Books that are set in different eras, different places, and about people whose lives are diverse from mine, always make me feel like I am getting much more than just one story. Without passports or tickets, I get to travel these worlds, peek inside the minds of amazing people. This book offered me much more than that.
Rustom is a man of a strange kind of integrity – his actions
display a weird mismatch with his thoughts. By outward appearances, he seems
reckless, thoughtless, even. But since we’re privy to his thoughts, we know
that he is conscientious, trying to right the wrongs, ensuring that his family
is safe after him. He is a man who is a sum of many parts. Thinking about tidbits of wisdom that his mother shared with him, thinking about his wife (in her various avatars), thinking about his sister in the hospital (suicide, he believes – because she always knew what she was doing). I was touched by how real he was. The rich Parsi family with a ‘history’ of suicide provided the perfect backdrop – with uncles who kill themselves in a suicide pact – a grandfather who will allow the
family to inherit money only if Rustom kills himself.
How much money can you spend in a lifetime? In one scene,
Rustom slaps his forehead wondering how the money ever got over.
He is desperate, and desperate people do desperate things.
Even things like plotting to kill themselves. Suicide is a topic I personally
wonder a lot about too.
But Rustom is not the depressed, suicidal kind – he was
driven to it – thinking himself into a dark corner, whence the only escape is
the narrow window that suicide allows him.
Enter Kahani Baba, the lovable, rotund psychic who shakes
Rustom’s consciousness with his visions. In each vision is hidden a clue that could end Rustom’s misery. The
clues are random and non-linear – as a reader, I found myself sucked into the
vortex of Rustom’s mind, trying to solve and make sense of the Kahani Baba
experience.
Will Rustom crack the clues? Will he be able to get out of
the corner he’s boxed himself into? For Rustom, the entire story plays out between
the bullet and the skin – which, by the way, was an alternate title for the
book, I heard!
On the writing – even while dealing with a subject like
suicide, Gaurav keeps it pacey, and full of mystery. As a reader, you’ll find
yourself turning the pages swiftly. The shorts within the main story were
fantastic – each one a gem. Well done, GP!
A few books leave you with a feeling of having walked a mile
in another’s shoes. This one does that really well. Another review called it, ‘an
almost perfect debut.’ I couldn’t agree more, almost perfect! Go grab your copy!
Highly recommended.
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