ability to impress upon his readers the view points with his capacity to organize a story of an architectural quality, brick by brick, stone by stone. A good plot – a nice story – is of utmost importance. It must have a definite beginning, middle and an end. It must flow with ups and downs creating rhythm through words. It must carry the universality of some of the deepest human emotions to sustain the story. It is music within heart which comes out spontaneously and reaches the zenith to serve a climax and slowly arrives at the destination as a river flows down calmly into the sea. There is nothing like a set pattern, but the designer has to invent paradigm to bring out a sense of in depth satisfaction and achievement in each of his successive creation. Somehow ‘half girlfriend’ does not come to these expectations. In spite of a good story and a plot, it lacks the smoothness of narration, depth of emotions and sublimity of diction or language. No doubt, the writer has capacity to create a good stuff for his book, but as a columnist or a journalist, he always remains within bounds of a dead line for his story to be sent to the press. This has created in him a hurried style of writing and he has adjusted to the temporariness of journalistic writing than to a more sustained and value added concept of a man of letters. He fills columns but does not prettify his writings. He has been for the last ten years in this profession, but still lacks maturity. If observed minutely, he seemed to have deteriorated a lot in the use of words – rather became more abusive - and dwelled on the surface of the story. How one can make Bihar proud? By f**king a girl and win her over? Has the writer not degenerated in his understanding of the state? There are instances which count in making a story worthy for appreciation or rejection and here one may find many such points of rejection. It is not novel-material but pulp fiction stuff. How can such a writer think that he should be ‘missed’, if not remembered? At most he can be put to the level of yester year (Hindi) writers like Kushwaha Kant or Gulshan Nanda – an English version of them. They had written good stories which were also converted into films, but survived for a decade or two only and never were ‘missed’ because others were in the pipeline to fill the gap. The writer of half girlfriend has great power of creating stories, generating plots, but he does not want to come out of quick fame of journalistic style. He is satisfied with that. He is in essence a columnist, not a writer of great promise. He has to develop the other facet of his personality as a writer. He must come out as a man who knows the art of narration, observation and description; the man who has the capacity to develop literary style of expression, the man who has potential of a novelist of some name and fame. But he has to change his style. I do not want to see him transformed into a Hardy or a Naipaul. Centuries have lapsed; times have changed a lot. But permanent truth can never be obsolete. In ‘half girlfriend’ one may find some traces of a good novelist in making. Just mark the letter – wonderfully set and drafted - in section33, page 189 by Riya to Madhav. This letter surpasses even Hardy’s letter when Tess writes to her lover (in a different context of course) addressing, ‘My Own Husband….’. This letter of Riya creates the climax of the story. It is worth reading, preserving, and appreciating. There are other better expressions too, but they run only up to a line or two. This is unsolicited advice to the writer of ‘half girlfriend’ to accept the challenge as a novelist and rise above the level of a story teller. In spite of all its failings, ‘half girlfriend’, is worthy for reading and appreciating.