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Lunatic In My Head
The 1990s. It’s raining in Shillong. Eight-year-old Sophie Das has just realized she is adopted, but there is also the baby kicking inside her mother’s stomach whom she is dying to meet. IAS aspirant Aman Moondy is planning a first-of-its-kind Happening and praying the lovely Concordella will come. College lecturer Firdaus Ansari is going to finish her thesis, have a hard talk with her boyfriend, and then get out.
Poetic, funny, tender and reflective, Lunatic in My Head is a moving portrait of a small town. And of three people joined to each other in an intricate web, determined to break out of their small-town destinies.
Poetic, funny, tender and reflective, Lunatic in My Head is a moving portrait of a small town. And of three people joined to each other in an intricate web, determined to break out of their small-town destinies.
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First published January 1, 2007
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About the author
Anjum Hasan
17 books103 followersAnjum Hasan is an Indian poet and novelist. She was born in Shillong, Meghalaya and currently lives in Bangalore, India. She has also contributed poems, articles and short stories to various national and international publications.
Anjum is Books Editor, The Caravan.
Anjum is Books Editor, The Caravan.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
July 25, 2011
Though this is the author's debut, I happened to read it after I read the second work - Neti Neti, which can arguably be seen as a sequel of sorts to this book, not just because its protagonist happens to be Sophie Das, a character introduced in this book, but also because both the books seem to have a common theme of a search for belonging.
'Lunatic In My Head' has four principal characters.
Firdaus Ansari, who teaches English literature to an apathetic class, pursues an elusive PhD, finds it diffuclt to connect to the authors she's dealing with, fights staff room battles, suffers from near OCD and tries desperately to remain in love, as she lives with her grandfather, both of them conscious of a fragile balance that allows them to endure each other.
Aman Moondy, Civil Services aspirant, obsessed with Pink Floyd with a bunch of friends, each fighting their own battles with parents, siblings, lovers and representing the life of youth stuck in a small town.
Sophie Das, eight year old daughter of an English professor who refuses to be realistic and his wife who feels her husband has stopped caring for the family.
And Shillong, for this book is also about the place, its people, its gossip, its idiosyncrasies, and its clearly visible lines of separation between the natives and dkhar (Khasi word for non tribal person)
Each of them also live in their own fantasy world too- Sophie, who cooks up a story of being adopted, and Aman, who thinks Roger Waters makes songs based on the letters he sent him. The smallness of the town is perhaps emphasised by the degrees of connection between the characters, how their paths cross, and how intertwined their lives are.
Divided into chapters such as 'Wonder', 'Sadness', 'Love', 'Courage', 'Disgust', 'Fear', 'Anger', 'Joy' and finally 'Peace', the book passes through what can be seen as a cycle, and uses the mundane occurrences in a small town to reflect mindset and the paradoxical static and dynamic nature of the place and the people there. What takes it to a higher level is the moodiness that seems to reflect rainy and misty Shillong itself.
'Lunatic In My Head' has four principal characters.
Firdaus Ansari, who teaches English literature to an apathetic class, pursues an elusive PhD, finds it diffuclt to connect to the authors she's dealing with, fights staff room battles, suffers from near OCD and tries desperately to remain in love, as she lives with her grandfather, both of them conscious of a fragile balance that allows them to endure each other.
Aman Moondy, Civil Services aspirant, obsessed with Pink Floyd with a bunch of friends, each fighting their own battles with parents, siblings, lovers and representing the life of youth stuck in a small town.
Sophie Das, eight year old daughter of an English professor who refuses to be realistic and his wife who feels her husband has stopped caring for the family.
And Shillong, for this book is also about the place, its people, its gossip, its idiosyncrasies, and its clearly visible lines of separation between the natives and dkhar (Khasi word for non tribal person)
Each of them also live in their own fantasy world too- Sophie, who cooks up a story of being adopted, and Aman, who thinks Roger Waters makes songs based on the letters he sent him. The smallness of the town is perhaps emphasised by the degrees of connection between the characters, how their paths cross, and how intertwined their lives are.
Divided into chapters such as 'Wonder', 'Sadness', 'Love', 'Courage', 'Disgust', 'Fear', 'Anger', 'Joy' and finally 'Peace', the book passes through what can be seen as a cycle, and uses the mundane occurrences in a small town to reflect mindset and the paradoxical static and dynamic nature of the place and the people there. What takes it to a higher level is the moodiness that seems to reflect rainy and misty Shillong itself.
August 16, 2019
A languid slow paced story happening in the sleepy town of Shillong.
It is a cross sectional view of the lives of different characters residing at a particular period of time in Shillong .
We meet the spinster college lecturer, Firdaus who's pursuing her pHD, and the precocious 8 year old Sophie who thinks she is adopted , Aman , the IAS aspirant who is appearing for the exam for the second time , and their friends and family members .
Got a glimpse of the customs and norms of Meghalaya , though I have much more to learn .
Enjoyed reading the story at my own pace.
