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V.S NAIPUAL’S THE MYSTIC MASSEUR

Biography of V.S. Naipaul

Background and early life Sir VidiadharSurajprasad Naipaul or V.S Naipaul, according to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, is a British-Trinidadian writer of Indian origin. He writes novels, short stories, essays, travelogues and documentaries. He was born in Trinidad on August, 17, 1932, but he has lived (he still lives there nowadays) in England since 1950, the year he chose to study English at Oxford when he won a Trinidad Government scholarship that allowed him to study at any institution of higher learning in the British Commonwealth. He worked as a broadcaster for the BBC’s Caribbean Voices from 1954 to 1956 and he reviewed fiction for the New Statesman from 1957 to 1960. He was the second child and first son born to mother Droapatie and father Seepersad Naipaul. His Hindu grandfather had emigrated from India to Trinidad and Tobago as an indentured servant. His father was a journalist. The family moved to Port-of-Spain where Naipaul attended Queen‘s Royal College (QRC), an urban cosmopolitan high-performing school, which has been designed and functioned in the fashion of a British boys’ public school. As for the author‘s personal life, Naipaul married a British woman, Patricia Ann Hale, in 1955, when he was twenty-three. When Patricia Naipaul died in 1996, he married NadiraAlvi, a Pakistani journalist who is twenty years his junior. Naipaul was born a Brahmin, but he grew up as a non-believer. However, he retains some squeamishness about certain kinds of food, and at the beginning of his fictional career, he abstained from writing about sexual themes. V.S Naipaul wrote many books, and his most notable works will be cited below.

Literary work and notable works V.S.

Naipaul is mostly known for his comic autobiographical chronicles of life and travels or ―travelogues‖. In fact, Naipaul‘s works have tight links to his own life and experiences, and these aspects are traced in the M.M. which is the focus of the present research work— not only is the story set in colonial Trinidad where Naipaul spent his youth, but its main character, Ganesh, is a representation of V.S. Naipaul in many aspects. For example, Ganesh is said to have studied at Queen‘s Royal College in port- of- Spain where the author himself was enrolled. Another example of the autobiographical characteristics of Naipaul‘s works seen through The main character‘s life in The M.M. is ―the writer‘s block‖ 8 or the period of difficulties and frustration writers usually experience, and that Naipaul suffered from when his first attempts to write books failed when the publisher André Deutsch refused to publish Miguel Street as a series of linked stories by an unknown Caribbean writer unlikely to sell profitably in Britain‖. So was the case of The M.M. which was written in 1955, but which could be published only two years later after it had underwent reviews. Similarly to Ganesh Ramsumair, V.S Naipaul had difficulties in making a living, and went through a long period of unemployment. Naipaul has published more than 30 books, both fiction and nonfiction, over some 50 years. His most notable works are as follows: FICTION: The Mystic Masseur (1957), The Suffrage of Elvira (1958), Miguel Street (1959), A House for Mr. Biswas (1961), Mr. Stone and The Knights Companion (1963), The Mimic Men (1967), A Flag On the Island (1967), Guerillas (1975), A Bend in the River (1979), The Enigma of Arrival (1987), A Way in the world (1994), Half a life (2001), The Nightwatchman‟s Occurrence Book: and Other Comic Inventions (stories, 2002), Magic Seeds (2004), In A Free State (1971). NON-FICTION: The Idle Passage (1962), An Area of Darkness (1964), The Loss of Eldorado (1969), The overcrowded Civilization (1977), A Congo Diary (1980), The Return of Eve Peron and the Killings in Trinidad. The majority of his works aroused anger, especially among the people in countries Naipaul targeted in these books. Politically incorrect remarks from Naipaul such as « Nothing has been created in the West Indies » and « Africa has no culture » elicited scathing criticism from people all over the world and caused many to see him as a ―sourpuss‖ looking at the world with a narrow and selective vision. According to Derek Walcott2 , a fellow West Indian and a Nobel Prize winner, « If Naipaul’s attitude toward Negroes, with its nasty little sneers . . . was turned on Jews, for example, how many people would praise him for his frankness? » Walcott here is responding to Naipaul’s belief that the only way to correct social ills in developing countries is by being frank about them. Naipaul’s « dark » and often « pessimistic » 2 Walcott‘s ideas on Naipaul can be seen by logging on:http://kirjasto.sci.fi/vnaipaul.htm, Derek Alton Walcott is a Saint Lucian famous poet and playwright. 9 vision of the world is transferred to his later fiction such as In a Free State (1971), Guerrillas (1975), and A Bend in the River (1979). His last two novels, Half a Life (2001) and Magic Seeds (2004), show that he has readjusted his view of the world and has been able to see it through a more tolerant vision. However, Naipaul received many prestigious awards, such the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize; the Somerset Maugham Award; the Hawthorne Prize; the W.H. Smith Award; the Booker Prize and the David Cohen British Literature Prize. In 2001 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature based on the excellence of a long career of writing. Twelve years before this accomplishment, Naipaul was knighted by the Queen of England. V. S. Naipaul‘s personal and professional life was described in the lines above. The next subpart is about the book the M.M.

