We weren’t lovers like that

Book: We weren’t lovers like that

Author: Navtej Sarna

Publisher: Penguin Books India

Rate: 150 INR

I finished reading this book while travelling from Pipariya (a small town in M.P., India) to Mumbai.

I started this book for two simple reasons:

1. because I had nothing better to do and had to kill time.

2. Because I didn’t have anything else to read

I loved the way the book started. The first chapter was titled ‘Delhi’ (my favorite place) and said these lines:

“I am leaving. Doing the one thing that I’m still good at: running away.”

This line kind of struck a chord somewhere and I knew that I’ll be finishing this book and that too in a trot. And indeed, I did. Infact, I kind of broke my own speed reading record with this one. I finished this book in 7 hours flat – the fastest I’ve ever been across 215 pages.

I never was in a hurry to finish this book as I had the entire day to kill before I’d have reached Mumbai. But, this one was a sure page turner.

I read a lot of reviews on the net and most of them pointed to the fact that this book was depressing and not a good read at all. I’d take a completely different take from all this.

This is one book that is, yes, not like five point someone. It is certainly not the story of your average guy next door, who gets a girl, a good job and lives happily ever after. It is a book of struggles, struggle to wake up, struggle to think rationally, struggle to not do what should’ve been done. This book will not give you cheeky onliners that one can use to impress cute chicks. This is instead a book that will want you to stop, ponder and deliberate over a lot of things. This book will give the involved reader action points.

In a nutshell this book's about Aftab (protagonist), who turns a 40 and whose wife left him for his friend, taking with him their only 10-year-old son. This journey is the journey of Aftab, who used to dazzle and shine in the past, but is now, in a pitiable state.

Reviews of some eminent people:

"Exquisitely written, deeply-felt, introspective and evocative, Sarna's first novel marks an auspicious debut."

-Shashi Tharoor

"Navtej Sarna's shimmering meditation on love and loss becomes a compelling journey through the haunted landscapes of memory. "

-Vikram Chandra

My rating: 7.5 on 10

This is a must read. Readers will be tickled with thoughts, sheer pace and life of the characters. All in all a page turner and a good read.

Monologue on a cold, chilly winter morning!

One fateful morning, I was standing on a platform at Pipariya (a small town in MP, India) at 2:45 am. I was on my way back to Mumbai after attending a close friends wedding. As i stood there, I could clearly hear the clitter-clatter noise that my teeth were making. It was some 8 degree C out there. All i was wearing was a cotton shirt over a vest and a jeans. I was dead tired having danced like mad at friends wedding (but that's another story) and very very cold. The only support that i had was that of warm tea. It helped in keeping me warm and kept me awake as well.

So i welcomed the gentle breeze (though it made me cold) and tea as both helped me keep awake that night!

Here is what i decided to kill time. I realised long back (back when i was all of 9 years) that i'm most comfortable when i'm with myself.

I decided to spice up this time that i was spending with myself, engrossed in my thoughts. So i decided to talk to the camera of my Nokia N82 in video record mode. The motive was to talk loudly and keep this as a videolog.

So this video above was a result of this self-talk. I realised that i can actually talk absolute nonsense for hours at a stretch, if the audience lends a good ear.

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