Review Of Men And Dreams In The Dhauladhar By Kochery C. Shibu

The book is divided into chapters that describe the life of different characters and how the choices of each person leads them towards a common destiny. I love books that take what look like random strangers and build the story in a way that their life decisions interconnect them with each other to form a common story. It was nice to see the book achieve this goal towards the end. The beginning of the book was also intriguing where the author gives us back story to each character. The middle of the book though felt a bit too long.

I always prefer dialogue and action over description. That being said, I have liked descriptive books when the descriptions help make the story. Unfortunately in this book, I felt that the descriptions did not do much to further the story. Had all the part of dam building and interaction between the workers been removed, the story would not have really changed. It just felt like fluff that the author added to increase the number of pages of the book to an acceptable amount. Had he concentrated more on the military aspects of terrorism or just concentrated on the intricacies of each character like he did in the beginning, it would have made for a better reading. I was surprised to find that I almost liked the actual technical aspects of building of the dam. It was the frivolous conversations between the labourers and the mundane details of their lives that got to me. The random use of vernacular also felt unnecessary. The author may have tried to bring in authenticity to the story by incorporating slangs but it did not flow smoothly and made for a very jarring reading experience.

The descriptions of the mountains, the terrains, and snow capped peaks reminded me of my own trip to Kashmir, Darjeeling and Gangtok. The premise of the terrorist with good intentions, the brilliant girl with a wild heart, and the simple man forced into a family feud were believable having grown up watching Bollywood movies in the same vein. I would have loved to read more on each character in order to make them feel more real. I would also have liked to see what happened to the terrorists' plan and to know the reason for them picking the Dhauladhar dams as their site of terror attacks. It felt like the book ended a tad too abruptly.