The Homing Pigeons by Sid Bahri (Book Review)!!!

      

   It's the third Srishti Publication's book in the series. :-) This time I am done reading Sid Bahri's debut novel- "The Homing Pigeons" which also has the tagline "Not all love stories are perfect, but then, neither are people". It's 318 pages thick. The book is covered in a very beautiful cover page. The pigeons flying in the sky and the font in which the title of the book is written is in itself so compelling that one would pick up the book. Sid Bahri is a hotelier by education, an ex-banker and a senior executive in the outsourcing industry, Sid gave up a plush career in the outsourcing industry to follow his passions. Based out of Ranikhet, he is now a struggling entrepreneur and a happy writer. A self- proclaimed eccentric, he is an avid blogger who loves to read and cook. Cooking stories, however, is his passion. The Homing Pigeons is his debut novel.

             The synopsis of the book says:

In the middle of the catastrophic 2008 recession, Aditya, a jobless, penniless man meets an attractive stranger in a bar. Little does he know that his life will change forever.

When Radhika, a young, rich widow, marries off her stepdaughter, little does she know that the freedom she has yearned for is not exactly how she had envisioned it.

They say homing pigeons always come back to their mate, no matter where you leave them on the face of this earth. The Homing Pigeons is the story of love between these two unsuspecting characters as it is of lust, greed, separations, prejudices and crumbling spines.

         

  I would say that few authors makes us, Indian light-book readers, stand proudly and tell the foreign book-lovers to try them and see if Indian author are any less than their writers. Sid Bahri is definitely one of such writers. In the first 10 pages itself, he made me love his writing style, narration and the imaginations. I, after completing the book, wants to go and meet him wherever he is and personally thank him for making this 2 days journey so wonderful which has been passed in reading his work. Undoubtedly, he is in my Favorite Authors' list. And I am looking forward to read the sequel of this book as he has already written it. :-)

             The way Sid Bahri has narrated a same plot from the point of views of both the protagonists- Aditya and Radhika builds a great interest of reader in the book. Once you start reading it, it becomes hard to stop even for a 5 minutes breakfast. Only I know how I have stopped myself from continuing it further yesterday evening as I had to watch IPL Final Match. But I waited for today's morning desperately to begin the book again. And now as the book is completed, I am sad. Yes. Because I wanted to read more of this story and from the very same author. The way story of both the protagonists meet at different points is a very creative aspect of this book. I would say the USP. Every time you want a reasoning as to why did this happen and the chapter ends, you find it somewhere in the chapters following this chapter and you understand why author didn't express the whole reason of the specific happening before when it got its first mention in the story. :-)

            The way story begins and Aditya has to turn gigolo is exciting. The way Radhika is being shown as a villain initially and then suddenly you get to know about her past, you start feeling bad about what happened to her in the childhood. The past of Aditya's family too is intensely put. Ok wait, let's stop here. How many such parts of this book am I going to list down here? There's so many of them. :-) This book is the perfect thing in which one can invest all his money that's in the budget of book-buying. And without any second thought, you can gift this book to anyone as its assured that the person is going to thank you immensely for giving them something which teaches so much about life. This book has every thing about life. As stated in its tagline, its not a cheesy love story as we presume it to be as its from an Indian writer. It's about life. It's about how we take decisions and later regret for it and then how life makes us go back to the starting point and repair every thing but this time the person for whom we wanted to change does not want the change. And its about many other perspective about life. You can see how speechless I am while writing this review that I am unable to understand as to which of the 100 good things about this book should I talk in a review that has to be short. :-) Ok let's end this then. 

             I am simply giving this book 4.5 out of 5. YES. RECOMMENDED LIKE ANYTHING. DO INVEST IN THIS BOOK. Your trust in Indian writers will be rebuild. :-) My favorite book of this year till now. And Sid Bahri sir, do release your 2nd book soon. :-)

 Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!!