Arun Joshi’s THE STRANGE CASE OF BILLY BISWAS, appeared to me in the first glance like another boring novel, hence my first chance to read it was thus deliberately missed.Almost an year afterwards,when I had to present a paper on the same novel, I literally cursed all my stars for not getting me novels like GOD OF SMALL THINGS or THE AUTUMN OF THE PATRIARCH, which were all amidst the possible list. Our seminar sessions, as like anywhere else is succeeded by a heated discussion on the novel and this is the platform where we get a deeper understandings and  connotations of the work.

I set about reading THE STRANGE CASE…half heartedly, but I finished the book in a couple of hours and its in the end that I realized I had been enjoying the book immensely.There is that primitive tug in us that would keep us glued to the pages. THE STRANGE CASE…is a novel about man’s unquenchable desire to be understood. It is about freedom and it is about our deepest self, discovering it and setting it free. Billy is a student of Anthropology in America. From the beginning, he displays a curious demeanor. Even his collection of books, ranging from biographies to pornographies are  interesting. The novel is narrated by Billy’s friend and he, himself is the only person from our part of the world who could accept and perhaps understand Billy.

Billy’s is a strange case, for he finds himself in a labyrinth that is too hard to get out of, this labyrinth is our society. Thus, on an expedition to the Saal forest with his students, he goes missing. He crosses over the boundary of civilization to an another culture which is purely rhythm driven. He meets his primordial love in the form of Bilasia and he forgets his much sophisticated city dweller of a wife. Billy thus had everything, from a prestigious family to a rocking career, a beautiful wife and money. His was a perfect life but he obviously didn’t feel so. We find Billy through the narrator’s eyes always in some sort of turmoil and disturbance. Thus staging his own ‘man missing’, he joins the tribals  of the Saal forest. Narrator finds him years after in the forest, as a completely transformed being, happy and healthy. Billy is also happy to see his friend, asks him never to disclose his existence to anyone back. A simple confession to the narrator’s wife who is a friend in adversity of Billy’s  city dwelling wife, leads to the collapse of the farce which is Billy’s death. Love can sometimes kill too,thus he is hunted down by his family and society and in the process Billy gets killed when he tries to escape.

STRANGE CASE… is a novel of immense depth, layers that remain hidden in our deepest conscious. It is about the spirit of man that can soar only amidst giant green canopies. Buildings and civilization will hold no gilt or glamor or even a mere sense of belonging for them. We have the likes of Billy amidst us, who still have a vein in them directly connected to our primitive past, where men roamed free in the lap of nature.

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