Book Review: A hundred Little flames by Preeti Shenoy
Plot:
A hundred little flames is a
story of the relationship between a grandfather and grandson. Ayan, a 26 year
old youngster has been raised by controlling father and has just been fired
from his job and caught in the rat race of life, is looking for another job,
while he is ordered by his father who lives in Bahrain to go live with his
grandfather who had a fall and who lives in a small village Poongavanam in Kerela.
Skeptical at first, he goes there
and eventually loves the place and also gets to know a lot about his
grandfather, who he didn’t know until this visit and connects with him more
than his own parents. His Grandfather, is a lonely and irritable man but soon
finds himself warming up to his grandson and even striking a friendship with
him.
Through this visit, Ayan
discovers a new way of living, discovers things about his families, secrets he
didn’t know about, recalls some of his childhood memories and also, after he
gets even closer to his Muttachan, he gets to read his diaries and discovers
about a ‘pure love’ that his Muttachan shared with someone. Overall, the whole
experience transforms Ayan in many ways as he comes out at the end of this
novel, a changed man and in charge of his own life.
Characters:
There is Ayan whose enthusiasm
for his Grandfather is endearing. Ayan never connected with his own father, was
always controlled rather than loved by him, he was always made to feel useless.
In his Grandfather, he found the first elder he could call ‘family’. He has
friends but no one he is really close to. The only two people in his family he
likes is his younger brother _____ and his cousin Nithya.
Gopal Rai, or Ayan’s Muttachan is
a grumpy old man who has faced quite some tragedies in life but is a
good-hearted, modest man who shares a troublesome relationship with his
children and still loves his childhood sweetheart.
Velu is a loyal servant to Gopal
Rai who takes care of him and the house he lives in. Velu loves him more than
his own children, Jairaj and Shaila. Also, throughout the book you’d find him
cook awesome kerala delicacies.
Jairaj is Ayan’s father who lives
in Bahrain. He is an evil son, who as Ayan describes is perhaps incapable of
love. There is Shaila- Gopal Rai’s daughter and Jairaj’s sister who always
blamed her father for things he wasn’t responsible for. Nithya is Shaila’s
daughter.
And ofcourse, there is Rohini,
about whom I don’t want to reveal anything as I want you to read the book and
find out for yourself about her.
My Review:
The book was amazing on many
levels. Almost all of her earlier works, there was minor glitches. There is no
repetitiontion here, no kids who are old souls, or excessive use of word darn.
Don’t get me wrong- I like her earlier books also but there would be something
that would irk me, sometimes it would be a forcibly accommodated title, or
sometimes a character which was used for publicity but it wasn’t a significant
one in the story. Anyway this book had nothing that I could say was amiss. This
book was 10 on 10.
The best part of this book is the
diary entries that Gopal Rai trusts Ayan with. Through the words of Gopal Rai,
you enter a world within a world, a story within a story, a story of a lonely
misunderstood yet responsible man. His feelings, his conflicts, his love for
his childhood sweetheart, his decisions- some major years of his life
basically, when he spent in Hydrabad and Pondicherri. And also its very
believable
This book heavily focuses upon
old age people and their problems but is not at all preachy or something that
makes you feel depressed. It actually makes you realize that old people have
lived their lives and have had their own stories and their own feelings, their
own experiences and it’s evil to treat them like old furniture.
The book also touches upon
psychotic depression and how difficult is it to live with someone who suffers
from such an illness. The story, in my own view, is also a story of a messed up
family and children of messed up families grow up to be messed up kids and how
much are they in need of truth so that they can have their own perspectives in
life. Ayan in this story has a very myopic point of view and this visit expands
his perspective on life.
The story is based in Kerala and
explores the culture, the region and food of Kerela a great deal.
The let down in the book is I
would say the writing itself. Yes, its simple but at the same time it isn’t
beautiful. The story was beautiful but I feel the simple writing didn’t really
do justice it. There were minor glitches like Ayan cousin’s Nithya rememberinf
where keys were whereas Ayan only has vague memories and he is recalling his
memories as he is visiting the village after very long time. But overall the
story was beautiful and I would recommend this book to you for sure.
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