The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh- my ALL TIME FAVORITE

 This book is a story that has no order, it defies time. It received the Sahitya Academi.  Its told in a uniquely rich and artistic way, like an artist throwing random strokes until a clear painting is made. Its 300 pages long and is Amitav Ghosh's best known work, it holds in its pages, the themes of love, malice, jealousy, politics, loss, pain, a feeling of being lost and many more inexplicable emotions. 

It is centered around an unnamed narrator, who tells about his school and college days, his days with his cousin Ila and his uncle Robi and Tridib, his gradmother, his mother and his father. It defies our presemt made boundaries between nations, as its set in west Bengal, Bangladesh, Britain and Delhi. The story is so unique that I am sure that everyone will empathize with it, and its this that makes it unique. It has two parts: Going away, and Coming Home. I actually had tears in my eyes when i completed Going Away.

It deals with political themes of Bengal partition's impact on the hindus of Bnagladesh (this family is from Dhaka). 

This book captures the charisma of an Indian family, how they have a relation with their extended family and the influence of such relatives on a person. The protagonist is a simple person, Ila is a bold free girl, Robi is the leader kind of a person, Tridib is the different and strange kind of a person, grandmother is the typical Indian granny, father is the typical Indian father, mother is the typical Indian mother, all are unique in their own ways. 

I read this book 5 months ago, so don't think that it's just the exaggeration just after reading a book that caused me write all this, remember that it's 5 months after that I write this.

Go for it if you have time to understand a bit of a complicated storyline. 

But remember! read it at least once before you die!!

10/10

This is the most influential book i have ever read. And i look forward to read more by Amitav Ghosh.

-Rishit Singh