Overview of the Mystic Masseur V.S.

Naipaul‘s novel the M.M., set in an Indian community of Trinidad during the 1940s and 1950s, was written and first published in 1957 when Trinidad was still part of the British Empire in the Colony of Trinidad and Tobago. The characters in it also witnessed the World War II. Trinidad was originally settled by Amerindians of South American origin. Christopher Columbus found the island of Trinidad on July 31, 1498 and named it after the Holy Trinity. The island has a history of slavery and indentureship which has left the country with a mixture of many different types of people such as the African, Indian (Ganesh and his family and friends in the novel The Mystic Masseur) European, Middle Eastern and Chinese people. All these groups have left something of their history and culture in Trinidad. However, Naipaul deals exclusively with East Indians who have settled in Trinidad certainly because of his own social backgrounds and his identity as a descendant from Indian servants brought to Trinidad during the colonial period. It is their customs and ways of living which The M.M. mostly presents. These came to the island, like Naipaul‘s ancestors, as indentured laborers, and when their contracts were over, they stayed in Trinidad.

Summary of the novel The M.M.by

V.S Naipaul is a comic novel that tells the touching and amusing story of a man named Ganesh Ramsumair. Ganesh, an enthusiastic young man of East Indian origin in Trinidad in the 1940s- between 1945 and 1953-began his career as a school teacher in the capital where he was in charge of the ―Remove‖ which is a special class for the mentally- 10 maimed kids. After the death of his father, Ganesh decides to return and stay in his natal village where he longs to reach out to people, especially to Hindus, not only in order to promote Hindu Faith, but also to be known as a writer. Ganesh, who takes up his father‘s trade as a masseur at first pretended to be a masseur, but ended up becoming a real one with real mystic power for faith-healing in a place where there are so many masseur that ―they go massaging one another.‖ Ganesh is called ―Pundit‖ by his followers as he produces mystic and miraculous work to his clients. As his fame spreads all over the island, people come from every region to treat mental and body pain, and to seek for his blessings. For instance, Ganesh cured a man who shared intimacy with his bicycle; he prevented a man from believing that he could fly; and convinced a woman to end her fast. As Ganesh does all these benevolently and freely for the poor and the needy, he earned just reputation from people. That is to say, Ganesh‘s experiences as a teacher, and a mystic masseur were not financially successful. After trying for less than five years, he succeeded in writing and selling books but he wanted more. Therefore, he decides to challenge the local powerful politician, Narayan Chandrashekar, and takes over the Hindu Organisation. The latter position opens his way to a seat in the prestigious Legislative Assembly. Ganesh and his childless wife, Leela, became rich. Success does not come in one day. Ganesh patiently strove and acquired skills through self- studies by reading many books and finally he rises his power as a politician when Ganesh changes his name from Ganesh Ramsumair to Ganesh Ramsay Muir. As a whole Ganesh‘s story shows that an individual can make a name for himself even in a small village.

Characters in the novel

This is a humorous novel with many memorable characters that are almost cartoonish in their presentation: Ganesh‘s wife, Leela, whose short primary school experience is marked by her being excessively fond of punctuation marks, and she uses them far too generously in her notes for Ganesh. Leela‘s father, Romlogan, a money-minded shopkeeper who thinks he can outsmart Ganesh but ended up being man of startling mood changes. Ganesh‘s aunt, known as the Great Belcher because of her unfortunate habit of eructation, who keeps on appearing at decisive moments in Ganesh‘s life and seems to be behind the major decisions he makes. Beharry, who is completely dominated by his wife and who seems to lose his tongue when he is in her presence. The novel is not only witty but also filled with the sights and sounds of Trinidad‘s dusty Indian villages, which Naipaul himself experienced from early childhood till the time he left for England as a scholarship student. Characters in The Mystic Masseur are either Ganesh‘s friends, or adversaries over whom he can triumph.