This début novel of Mumbai-based Anish Trivedi is well-written, sharply-observed, and a great read.
The main character, Gautam, is a 30-year old lower middle-class young man, still living at home with his parents and sister. Their life is frugal, traditional and distinctly joy-less. To his parents’ despair, Gautam doesn’t have what they term a real job, for he works in a call centre.
At work, in the world without time-zones, Gautam morphs into Dan. Dan is witty, rather the young man about town. Dan drinks, which Gautam certainly wouldn’t. Dan is cosmopolitan, a bit of a flirt. Dan is, well, quite different from Gautam.
Anish Trivedi successfully brings both voices to life, steering his character(s) through surburban life, through the grind of work and daily commuting, through love’s ups and downs, through family dramas.
The author is a keen observer of social mores. Seeing Dan interacting with Sondra, his foreign female colleague – all blonde hair and throwaway lines – we watch as “Dan” wings it through water-cooler moments with her, making mental notes to himself to google the words he doesn’t understand, without ever missing a conversational beat. His need to learn, to widen his horizons, to keep the veneer of sophistication in place is finely noted.
The prejudices in suburbia are finely chronicled by the author. Michelle, Gautam’s long-suffering girlfriend, is a Christian and automatically perceived by his family to be unsuitable. To be fair, Michelle’s family is equally unenthused by Gautam. Gautam’s best friend Naseer is a Muslim, much to his parent’s dismay. Anish Trivedi sketches this world of petty prejudice and mistrust without ever falling into clichés, and we wince with discomfort at the un-PC world Gautam/Dan inhabits, while acknowledging just how horribly true to life it all is.
A fun read. An affectionate portrayal of a hero trying to be more than the sum of his parts. And an utterly delicious cameo of the station chai-wala.
CALL ME DAN was published in August 2010 by Penguin, and costs Rs 250.
If you would like to buy the book, nothing could be simpler. Just click on the link below :
I thoroughly enjoyed this book which lept along at a cracking pace and was infinitely more enjoyable than the Tom Clancy that was abandoned in its favour.
Thank you, Susie and Lesly. You can now get Call Me Dan shipped overseas from http://bookshopofindia.com/search.asp?action1=default&bookid=9071422. Hope you enjoy it!
Congratulations on your new blog and to Anish on his delightful sounding book. Now how do we get hold of it?
May be a bit tricky to find a copy on Phillip Island, Australia but it sounds like a good read. Perhaps you could compliment this blog with a mail-out service? I am looking forward to following the blog – congratulations on its launch and good luck. I expect it to be a huge success.