PEREGRINATIONS OF A NOT SO COMMON LIFE

Book Review: "The Life and Times of a Common Man" by Sanjay Chandra

Memoirs are liked by readers for they give them interesting insights and a general outlook about the lives of people they adore and would like to emulate. However, most of the times, readers are only interested in reading the memoirs of famous and influential people. But the lives of common men are also very interesting and their journeys inspiring, and books delving into such themes should be read. The author Sanjay Chandra comes up with such a book “The Life and Times of a Common Man”, in which he candidly describes his life’s journey in vivid detail and shares his experiences of a life well-lived.

Though he says it to be a journey of a common man, it is very much extra-ordinary, with life’s various ups and downs, the challenges that he faced and how he persevered.

The book describes the journey of the author and how he traversed his life and career. He first joined the railway services, then moved on to a government company and then went in the corporate sector. The author was born in a middle-class family in small-town India of the late fifties. His parents chose for him the direction that his life should take. Yet, something was lacking. Was this the path that he was meant to walk? Did he want this? He fought his chosen destiny at every stage of his life. Would he be able to realise his true destiny? The book then goes on to answer these questions.

The book cover is mesmerising, and the dash of watercolour with its various hues is aesthetic. The story is simple, but will resonate with readers on many levels. The editing is good and readers will get absorbed reading this memoir and will get nuggets of wisdom from the author’s life experiences.

Also interspersed in the book are references to many classics and other fictional and non-fictional books, the author being very fond of reading and having incorporated traces of writing styles of many well-known authors in the book. He describes some of the characters of these books in evocative detail, such as David Copperfield, Pip of “Great Expectations”, and Oliver Twist; and bibliophiles having read even some of these works will reminisce about their favourite characters while reading this book; and will find the author’s same or dissimilar perspectives on many book characters and classics like “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy fascinating.

The author says in the Preface that his expectations in writing this book will be attained if even a single person who reads it is inspired to make his or her life a little less common. With this book, the author has certainly achieved that as one gets so engrossed in the story that the book is unputdownable. One also gets to know many informative snippets, like the fact that the Hindi film industry was not called Bollywood till the 1980s.

The author has melded a realistic story with his hilarious insights and astute understanding, and this expedition about the author’s life that the readers take with him is very interesting- and though described as a journey of a common man, it is marvellous in each and every way.