Has something you have watched ever inspired you to pick up a book and read further on a subject? Or you just want to continue on a theme and remain in a particular time or place? Many years ago, way back in 2016, I picked up the novel A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth and even then it had not been the first time I attempted to read it. However, I was determined that 'that' was the moment I would master it. Fast forward a couple of years and I was still at it, trying to kick start my enthusiasm. It wasn't that I was not enthusiastic, but I was simply bogged down in a particular spot. And still it languished.
Fast forward a couple more years and here we are in a strange world indeed. One where I look for any good distraction on TV to take me out of the current moment. I have spend the last couple of weekends binge watching a few Netflix series. One I am nearly finished watching is Indian Matchmaking, which follows several people who have decided to try their romantic luck with a matchmaker. I am not generally keen on 'reality TV', but this is the sort that I do like. It is part documentary and part drama. Will these couples eventually marry (I suspect probably not), but I have been pretty well engrossed in their journey. This is contemporary matchmaking both here in the US and in India--a world pretty much unknown to me.
The next step, of course, is to notice my copy (actually split into sections!) return to A Suitable Boy, which in its way is also about matchmaking. Remember Lata and her three potential love interests? I was reading and writing about each section, but caught on a snag somewhere on page 672! (Basically mid-read). It's a shame to leave a book like that unfinished. Is it strange to pick it up again after so long and just continue where I left off? Handy were my posts as I read them and made notes and feel pretty good about just diving back in.
I am on section ten, which finds Maan, the brother of Lata's brother-in-law sent away to the country--to this village called Debaria where his tutor is from--in order to separate him from his unsuitable lover. Maan is a rather dissolute youth and this section ventures back somewhat into the world of politics. I think he is going to be drawn into some kind of a hunt, and really all I want is to get back to Lata's story, but I must persist through these 60 pages until the narrations switches again--if not back to Lata, at least back to the city.
I'm not entirely sure I can do this, but it might be the last real attempt. Part of my desire to finally tackle this is also due to the film adaptation. I knew way back when that one was coming . . . sometime in the distant future, and here we are. I saw it on the list of movies that will be showing at the Toronto International Film Festival. And I watched the trailer and was suitably impressed and really want to finish the book before (whenever it is due to arrive in the US!) watching the adaptation.
Taking a deep breath and diving in. Please Maan, grab my attention and make me want to keep reading . . .