Ghachar Ghochar By Vivek Shanbhag

 

Reading books is like conversing with the finest minds. It is not everyday that you get to read books that makes you want to read more and more of the same author or genre, some books touch your soul and not just mind. when you find such books, you come out all together as a new person each time.

 

This books begins in a coffee shop and ends in a coffee shop. It has whole world inside arranged in words. Begins with a waiter, Vincent who seems to know his regular customers better than themselves. The books revolves around 6 people of a family, younger brother, wife, daughter, son and daughter-in-law of a man.

Though there is nothing new said or expressed in this book, the very ordinary of the things touched me deep. How well incidents, feelings, emotions and neutrality are put into words and braided into the story is amazing. How a middle class family manage their finances for home, shopping and any unexpected expense, how they make each corner of their tiny house a Home. How wealth and bigger houses effects a middle class happy family and how they drift apart without notice.

 

Author describes childhood,sibling relationships, mom and son, uncle and niece relationships, tiny ant-infested house problems, job loss of Man of the family and how they cope with it, journey from poor to rich, how a family strives to protect and nourish each other, marriage, differences of opinion, a company that runs well. A son on whom greatness is thrust upon for just doing nothing, how he deals with it while he also has to respond to his wife who is pretty straight forward, simple, loyal and believes in hard-working. A sister who is a little violent and harsh, refuses to live in marriage of 2 years. Uncle who isn't married but a women comes home requesting to talk to him once, but is thrown out of the house. A naive father who has 50% share in the company run by his younger brother, lives on his own terms after losing his job and indirectly called insane by his family. How an entry of new member to the family effects every other member and their responses to it is well described.

 

This all in all is a complete package of Indian family, there is drama, comedy, poverty, growth, relationships, family bonding, love, marriage, romance, fantasy, co-incidences, disaster and mystery. Its hard to separate one thing from other in dramas of life like these. One of the best I've read. It took me back to my life in retrospect and made me relive certain moments happened in the past.

 

Whole world beautifully put into this tiny book gets 5/5.