Men and Dreams in the Dhauladhar by Kochery C. Shibu

Published: September 2015 by Niyogi Books

Read Date: May 23rd 2017

Stars: 3/5

Blurb (in my words)-

Story revolves around Hydro Electric project (AM Hydro) – biggest dam under construction in Dhaulandhar and men working at the site. Nanda, engineer at project site, is running from his violent retribution past. Khusru, Kashmiri man, who has become a pawn of the terrorist at younger age. Rekha, dancer and doctor, run away with Khusru and arrives at project site. While the site work is going on in full fledge, the terrorists are planning to target the dam.

What lays in store for these main characters and men working at project site? That only Fates can decide. (or as author thought would happen) 😉

My view:

Characters- They were the heart of the book here. This book mainly deals with two things– 1. The life story of characters and 2. Technical (engineering/ dam part).

Book is all about life story of main characters (Nanda, Khusru, Rekha), supervisors at site, head of the site, and many other secondary characters who happens to work on the same project.

This books gives the feeling of reading a documentary that recorded life of each of these characters and other female character who were the part of their life. I was much impressed by the story of Nanda and Khusru– mainly Kalari traditions and activities and training of terrorists and their mindset. I loved this part the book a lot. All the details about the life of characters and their family were precisely and deeply narrated. Many places and culture of India and also of Pakistan and Europe has been covered in this book. Hard life of laborers at project site, villagers and their beliefs with little story about them also was nice.

Why 3 stars? Things that kept bothering me was, too many characters to remember. Some were not even directly related to the main theme of the book. Many times I had to go back few pages to check ‘who is who ’at project site. The plot with engineering details, though it was explained, it was hard to understand for me and have to re-read it. I lost interest whenever that part was coming in the book. So, those who can understand engineering technicalities would love to read this book.

Another thing, I really liked the life story of Khusru, so I wanted that character clear through and through. Why his parents left him in his childhood was poorly explained or should I say I couldn’t understand their mindset!

End of the book- From climax I was expecting many thrilling actions and dramatic end. But nothing was like that. It was too rash and sudden and unexpected.

Who should read? Those who love many stories in one book will like it. As I said engineers would like to read. You can get idea how to deal with labors. 😉

Note that, there are Hindi curse words and sentences, and phrases from other languages throughout the book.

*** Note: I received copy of this book by author, in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to author- Kocheri C. Shibu. I am glad I got a chance to read this book. ***

What’s your thought on this book and my review? Have you read this book already? share your thoughts with me and other reader in comments below.

Happy Reading! 🙂