Ghachar Ghochar

GHACHAR GHOCHAR

by Vivek Shanbhag

 

Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2017, LA Times Finalist 2017

 

Date Read: March 2, 2023

 

This is a classic rags-to-riches story set in India. A very close family, living in just about squalor makes a huge gamble in investing all of the father’s retirement money in a spice business. The family’s fortunes change almost overnight. They are able to leave behind their ant-infested hovel and move to, what in their eyes, is a palace with a gas stove.

 

When this happens, the family that was once close-knit begins to fray. The daughter marries but when she clashes with her mother-in-law, casts the marriage aside and hires brutes to help her retrieve her wedding jewelry. The son also marries Anita, who causes conflict between him and his mother. She also introduces her son to a saying that she made with her brother in childhood – Ghachar Ghochar. This means when something is tangled beyond repair.

 

This is ultimately what happens to this family as the wealth that they had sought begins to cause their undoing. The son becomes lazy and unambitious. The daughter becomes entitled and spoiled. The parents seem somewhat isolated as their kids are off living their own lives although still under their roof.

 

This tiny novella is an interesting microcosm of the wealth that is to be found in contemporary Indian literature, providing a voyeuristic slice of the warmth, humor and fractiousness of one family’s fortunes. 

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