My Take On ‘Friends From College’, A Novel By Devapriya Roy
The Telegraph’s serialized novel, ‘The Romantics of College Street’ by Devapriya Ghosh which was published between 2018 and 2019 is now out in the full fledged novel format titled ‘Friends from College’. It is the story of Lata Ghosh, a successful consultant based in London, Rony Banerjee, a renowned Tollywood director who is moderately famous and also happened to be Lata’s college sweetheart, i.e. ‘the one that got away’, Aaduri, Lata’s college best friend and now the chief editor of a website, Hem, her assistant and companion, Pixie a nine year old who adores Lata, and a few other friends from Lata’s years in Presidency College.
It is the story of Kolkata and its streets, the Bengali culture and the Bengali people. Most of all, it is the story of a slight longing for times past, and love lost, and spaces transformed.
The Telegraph has been the staple diet of the modern middle and upper middle class of Kolkata since 1982, and since Roy’s novel was originally written targeting the
Telegraph’s readership, it is only natural that the novel too would be focused on this group.
When Devapriya Ghosh says, “I was very clear that I was writing about a particular generation of middle-class and upper-middle-class Calcuttans who had essentially grown up in socialist India – in 1991…. the generation who truly reaped the ‘fruits of liberalization’” she is referring to this group. Lata belongs to the group of hard-working, high-earning, iPhone X carrying individuals who treat the house help like family and spend lavishly at their parties.
Her friends are more of the same and together they all make an engaging group, the anecdotes of which while not relatable to all can still be amusing.
Kolkata is a living breathing character in the novel, and probably the most enjoyable too. We get to see Kolkata through several perspectives during the course of the novel.
We see present Kolkata as the home city visited once in a year and compared to the Kolkata of the 90s. We see Kolkata through the eyes of one who has lived in it all his life and knows it like only someone who has walked it time and again can, and who has a friend living in each one of them.
Lata, Roy’s protagonist, declares towards the beginning “It was another of those travel rituals…..you bought a new book to read on a journey – and mind you, no potboiler or whodunit either.
A worthy book. To accompany your worthy self.” But, despite it and other attempts to invoke literature into the story, and other references to the English literature, the reader isn’t fooled into believing that Lata would pick up the novel one is reading on any of her transatlantic flights.
What is astonishing is the pace of the novel, which is what kept me reading till the last page. This is essentially a result of its original serialized existence.
This former state does the following for the narrative, the first being that it makes each chapter a little narrative on its own, that does not depend on the chapters ahead to make sense of them. But, after a few chapters have been read and we realize that each chapter is more or less self-sufficient, we also treat the story lightly because it leave no suspense at the end of each chapter.
The second thing this serialized format did in its quest to keep its readers coming for more while making sure that the future reader doesn’t miss out on something vital, is give us multiple perspectives. in different chapters.
Now, for the part where it claimed to be a comic love story, it was very disappointing. I breeze through a good love story in no time, but ‘Friends from College’ gave me no love story, it beat around the bush for too long and it seems that the two lovers to be are never going to meet. They do meet halfway into the book but the meeting isn’t very satisfying.
The most essential fact of a love story is it’s predictability, there are a few check-boxes that a love stories needs to tick, and the fun of the story lies in watching them being ticked with good narrative. But, the novel gives us no romance, little courtship and no arches of growth. It evokes love in sparse intervals and keeps the reader parched.
The story will be enjoyed by those looking for a quick light read, and may find a special place in the hearts of the readers who hold Kolkata dear, but the ones looking for enriching literature can give it a miss. I would recommend the serialized format and version to the novel.
