28 Campus Tales by 16 Authors!!

This the first interesting line to catch your eyes.Edited by Ahmed Faiyaz and Rohini Kejriwal, the book “Down the Road” is a collection of  28 Campus Tales by 16 Authors.If this is not enough to read, the book provides 2 essays on Campus, Fiction on Campus by Sonia Safri, and Bollywood on Campus by Aseem Rastogi.

When I first laid my hands on Down the Road, I for sure had a quick flashback of my childhood memories.This was a reason good enough to indulge myself reading this book religiously from page to page.

When I flipped through the content of this book, I was more than assured of the flashbacks I will have of my childhood while reading these stories.

This medium thick book is a mixture of emotions, all combined in this bundle of papers.There are moments of sweet memories, sometimes remembering your childhood’s bitter moments,sometimes laughing on an old joke or just sighing over the days…Gone with the Wind.

The first feeling of butterflies, when that someone “suddenly” special passing by you, or coming in your vicinity.The newly developed feelings of having a crush on someone.The biggest sorrow being a teenager, Heartbreaks! This brings down few very tangy memories, which are both sweet and sour.

Reading Down the Road by Ahmed Faiyaz, I remember my 1st every crush in life.The mixed emotions of happiness, nervousness and fear all jumping in my belly as if having a circus.

Suddenly this puppy love become serious.You have heartbreaks, cheats, gossips, the hot buzz and rumors.Some are to laugh at, some are to gross at, and some become history.The feelings are multiple but the heart is one.All this has been well said in Rishi and Me by Ira Trivedi.The feeling of being loved and feeling special, the hatred of being cheated and the situations taking place in the middle.I loved the way Ira calls for the emotions with so much simplicity, yet speaking out volumes about the character.

By the time you are able to collect yourself from love affairs, you find yourself sitting in the classroom, the most happening place in the world.The girls gossip, the boys jokes and the teachers.The detentions, the long boring lectures, the cool group of the class, the fool group of the class, the handsome hunk of the class and the queen of hearts.Classroom which is like the world to many kids in their childhood.While I was reading Knockout by Ahmed Faiyaz, I recollected my memories of the best and the worst teachers who taught my class.The times I got detention, the times I got a slap and the times I got appreciated for my hard work and got a golden star.All these classroom memories flashed through my mind while reading Knockout.

I loved this journey of my school life through the stories of Ahmed Faiyaz, Ira Trivedi, Paritosh Uttam, Aashish Mehrotra, Naman Saraiya and Sahil Khan.

If this wasn’t enough, I found myself flipping through the pages of Campus Life. The placements, the elections, the love affairs and the No Sunday No Holiday life time of your life.This series of stories capture every moment of a Campus Life from the day you enter it till the date you graduate being placed with one of the top companies.

There are plenty of stories to go through but 2 of them caught my eyes the most.Cafe with No Name by Sneh Thakur and Setting again by Ahmed Faiyaz.

When one talks about a middle class boy aspiring big in an expensive city like Mumbai who finds a friend and companion in a local Cafe Owner, the other one talks about the busy life of being a student of Top MBA College who finds a friend in a small town girl.The stories might be different in terms of the characters and background, but the quest is the same, to find a friend and companion in the most unexpected manner.

Overall, the journey via this book has been amazing.The variety of situations and emotions are such, that one will attach themselves to one or more of the stories in real life, remembering when this happened to them.A warm book written in simple English makes it even more interesting to read.

I would recommend this book to all of my friends and let them live their childhood again, just like I did, Thanks to DOWN THE ROAD. 🙂

This review is a part of the http://blog.blogadda.com/2011/05/04/indian-bloggers-book-reviews Book Reviews Program http://www.blogadda.com.Participate now to get free books!