美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Selection Day' Tells Tale Of Cricket Playing Brothers In Mumbai

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: 

In India people worship many gods. Aravind Adiga's new novel is about one of the most powerful ones.

ARAVIND ADIGA: You know, it's often said that Indians have two real religions, the cinema - Bollywood - and cricket. It's the equivalent of sort of baseball, basketball, football and Christmas put together. The question is not why cricket. The question is how you can escape cricket in India. It's just everywhere.

SHAPIRO: Adiga is a journalist and novelist who lives in Mumbai. His writing has never flinched¹ from India's warts². He won the Man Booker Prize for his last novel, "The White Tiger," about a homicidal striver climbing through India's caste system.

His latest novel is called "Selection Day." It tells the story of two brothers from the Mumbai slums. Their father believes that the only way they will achieve anything is if they become champion cricket players, even if that means sacrificing real love and fulfillment.

ADIGA: Some years ago, I was watching a cricket match in Mumbai, at the end of which was a selection match, where you're being picked for the next level. I saw a teenage cricketer walking around with his head slumped³ that clearly had been defeated. He wasn't going to make the cut.

And that image stayed with me of this young man, you know, at the very prime of his life bent⁴ over with failure. And cricket for me is a way of understanding what failure means and whether there's dignity and redemption possible even in accepting that one might not succeed in the way society expects one to succeed.

SHAPIRO: There are so many different levels of success and failure within the context of the book and also within the context of cricket, that you can win or lose a match. You can become a successful cricketer. You can be miserable⁶. You can be wealthy. You could be broke. You could be beaten physically⁷ by somebody who claims to love you. It's hard to see where the definition should lie.

ADIGA: I mean ultimately, you know, success has to be something internal. And I'm very struck by the fact that many people who appear to have succeeded in cricket might actually see themselves as failures because you have a society that doesn't yet give full expression in India to the many meanings of success both personal and, you know, professional.

This is how the central character, Manju, while everyone expects him to be a great success, ends up in a sense a double failure not just professionally but also personally in that he doesn't grow into the man he should have become.

SHAPIRO: Manju is the younger of the two brothers, and their father of course is monomaniacal in his pursuit of cricket perfection for his two sons.

ADIGA: Yeah, the father, Mohan Kumar, is a composite of real people I've seen. When you watch a cricket match in India happening at the school level, you'll see invariably a man often with a cycle standing⁵ by, you know, on the sidelines and screaming at the top of his voice at one or more of the young men playing the game who are his sons. There are quite a few fathers like him in Mumbai and in every Indian city who...

SHAPIRO: I think in many American cities, too, to be honest.

(LAUGHTER)

ADIGA: Well, what might distinguish the Indian equivalence is the single-mindedness with which they drive their sons to success. A few years ago when I was researching this book and speaking to teenagers in Bombay who are considered the next big thing, I was struck by how similar their fathers were.

The fathers often have sacrificed their lives to make sure their sons succeed. And while that's admirable - the desire to succeed - there's also something disturbing about the fathers' desire to control every aspect of their sons, in some cases extending even to the way the sons comb their hair.

And in a couple of cases where I interviewed boys who were very promising⁸, I noticed that they seemed not to have their mothers around. And as one boy put it to me, his mother had run away. And one look at his father, and I thought I knew exactly why she had run away. This man, the father who is so eager to make his son succeed, is clearly a difficult person to live with. And I could understand the pressures that made these sporting fathers the way they were, but at the same time, they're also disturbing people.

SHAPIRO: There's this moment that is pretty disturbing where your main character who has been striving to become this great cricket player finally delivers the most transcendent performance. And his coach observes that what was missing before was hate, that hate is really what made him triumphant⁹. It's a difficult way to conclude.

ADIGA: Yeah. The phrase for love of cricket is a cliche¹⁰ in India. It's - you know, as I said, people talk of cricket only in this nostalgic, idealistic way. But I was very much struck by the possibility that hate could make you good at something, you know, that the sheer self-loathing¹¹ could sharpen your instincts, you know, your reflexes, which has been my observation.

SHAPIRO: Has it been your experience?

ADIGA: As a writer, certainly. I mean loathing and self-hatred are always very good for writers, so I'm assuming it's the same for sportsmen as well. A degree of anger at oneself makes you better at something you're doing.

SHAPIRO: Aravind Adiga's latest novel is "Selection Day." Thank you very much for talking with us.

ADIGA: Thank you for having me on.

(SOUNDBITE OF TWIN SISTER SONG, "LADY DAYDREAMER")

1 flinched   

v.（因危险和痛苦）退缩，畏惧( flinch的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He flinched at the sight of the blood. 他一见到血就往后退。
• This tough Corsican never flinched or failed. 这个刚毅的科西嘉人从来没有任何畏缩或沮丧。 来自辞典例句

2 warts   

n.疣( wart的名词复数 )；肉赘；树瘤；缺点

参考例句：

• You agreed to marry me, warts and all! 是你同意和我结婚的，我又没掩饰缺陷。 来自辞典例句
• Talk about trying to cure warts with spunk-water such a blame fool way as that! 用那样糊涂蛋的方法还谈什么仙水治疣子！ 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

3 slumped   

大幅度下降，暴跌( slump的过去式和过去分词 )； 沉重或突然地落下[倒下]

参考例句：

• Sales have slumped this year. 今年销售量锐减。
• The driver was slumped exhausted over the wheel. 司机伏在方向盘上，疲惫得睡着了。

4 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

5 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

6 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

7 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

8 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

9 triumphant   

adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的

参考例句：

• The army made a triumphant entry into the enemy's capital.部队胜利地进入了敌方首都。
• There was a positively triumphant note in her voice.她的声音里带有一种极为得意的语气。

10 cliche   

n./a.陈词滥调(的)；老生常谈(的)；陈腐的

参考例句：

• You should always try to avoid the use of cliche. 你应该尽量避免使用陈词滥调。
• The old cliche is certainly true:the bigger car do mean bigger profits.有句老话倒的确说得不假:车大利大。

11 loathing   

n.厌恶，憎恨v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的现在分词)；极不喜欢

参考例句：

• She looked at her attacker with fear and loathing . 她盯着襲擊她的歹徒，既害怕又憎恨。
• They looked upon the creature with a loathing undisguised. 他们流露出明显的厌恶看那动物。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》