I finished reading Bombay Rains Bombay Girls with a huge sense of achievement. I used to be a-book-a-night person, but my unenviable, largely non-correctable eyesight soon put a stop to that. But I so miss reading that I picked up the first book that seemed to have comfortable-looking print at Gangaram’s, Bangalore and made off with it. Ignoring the fact that the world began to look considerably more blurred than usual as I read on, I polished it off in about three days.

Now that I’m done with the book, I’m not sure how much of the enjoyment is from the fact that I’m reading after such a long time and how much is from the book being good. I suspect it’s a happy mix of both because I’ve currently moved on to another book which is not holding my attention as easily. I’m even left with that lingering post-book feeling one has when one’s thoughts turn to the characters wondering what was happening with them now. I suppose that’s testimony enough.

II hadn’t heard of Anirban Bose before — but that isn’t surprising considering this is his first book. In his other life, he’s a doctor and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Rochester. I read somewhere that he’s now moved back to India. Calcutta, maybe. But just like the main character in the book, he’s from “small town” Ranchi and went to study medicine in Bombay. So yep, the book draws from his own life and experiences.

If Adityaman, the main character, had a small-town complex, he sure got over it pretty quick. He was confused, sure, but show me someone who isn’t. In record time he adapted to medical college, did well enough to get brilliant grades, became immensely popular, gave everyone great advice, and got the girl. Sure he got into trouble every now and then – but everything magically worked out. There was always a convenient coincidence waiting around the corner to save the day.I thought things resolved themselves way too easily when the author tells me, “The story is fiction. But the coincidences are one thing I didn’t make up. They really did happen. The exam scene, the young girl falling ill, Jagdeep turning up in the bus… I didn’t have to think about them at all.”

In the two years covered in this book, our Adityaman seems to have sorted out all of life, up and down, inside out. He got his thoughts clear on love, work, parenthood, morality, honor, religion, politics, friendship, politics, medicine. Did I leave out anything? Lucky guy. I want my money back — both from the coincidences and the life deparment.

Actually, the issues and events the author takes up are real enough. Very real. I’ve worked at a hospital for six years and can relate to much of what happens. The descriptions and expressions here are all pretty true to life. The detailing, the way people react, the attitudes are all part of everyday life in big city India. The story doesn’t just plod along – thankfully – but bubbles with mini-stories. But each story gets all its loose ends neatly tied up before moving on to the next. You’re left with no excess baggage. That may be good in some ways but it also means there’s nothing further to think about. It’s happily ever after.

While I found myself engaged by all the characters, everyone was colored with a certain amount of naiveté, even juvenility. Things work out too easily, too simply, too predictably. I think the story-telling needs to be a little more skillful for the next book. And I hope there’ll be a next book. This is an author I’d like to see ripening. I certainly hope he doesn’t along the way, go off and learn the nauseating art of intellectualizing and trying oh-so-hard to be Indian or Kafkaesque or some such.

I’ve no doubt that this first novel has a heart. Oh, and a soul too. It has feeling. It takes up things that matter. Maybe it just takes up too much though. Catharsis is sputtering all over the place and you can almost feel the author’s immense relief at the end of it all. Like he just had to get it all out.  I hope he moves on next to something interesting. And stimulating.

I asked Anirban Bose just how autobiographical his book was. Here’s what he said:

“Clearly I’ve borrowed from my life. Adi, the protagonist, has a lot of the characteristics I did and many of the other characters are also people I encountered, maybe just not in medical college, but also in the US (Harsha for example). Still other characters are purely a product of my imagination. In my defense (and I’m not sure I have to defend myself but I’m doing it because I’ll be accused of simply reproducing incidents in my life) most authors borrow from life or find inspiration in articles, news items and experiences to draw and paint a picture with words. I suppose I am not an exception to this rule!”

I also asked him whether he thought Adityaman didn’t just have it too easy.

“I wouldn’t exactly characterize Adi’s life it as being easy. The fall from grace, from popularity, especially at an age when we are very subject to the tribulations of peer pressure are enormous. How he learns to live with that is what makes it seem easy. I suppose that is the hardest part… learning to live with it. We all want something, and sometimes, in the race to get it, stepping back to see if it is worth it is not exactly a thought that crosses one’s mind. But then one person, or one incident can make all the difference…”

And what of all the coincidences that pepper Adityaman’s life?

“The funny part is that the coincidences that you talk about that may seem like deus ex machina, are real incidents!!! What can I say other than fact is stranger than fiction!”

Anirban plans to write a set of short stories next and these are to be in a different direction to Bombay Rains Bombay Girls.

Bombay Rains Bombay Girls has a website of its own. You can read an excerpt of the book there too. And elsewhere, you can have a look at Grant Medical College, Bombay, where the story is set.