English August is a novel published in 1988.The story of a young civil servant posted to a fictional rural town.The main protagonist name is Agastya Sen,Named after an obscure character from the Ramayana but he liked to be called ‘August’,it is the tone and theme of the novel,a young man not sure about his identity and future.His confusion and self identification builds the novel into a master piece of all time about Indian youths.
Having joined the Indian Administrative Service, August leaves his friends and the comforts of New Delhi for six months training in the central Indian town of Madna, reputed to be the hottest place in India. He survives by keeping his distance from his job, finding new friends, and spending a good deal of his time stoned.He smokes pot — “often against his will“. He masturbates. He does what he has to do at his job, but that really isn’t all that much. He goes through the motions — travelling, dealing with officials and visitors — but most of what he does still seems to baffle him.
Chatterjee’s take on westernization is really fun and relevant to ‘modern India’, a friend of Agastya’s exclaims while struggling to open a cylinder of cooking gas that has a new kind of seal. One character strolls around with a Walkman, and likes to call rupees “bucks” and himself Mandy. “He’s the sort who’d love to get AIDS just because it’s raging in America,”
Today India is more mature in it’s approach towards westernization but English August is still relevant and it’s a classic.
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