It had been a while since I read an indian author,the last
being Vikas Swarup’s Six Suspects. As such “Once Upon the Tracks of Mumbai” by
Rishi Vohra brought me delight over anything else. Rishi Vohra who has been a columnist for various
newspapers in India, enters the Indian novel Industry with his ‘love against
odds’ story of a middle class guy called Babloo.
Babloo’s an autistic middle class Mumbai-kar craving for normalcy and love. His love for Vandana, the hot chick of the locality makes him think about her all night long.
Vandana has her own set of problems to deal with; which include avoiding marriage, facing a nymphomaniac boss every day at work and many more. As far as other characters are concerned, they too seem well crafted, and believable.
The novel is well plotted, and even has the classic superhero element. Rail Man’s rise as the fearless real life hero; reflects how things get blown out of proportion with twenty four hour news channels these days. Rishi Vohra never seems like a guy who recently relocated to India from San Fransisco. Still he has a lot more to work on.
The narration gets boring at times and you can skip a page or two at a number of occasions. Plus it lacks the freshness component. Surely Vohra needs to try coming up with some thing outside the box.
As a matter of fact this so called complex weave of love, heart break and courage, is more straight forward than complex.
A generous 2/5 to Vohra’s first novel.
For more information, visit Rishivohra.com
