A Revolution in Love: Chetan Bhagat’s Revolution 2020
Alex. E. R., Research Scholar, Department of English, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India
Literature directs questions and exposes to questions for untying the answers. Literature can be aromatized and hybridized only by the propping and screwing agents. Critical thinking helps to explore different dimensions of good as well as bad. According to Bruner in his book Actual minds: Possible worlds, “imaginative reconstruction is just as important as cognitive process as logical analysis”. The in-depth hidden truth can be probed by shallow investigations. Shallow investigations always result in either unprovable truth or undeniable truth. Such truth takes the voice of philosophies.
Love plays a predominant part in every aspect of human beings. Love binds up and enhances achievements in every area. Even love is regarded as the certified symbol for every religion. It is considered as the representative of God. As love is the keynote for every religion, it is more appropriate to consider religions and Gods as the representatives of love. Love is not confined within family but it is very necessary for peace among the countries and within the countries. Even freedom fighters stress the importance of love to accuse the colonisers for their inhumane nature. Still the world believes in significance of love for maintaining world peace. This is the reason for remarking the countries nearby as neighbouring countries. The position as a neighbour is out of love and simultaneously looks forward for peace. Thus peace can be also called as the representative of love. All these certify the uniqueness of love but still there is something special in love and can be perceived only through deep analysis.
The word love is used to indicate desire, passion, likeness, affection, kindness, infatuation and romantic affair but still the true sense of love is undefined. The abstract sense of love makes the recipients feel and not to define it. There is an instant need in the world to know about the true meaning of love because only the meaning can suggest its properties. This necessity is because of the craving to know what are can be called as love. In the modern world, lot of noxious acts are going on in the name of love. Still there is no love among the people because of their love for caste, religion, creed, nationality, culture and language. Here, one’s love for any one of above mentioned categories insist them to lose their love for humans. Thus an irony flourishesdue to the position of love against love.In the book In the name of love: Romantic ideology and its victims, Aharon Benzeer and Ruhama Goussinsky says that “the worst evil has been committed in the name of love” (63). This reality diminishes all the ethical sense of love. Now the irony in one’s perception about love will strengthen the questions like, what is love?and what can be called as love?
In some extend Chetan Bhagat used his pen to suggest, what can be called as love? In the novel Revolution 2020, author portrays the love of parents, love of friends, and love of lovers. The above mentioned three relationships are the products of love. Though these relationships are strengthened by love, still they vary in their function. The novel Revolution 2020represents the love in relationships and also echoes the break up’s in relationships. The plots in the novel deal with cheating in love and the imposters are induced by love itself. Chetan Bhagat proves it by narrating the reason for the break up’s in relationships.
Parents are the great boons in family life. Parents lives and earns for the welfare of their children. They sacrifice their life and blood for the better life of their kids. From birth humans are bind up with parents due to love. Even parents are the child’s first lovers. In the novel Revolution 2020, the author represents Gopal as a lovable character who loves his father very much as his mother is no more. He knows that his father lives for him. He also knows that in midst if his family and health problems, he sends him to Kota for AIEEE and JEE coaching classes. Though he knows the condition of his father, his love for Aarti makes him to reluct his responsibilities towards his father. Mental torture out of his love for Aarti turns him an alcohol addict and begins to deceive his father by false promises for plundering money. When Gopal narrates to Chaten Bhagat about his days in Kota, he says, “My expenses had increased, for I had to pay for rum. Prateek treated me a few times, but after a while he asked me to pay my share. I knew Baba had borrowed to pay the last instalment and had no money” (82). Later he phoned his father and enquired,
‘How much lone did you take, Baba?’ I said.
‘Fifty thousand’, he said. I sent you thirty, but need some extra to
repair the roof’.
‘What about your medical bill?’
‘I owe twenty thousand to the hospital’.
You will any how borrow me, right.
‘Probably’.
‘Send whatever you can. I will go now, it is an expensive call’, I said wanting the call to end the ordeal as soon as possible.
‘You will get selected, no, Gobi?’
‘Yes, yes, I will’. (83)
These lines prove that he loved Aarti more than that of his father’s life. Hence he hesitates to notice his father’s medical bills and betrays him by false promises.
Friendship is a beautiful relationship in human life. It is the first step for humans to develop into a social being. This relationship provides an exposure to society. It teaches a person how to share, the importance of group work and provides a lot of contacts. The importance of friendship is that it never expects anything other than love. In this novel Revolution 2020, Chetan Bhagat portrays a true friendship. Right from school days, Gopal’s best friend was Raghav. When Gopal came to know that Raghav is an obstacle for his love for Aarti, he not only avoids him but also begins to harm him by all means. Gopal apologies to Chaten Bhagat about his phone conversation with Nitesh and say,
Nitesh, one of the party workers, called me in the morning.
‘You smashed what?’ I said on the phone.
‘His only computer is in pieces. We took the hammers and broke the printing press too’.
‘Nobody saw you?’
‘We went at night. Ransacked the office. Basted. He’s finished’. (244)
These lines prove the heartless act of Gopal and even shake the foundations of friendship. Here the love in friendship is cheated by the love of lovers.
The plots in the novel openly depict the treacheries for love [love of lovers]. In the end of the novel, the protagonist gives up his love for Aarti because he realises the properties of love. He recognises his childhood days with his father in the face of Keshav and his father who came to see Raghav for help. He also saw the symptoms of true love in their face. He understood that love always sacrifice for the sake of others, true love always try to enhance other lovable relationships and it is neither possessive nor selfish. Gopal once again certified his findings about love by feeling the mentality of Raghav, who gives no importance to love as a lover of Aarti. Even he give up his royal life for the welfare of poor and needy in the society. This changed Gopal’s perceptions about love. Realisation made Gopal to sacrifice his love that assists him to forget his responsibilities and obligations with family and society. As a token of confession, Gopal voluntarily sacrifices his love. By a pre- planned drama, he forced Aarti to marry Raghav. Thus love that is possessive and selfish cannot be called as love.
In the novel Revolution 2020, Chaten Bhagat not only attacks the corruption in the field of education but also in the area of all kind of love relations. By describing Gopal who revolt against his own love to regain his true sense of natural love, author here tries to upload a revolutionary idea about love in reader’s heart. The novel indirectly remarks that, true love never cheats but it tries to satisfy everyone and engages in maintaining pure relationship with everyone. Love is not selfish and self-cantered but it is selfless and tries to establish bond with others; even with enemies. Through the novel, Chaten Bhagat proves that love with selfishness can’t be called as love. Thus the novel unties an accurate idea about what can be called as love, though one can’t define what love is. Troy Organ in his article “Philosophy”, he suggest that, “whatever it is precisely that is wrong, Philosophy is an essential ingredient in the remedy” (476). Hence while dealing with love, be cautious and don’t forget to notice this ingredient for a better remedy.
Works Cited
Primary Source
Bhagat, Chetan. Revolution 2020: Love. Corruption. Ambition. Rupa Publications, 2011.
Secondary Sources
Bruner, J. S. Actual minds: Possible Worlds. Harvard University press, 1986.
Organ, Troy. “Philosophy.” The Journal of Higher Education,vol. 21, no. 9, 1950, pp. 476.
Aharon, Ben-ze’ev, and RuhamaGoussinsky. In The Name of Love: Romantic Ideology and its Victims. Oxford University Press, 2008