It wasn’t going to be easy, making this work. But at least I was voluntarily homeless. The whole point of this exercise was to surrender completely to the rocking homelessness, not to think about the implications….Living through the mind & enforcing a distance between life as it was and as it should have been easier than I had believed. Forgetting the latter completely was what this was all about.
* (Excerpts from the book)
28, year old Akash Bhasin works as a copywriter in an MNC, freshly divorced he relocates to Mumbai. In Mumbai he begins a dual life. His mornings are as normal as are ours in office. His nights are spent in Locals traveling from Church gate to Virar. The local he boards keeps going to & fro and so does he. As it dawns he gets down at Church gate and gets ready for a normal day in office.
He is making full efforts to break free from his old life and doesn’t have a desire to be bound by the daily intricacies of putting up in a flat and letting every small action be a reminder of his old life.
Its the story of Akash Bhasin, his colleagues, his friends & the people who travel in locals.
This, is the premises of this comprehensive novel. Just 355 pages odd and it encompass so much in it that you would be dumbstruck with the book.
I had picked it some 5 months back, when I was new in Mumbai, had started reading it and dumped it. Last week it caught my fancy again and then it was a roller coaster ride.
This is the debut novel of Jaideep Verma and am glad that I had picked it up on instincts. his style of writing is unassuming and use of words simple but he makes you think.
I’ll briefly tell you about what this book talks about
.:. Life in a Metro nobody is bothered about other. I mean wouldn’t you know that your friend isn’t living a stable/ normal life? That he is living like a nomad? Or do we see but we don’t have time to waste on him?
.:. Life in a Local this book is beginners guide to anyone who is planning to shift to Mumbai or for those who are currently here but scared of traveling in a local or for those who have traveled and enjoyed it. I for my part was busy reminiscing my days in local.
.:. Life in a Competitive environment Akash is working in an Advertising firm which has declared open forum. Anybody can go for anybody’s assignment. What it boils down to is how successful you are & how enterprising you are. Does it make people competitive or bitter about each other? No body is bothered…..
.:. Is Life all about Success? There are several parallel stories woven around the main plot. Of two friends one who is worldly wise and ready to go to any extent, the other who trusts her completely. Completely or blindly? Blind enough to give herself away to her friend’s husband?
.:. Do we all have Dual lives? I think we do….a young man has traveled from Bihar, working as a driver and thriving to become a model. He has a mistress in Mumbai and a wife at home. Celebrates the birth of his son and is happy that he is able to maintain dual lives. But he is cheating life or life is cheating him?
.:. Is it still worth giving away our lives? She knows her husband is cheating upon her. She can’t leave him because of her daughter but is that the reason enough? She tries to get even but does she succeed?
.:.How far can you go? Would you get your competitor attacked so that you can win an award?
.:. There is life after life? You are retired have no one but yourself as company but do you enjoy it? If you want you can…
He still smokes, drinks often enough, and eats as indiscriminately as his digestive system can handle….the system too has stabilized itself…
She refuses to feel sad. The mind is amazing thing. It can control the heart so easily if allowed to…she just knows she will be happier than others and she is…. Excerpts from the book
These are the few side stories which the book deals with but what I felt was that there was an undercurrent in the book. In several stories you’ll surely find a story for you. And may be that’s the best part of the book. You can relate to it.
In a very subtle way the book talks about the contemporary issues. The way we forget life when we are busy running behind money, fame, cat race….
We exceed in our professional lives but are we really happy? Do we sit back and think that in the process of making ourselves happy how many people we have made unhappy?
And the best part of the book is the sheer fact that a man can live a life in a local. He has no home but local. No body notices him no body bothers him...I for sure would love to live a life like this...a life of being free, of being everywhere but still no where....of belonging to the world but still not belonging to anybody...of being able to live the way I want....
The book is not at all serious, the way I have made it..you can laugh at it if you can laught at yourself :)
Somehow I feel that my review can not do justice to book. It is far more that what I have written and you’ll agree with me once you read this one. And yes I would insist everyone to read is for the sheer pleasuer of seeing your own life reflected here, for enjoying the journey that a local is and for the pleasure of reading a very well written novel with multiple knit stories. And trust me no where will you feel that this is a debut novel.
PS Having searched various sites I can not find this book anywhere else. So people are really interested in reading it from Chintu’s library should start forming a list. I would pass it on to the first person and then uske baad aap logon ke haath main. But the book should come back to me in every 30 days so that I can keep a check on the condition of the book ;)