Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard: Kiran Desai

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard is the second novel by Kiran Desai which has won Bretty Task Awards in ’98.

I would start by telling you that its full of amazing one liners guys! I simply loved them… Its humorous and at times, you just end up laughing loud while going through this novel.

Kiran has definitely proved that she is a genius at writing with this one piece.  

This novel revolves around Sampath who lives with her family in a small village called “Shahkot”. He is fed of his life and tried to get rid of everything by settling on a guava tree and this is where the true story begins. His dad initially shouts and screams on Sampath for being so completely irresponsible and reckless. But then later, he realizes that this could be taken as an opportunity and then, the game begins when Sampath becomes a saint and a holy man for the people of Shahkot. He used the gossip that he learned while working in the post office as a tool and people thought that he is some ubiquitous saint who knows everything! Everything goes well till this Sampath’s holy place also becomes a fav for the naughty monkeys of the town attracted by the food which was given to them by Sampath’s followers!

The problem occurs where somehow, these monkeys gets addicted to alcohol and starts creating havoc. The whole town becomes crazy to solve this problem of monkeys from high authorities to normal people. This is where I just felt that the book was a bit stretched. And the ending was completely confusingL I was really waiting for a better end. Guess, Kiran has left an open ending for the readers to assume where would Sampath had gone.

I believe everything was amazing about this book. It just lacked a bit on the story part. The ending could definitely had been much definedJ

But I would recommend it to allJ

Few one liners from this masterpiece:

A man asks Sampath, “ My son has got into a bad company. What do I do?” To which, Sampath replies “Add lemons to milk n it will grow sour. But add some sugar and wah hoe good that milk will taste.

“if you put a chicken on the fire and leave it, in a little while it will no longer be a chicken but ashes and bones. Leave a kettle on he flames, the water will grow hot and then, if someone does not lift the kettle, it will all boil away! If you child is playing with a dead smelly mouse, you will not debate:”Should I let him be, Should I let him Play?”

If you do not weed, your tomato plant will not flower

If you talk to a young girl as she stands in front of a mirror, it is like talking to a deaf person

Can you keep a moth from flying into the lantern by saying she should worry about her 3 children

Once you have broken the bottle you can no longer distinguish the air inside from the air outside

If a fire cracker has been lit, then it is going to explode, like it or not. Until you throw it into a bucket of water. And then, what a waste of firecracker.