Following extensive research in the most ill-famed slum of Calcutta, India - Anand Nagar, i.e. “city of joy” – the journalist
turned writer quite simply but compellingly carries us through the life stories of several slum dwellers, often through their own words. Although the book is not a reality novel, it is not a documentary-style book also, but a little of both.
It is the world of the poorest of all: rickshaw pullers, lepers turned beggars, scrap collecting kids, suffocating sweat-shop workers and slum mafia. Refugees from nearby villages, chased away by severe draughts, floods or other natural calamities, having left behind part of their families - these people take each day as it comes, their often incredible
strive going towards securing that one square meal per day in order to survive. But even if this one meal is often not achieved, their moral integrity never leaves them, and duty towards gods and family are of foremost importance. Insect-like human beings during the day, toiling in the streets of Calcutta under the enormous weight of their customer-loaded rickshaws, they never miss a prayer, they never save a dime or any effort to pay their due respects, to take care of each other.
Several stories and destinies intertwine in this book, one more compelling than the other. Along its pages, we will meet Hasari Pal, the rickshaw puller who ends up making a gruesome sacrifice to secure his daughter’s dowry, “Stephan dada”, the polish priest who in his strive to get closer to God decides to share the faith of the poorest of this world, doctor Max Loeb, the American rich boy who also voluntarily plunges into this universe. Helpful people, small and big, including the figure of Mother Teresa, light up the fire of love emanating from this book. There are happy endings, singular as they might be, there are horrific sacrifices made in the name of duty, there are festivals, dirt and utmost cleanliness, Gods and superstitions, illness and amazing health, sorrow and joy, but, above all, there is an abundance of peace and love.
As cynical as one might be, the sheer force of this book inevitably swipes any reader away and we all end up in the same pool of communal love and harmony that defines the lives of the characters we are following throughout this book. Ultimately, it is the overwhelming message of universal love and
hope that stays with us after reaching the end of this veritable epic proportions book. It cannot but teach us simplicity of life, and it depicts real living examples of hope and faith, even at life’s unimaginable lows. It vividly depicts how worse than imaginable is always possible, and how keeping a smile on ones face is always a possibility, and a duty, even in the worst of situations.
A book definitely worth reading, even for the cold blooded ones among us.