Ghachar Ghochar - Vivek Shanbhag

Set in Bangalore, India, “Ghachar Ghochar” by Vivek Shanbhag follows an unnamed narrator and his family as they encounter sudden wealth and find themselves irrevocably changed by its influence. The story is about the shifting consequences of success. “It’s not we who control the money,” says the narrator, “it’s the money that controls us.” A deep psychological portrayal of a family, Shanbhag’s novel is a gripping tale of financial and moral ruin, providing a portrait of India that is rife. Newly rich carry umbrellas to keep moonlight at bay. 'One story, many sides.' - Is what Vincent would say, and not take a side. Like the book, this was my 19th of 2022, and like the name Ghachar Ghochar with others. So the review for the earlier one is yet to be published. 

As the book opens, the unnamed narrator is at a Bangalore coffee shop, where he is speaking of his troubles to his waiter, Vincent. Vincent, who is beautifully attired in a turban and cummerbund, riddles him with enigmatic responses. Coffee House, whose name has remained unchanged for a hundred years, has rich oak-paneled walls that are covered in old photos that reveal the splendor of the city as it was a century ago. Coffee House is the narrator’s sanctuary from modern-day life as it reminds him of a time before money-making and domestic disputes were such a concern.

At the coffee shop, the narrator witnesses as a girl at another table gets into an argument with a young man and throws a glass of water at him. The scene causes the narrator to think of another strong-willed young woman named Chitra, who worked for a woman’s welfare organization. However, this reminiscence is brief, and we learn little else about Chitra or Vincent throughout the course of the novel.

We learn that the title of the book is a nonsense phrase that roughly translates to “tangled beyond repair.” The narrator describes first hearing the phrase on his honeymoon when he tries to stir up an intimate moment with his wife, Anita, and cannot untie the strings of her sari’s petticoat. She says it is knotted up—ghachar ghochar—a word her younger brother came up with to describe a tangled kite string. He expresses that he is ecstatic with this closeness. It is as though he has discovered her secret language. The next morning, he nods at the tousled sheets and their interwoven bodies and utters ghachar ghochar.

The narrator, we learn, lives with his wife and his older sister, Malati, as well as his parents and his uncle, Chikkappa. Each of the narrator’s relatives is introduced with a reference to his or her financial situation, and every family member seems to fulfill a specific function. Chikkappa runs a spice business, the narrator’s father acts as co-owner of the business, and the narrator’s formidable mother and sister defend against those who would disrupt their close-knit family unit. The narrator feels his duty is to stay out of everyone’s way.

The narrator’s father, we are told, used to be a spice salesman who worked for a large company, but his income hardly allowed his family to keep their ant-infested shack. In a flashback scene, we watch as the father comes home after collecting his customers’ payments and discovers he is eight hundred rupees short. The family panics as the father adds and re-adds columns of numbers, and the narrator’s mother bombards him with questions about mistakes he could have made. They rejoice when the father discovers his mathematical error, only to despair when they learn the spice company the father works for has been bought out, and he has lost his job.

The father decides to take a gamble with the remainder of his money when Chikkappa suggests they start their own spice company. The company is successful, and we learn that it is Chikkappa’s lucrative spice company has allowed the family to become part of the middle-class. As a result, Chikkappa and his income become the focus of the entire family, and they see to it that his every desire is fulfilled.

The narrator then turns to his wife, Anita, who belonged to the lower class before her marriage. Anita is wary of the money-centered family dynamic. She despises her husband’s dependence on his uncle, whose way of business, we learn, is somewhat less than honorable. However, confronting his uncle could mean losing the fortune the narrator has become so accustomed to. Anita is slightly repulsed by the family’s situation. The uncle is the only family member who works, and while the narrator goes to his office every day, he never actually does any work there. Anita goes to Hyderabad for social work, after a family feud, as he thinks, 'If women don't support other women, who will?' - Then end, I believe is left to the readers. The well-being of any household rests on selective acts of blindness and deafness. Anita had outdone herself when it came to suicidal forthrightness. She even spoke of going to the police. And when she is gone out for a week, one evening family rejoice, and there are signs of blood. Language communicates in terms of what is already known; it chokes up when asked to deal with the entirely unprecedented. 

The nostalgic narrator seems to feel that life was more intensely emotional before the family gained its new status. The entire family, he says, seemed to stick together in the face of its circumstances. Their change in fortune, of course, is analogous to the far-reaching economic boom India has recently undergone. The narrator’s observations on Bangalore’s social classes—full of laborers, the leisurely, and those who are stuck in the middle—give insight into Indian society’s class anxiety and social ambition, providing commentary on the nature of a country in the midst of intense economic growth.

As members of the family realign their equations and desires, new strands are knotted, others come apart and conflicts brews dangerously in the background.