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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