A HEARTWARMING STORY ABOUT CHILDHOOD REMINISCENCES AND CRICKET

Book Review: "Life in the Sunshine" by T. Sathish

For many people, fond childhood memories of the fun and frolic with friends, the easy-going school life, and playing sports in a spirit of togetherness brings in a sense of nostalgia. For most people in India, that sport is Cricket. The author T. Sathish, who himself is an avid cricket fan, comes up with the book “Life in the Sunshine: Autobiography of an Unknown Cricketer”, which is a story that will make you reminisce your childhood days spent discussing and playing Cricket with friends.

The book follows the lives of the teenagers Sat, Sam, and Trib who love cricket. Also fondly called the Triple sundae gang, they spend most of their time watching and playing the sport they love. They dream of making their living in the sport. However, fate intervenes in their idyllic life. On 18th April 1986, Javed Miandad hits Chetan Sharma for a six in Sharjah and leaves their cricket viewing life in tatters. The after-effects of this fateful event continue to haunt them for many years. They also face other problems. Sat fails to graduate from school level cricket to state-level cricket. He is heartbroken by the loss of his dreams and faces a mini identity crisis. Will the boys ever recover from that Javed Miandad incident? How do the boys solve their problems? The narrative then goes on to answer these questions.

The language used in the book is simple, and the author has executed the plot very well. The efforts of the author in making the book a heartwarming ride for the reader are aplenty, with his interspersing of nostalgic elements and human sentimentality in the storyline deeply devoted to cricket. The book, though being a fictionalised account, draws on the life of the author, and the protagonist Sat has been modelled on him. The book thus reads like a memoir. Also while reading the book; one finds numerous vibes which hint that the book has been a passion project for the author. Many real events and anecdotes of the cricketing world have been added to the storyline of this book.

However, there are some chapters pertaining exclusively to cricket, cricketers and cricketing jargon, and will be tedious for the readers not much well acquainted and interested in this sport. But the readers will breeze through other chapters which carry the storyline forward, and portray human emotions, heartbreaks and the struggles of the protagonists.

This is a book which will particularly appeal to cricket fans and those who have spent their childhood playing Gully cricket and following cricket matches. Readers, go for this book, for it is a light read and above all, a story about simplicity, passion and the game that is a religion for most Indians- Cricket.