THE MINISTRY OF UTMOST HAPPINESS: Arundhati and Alice at the Norse Theatre: San Francisco 2017
Photo by Laura Balandran
THE MINISTRY OF UTMOST HAPPINESS: ARUNDHATI AND ALICE
at the Nourse Theatre in San Francisco
June 28, 2017
Arundhati Roy, irrepressible and truly brilliant, read from her new novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and Alice “interviewed” her for a lively full house of mostly, it seemed from the questions later, Indians. Who knew there were so many in the Bay Area who had already read the book!
As intriguing and unusual as this new novel is, Roy’s second novel in twenty years, after the worldwide success of The God of Small Things, Alice was equally curious about another book Roy has just published The Doctor and the Saint, which is discussed briefly below.
If you’ve ever wanted confirmation that you must never deliberately humiliate or harm anyone, read The Doctor and the Saint: Caste, Race, and Annihilation of Caste: The Debate Between B.R. Ambedkar and M. K. Gandhi, by Arundhati Roy. In this book we learn almost more than we can bear about the miserable treatment in India of the “Dalits” or “those who are broken to pieces.” We also learn, with pain, that Gandhi, as much as we may venerate and are grateful to him for all the social and spiritual illumination he has cast around the world, could never quite speak up decisively on the question of destroying the horrendous system in India that lives on to this day, causing intolerable pain and suffering to people whose only “fault” is the caste into which they are born.
What we learn also is that there was someone else, during Gandhi’s time, someone more sure that the caste system must be completely destroyed, a man, an “untouchable” who became a lawyer, who struggled hard for his people and for India, a man most of us never heard of: B.R. Ambedkar. It is this man’s work on which Roy shines a light, reminding us perhaps that behind every “great” being we’ve heard about, there stands another whose work and service to humanity we may never know, until the Universe locates a messenger equal to the task of helping us see.
When Alice sent this piece to be translated, this was the gift of thought that was returned:
The important thing is to be sure of what one is and what one does for the benefit of life and humankind. Gratefulness will come from life itself.
EL MINISTERIO DE LA SUPREMA FELICIDAD: ARUNDHATI Y ALICE
En El Teatro Nourse de San Francisco
28 de Junio de 2017
Arundhati Roy, incontenible y verdaderamente brillante, leyó de su nueva
novela, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (El ministerio de la suprema
felicidad) y Alice la “entrevistó” para un animado teatro lleno básicamente,
eso pareció después por las preguntas, de indios. ¡Quién iba a imaginar que
había tantos en Bay Area (Área de la Bahía) que ya habían leído la novela!
A pesar de lo inquietante e insólita que es esta novela, la segunda que
publica Roy en veinte años después del éxito mundial de El dios de las
pequeñas cosas, Alice se mostró curiosa sobre otro libro que Roy acaba de
publicar. Se trata de The Doctor and the Saint (El doctor y el santo), de la
que se habla brevemente debajo.
Si alguna vez has querido tener confirmación de que jamás debes humillar o
lesionar intencionalmente a nadie, lee The Doctor and the Saint: Caste,
Race, and Annihilation of Caste: The Debate Between B.R. Ambedkar and M. K.
Gandhi (El doctor y el santo: casta, raza y eliminación de las castas: un
debate entre B.R. Ambedkar y M.K. Gandhi), de Arundhati Roy. En este libro
aprendemos casi más de lo que podemos soportar sobre el espantoso trato a
los “dalitss”, o sea, “los hechos pedazos”, en la India. También conocemos
con dolor que Gandhi, a pesar de lo mucho que podemos venerarlo y
agradecerle por toda la iluminación social y espiritual que ha arrojado
sobre el mundo, nunca pudo hablar terminantemente claro acerca del asunto de
desmontar el horrendo sistema de la India que sobrevive hasta hoy,
ocasionando dolor y sufrimiento a personas cuya única “falta” es pertenecer
a la casta donde han nacido.
Lo que conocemos también es que hubo otra persona, en la época de Gandhi,
alguien que tenía mayor convicción de que el sistema de castas debía
abolirse completamente, un hombre, un “intocable” que devino abogado y luchó
duramente por su pueblo y por la India, un hombre del cual la mayoría de
nosotros nunca oímos hablar: B.R. Ambedkar. Es sobre la vida de este hombre
que Roy arroja luz, recordándonos de que, tal vez, detrás de cada “gran ser
humano” del que hemos oído, siempre hay otro de cuyo trabajo y servicio a la
humanidad podemos no haber oído hablar, hasta que el universo encuentra a un
mensajero equiparable a la tarea de ayudarnos a saberlo.
