Disclosure: Fingerprint! Publishing sent me the book for review.
Girish Kohli hasn’t passed out of the IITs or IIMs, does not have a day job and cannot be found on Facebook or Twitter. He is also the author of the only book in the world based on a pair of unused running shoes. Just as the author has broken the template of the typical Indian author, his book also manages to be completely out of the regular trajectory of Indian fiction.
There are indeed characters that one might encounter in other works, in fact, the author has pretty much used all the stereotypes that have been abused in Indian popular culture – the strict dad, the mother waiting for her son to return home, the first love who remains evergreen in memories, the corrupt cop, the spirituality cult, and so on, but it’s the sheer verve and trippy narration that makes this book totally unique. It even includes poetry, or at least rhyme.
The tale puts a twist to the perspective people have towards running away from problems. The story is about a man who runs across the country for seven years, turns red (no, literally), starts an ashram and gets stuck in a plot (literally and figuratively) of his own making. The author takes routine mundane occurrences and objects and converts them into surreal text or throws them against bizarre yet believable props. (the shoes, the Naxalite kidnapping) The humour that lends sanity and insanity to the proceedings is also not on a single track – it moves from wordplay to satire (the City of Slums, Suryakant the Mega Star) to even campy on a couple of occasions. In fact the entire theme of the book seems to be irreverence. Just as you begin to wonder if you’re going to completely lose it, the author injects a dose of real explanation to the happenings. IMO, the best part of the book are the character descriptions. Characters include the shoes too.
My advice would be to read the book at a single go. At 255 pages, it’s not really a marathon, but you have to keep running to be on the same page as the author. There is always a feeling that some subtext is slyly watching you turn the page. Not a run of the mill offering, this one will give your brains a run for their money. 😉