Lost Flamingoes of Bombay, The - Siddharth Dhanvant Shangvhi

I borrowed it from a friend as I had nothing to do.

The book is about the famous Jessica Lal Murder case. As I knew about the case in detail so dint like the book that much as instead of focusing on the main characters the book revolves around the Indian politics. In short I dint read it completely as I dint find it worth reading.

One can skip it.

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Presenting a story that is retold in myriad fashion without getting trapped in the ostentatious of redundancy is a herculean task. “Bombay” the Maya Nagriis the favourite subject of many artifacts. Maximum City to The lost Flamingoes in Bombay tried to capture the multi faceted dimension of city, the dwellers, their spirit, anonymity etc. but still the city offers a horde of topics to quench the thirst of creative minds.

There is someone to capture the essence of city through his camera. He is far from the one who got carried away from the “shutterbug syndrome” and is driven by passion to put his signature as his tribute to the city. He left the home town nuzzled by snow capped mountains and found his comfort in the sultry and humid city of Bombay. His acquaintance with other characters opened a world of possibilities and miseries simultaneously – Here you have“Karan Seth” representing the ambitious migrant to the city.

The prodigy blessed with magic in his fingers left the promising career as pianist and decided to confine to himself and find solace with a low profile life in company of his pet dog Mr. Ward Davies and his boyfriend and creative writer Leo McMormick.His sexual orientation is something beyond the simple classification of being “gay” or “straight”. His “desire” and “affection” remain as two distinct entities. At a desire level, he prefer Leo but on all other counts, he is attached Zairathe most famous heroine of Indian Screen – Here is “Samar Arora” for you who represents rare breed of celebrity who opt to move away from limelight.

The most popular heroine in India screen is labeled as the lady who is singlehandedly responsible for raising the National Masturbation Index. Beyond this “skin flick” image, she is the one who is looking out for a secured and settled life away from all the wretchedness associated with celebrity status. She long for being around with Samar but is compassionate about his preference. They shared something more than camaraderie with a calculated consciousness regarding the limit of relation. She also found her best friend in Karan – “Zaira” – who represents other side of celebrity who is basking in the limelight.

The lady who loved to make pottery but eventually chose to have a secured life as the wife of a successful corporate executive,Adi. But at times, when the feeling of being ostracized from her passion overtakes the practical choice, she opts to withdraw herself to a shell and get herself pampered in the world created by her! She saw herself in Karan; his passion towards work was her elixir of life but again the question of morality constricts her passion – This is “Rhea” – the one who is ensnared in the duality of passion Vs norms.

Karan is the one who is related to the rest of the characters and the story is told in third person unfolding the complexity of human life in the backdrop of the magnanimous city – Bombay!

Even though mundane, each and every incident dodged on to the gentle revelation of human behavior. But all of a sudden, one of the central characters is shot dead and that changed the lives of everyone associated with her! Some were trying to fight for justice where as someone else found an opportunity to reap fortune out of the same! Someone else lost his passion and the other one wanted to go back to the original life! From knee jerk reaction to the dramatic change in the outlook towards life, Sidharth Dhanwant Sanghvi portrays the story of Bombay in an awe-inspiring manner over the 348 pages.

The author never missed the details of the canvass – be it a scruffy vagrant on the street or the Flamingoes of Sewri. At times, he surprises us with prosaic and cataleptic description of events followed by avalanche of mawkish sequences. One of the best narrated images of Bombay is in Page 16, Last Paragraph where in Karan tried to capture the image of Flamingoes above him and the dropped pile of ruby red roses on the pavement -

“So, this is Bombay, monster muse, part witch, part clown, always absurd, of charming – my rogue ballad; this is Bombay meri Jaan”

Through various characters, he had expressed the triviality behind the changing of name – at times using the hard hitting phrases like “Mumbai is all about appealing a name of city as Gonorhoea”

Also, the biased statements at the people from NCR as “The only problem with this guy is that he is from "New Dulli”

Also, the taboo associated with “sex” is almost trivialized with explicit description and usage of words / phrases that might shake the puritans.

The novel would have been much brilliant read provided the interlock between fiction and real life incident would have been handled in a precarious manner. From Chapter 2 onwards, the authors will start relating the course of events with Jessica Lallmurder. Also, the infamous act of Shayan Munshiwho changed his statement in the court that his command over Hindi is poor that acquitted the culprits initially has been extensively borrowed by the author. Also, in the initial chapter also, Malik Prasadbehaving rudely with Shah Rukh Khan and Zaira in a manner in which we recall the old and stale Salman Khan episode.

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