It was boring in many parts , but still retained a charm , and I am wavering between 3. And 3.5 stars..though I have no qualms rounding it up to 3.5.
It is a cross sectional view of the lives of different characters residing at a particular period of time in Shillong .
We meet the spinster college lecturer, Firdaus who's pursuing her pHD, and the precocious 8 year old Sophie who thinks she is adopted , Aman , the IAS aspirant who is appearing for the exam for the second time , and their friends and family members .
Got a glimpse of the customs and norms of Meghalaya , though I have much more to learn .
Enjoyed reading the story at my own pace.
It was boring in many parts , but still retained a charm , and I am wavering between 3. And 3.5 stars..though I have no qualms rounding it up to 3.5.
July 26, 2021
Anjum Hasan has written the definitive book on life in small-town India, as I hope this extract will indicate:
"He had to get out of Shillong, despite Concordella. The town, like the subject of Philosophy, had no future. Aman’s father said this often, his teachers considered it a given, and many of his classmates at school, indoctrinated by their parents, had virtually considered the town a chimera. Most had vanished right after high school. Aman thought of them often — the brilliant quizzers, the conmen and thieves, the annual concert stars, the boy who’d get the whole class to queue up outside the door during lunch-hour and pay one rupee each for a glimpse of his powerful arm muscles. Only Aman remained. Aman and his small group of friends, waiting for many years now for someone or something to show them the way. He could see them ten, twenty years from now, driving their taxis and doing their small-time jobs, fathers of children, middle-aged men with paunches, but essentially the same boys that they were now. Shillong did that to people, he knew — preserved them in its Shillong-flavoured timelessness — the same rumours, the same jokes, the same gossip, the same petty jealousies. The scale of the town corresponded to the scale of people’s imaginations."
"He had to get out of Shillong, despite Concordella. The town, like the subject of Philosophy, had no future. Aman’s father said this often, his teachers considered it a given, and many of his classmates at school, indoctrinated by their parents, had virtually considered the town a chimera. Most had vanished right after high school. Aman thought of them often — the brilliant quizzers, the conmen and thieves, the annual concert stars, the boy who’d get the whole class to queue up outside the door during lunch-hour and pay one rupee each for a glimpse of his powerful arm muscles. Only Aman remained. Aman and his small group of friends, waiting for many years now for someone or something to show them the way. He could see them ten, twenty years from now, driving their taxis and doing their small-time jobs, fathers of children, middle-aged men with paunches, but essentially the same boys that they were now. Shillong did that to people, he knew — preserved them in its Shillong-flavoured timelessness — the same rumours, the same jokes, the same gossip, the same petty jealousies. The scale of the town corresponded to the scale of people’s imaginations."
September 26, 2014
This is not a novel. You read that right. This is a mood that is trapped in a novel, captured for posterity in a book. Hasan's voice is pitch perfect in describing the languidness of life in a city that prizes presence over rushing to an unknown future. Shillong's rock subculture plays an important role. This is probably the first book in mainstream publishing to start the trickle of books from the North East.
September 14, 2016
“The lunatic is in my head” is a line from a Pink Floyd song (maybe you knew that, but I didn’t) that takes on a much more interesting reading in Anjum Hasan’s debut novel, published in 2010. The three main characters have in their heads that ordinary lunatic that we all have – the lunatic that doesn’t quite believe the world we live in can be real, that what’s happening to us is what was meant to happen, and that simultaneously hopes and fears that things might change.
Shillong, the hill-town where Hasan grew up and where the novel is set, has always had a lot of migrants but there’s still a strong feeling in the 1990’s world of the novel that the non-Khasi residents, no matter how long they’ve lived there, are dkhar – foreigners. Aman Moondy, making his second attempt at the Indian Administrative Service exam, Firdaus Ansari, trying to explain Shakespeare and Hemingway to teenage girls at a convent school and struggling to write a thesis on Jane Austen (she hasn’t read enough Dickens, the only other suggestion that’s been made), and 8-year-old Sophie Das are all dkhar. The elephant in the room is the extreme dkhar-ness of the system of Indian education and advancement. To pass his exam, which will qualify him to start his career in some small, dead-end town in the North-east, where he would fight to exercise authority over a dusty office full of people whose language he did not speak (59) Aman needs to mug up on Kant and Hegel as well as to answer questions on microwave ovens, virtual reality and the Theosophical Society. And really, he’d much rather be listening to Pink Floyd. Sophie, child of an ultra-pedantic English teacher, adores the British Royal family and knows that everything of value in this country was the legacy of the British (21). And here is Firdaus “teaching” As You Like It to her teenage class, reading from hand-written foolscap sheets that English department teachers kept handing down – their origins long faded, their anonymity adding to their air of authority (157):
"Jacques says to Duke Senior that his only suit or requirement is that he be allowed to wear a motley coat, one that will signal to the world that he is a fool. In addition, that is withal, he must have freedom as large as the wind to quote blow on whom I please unquote, that is to direct his foolish wit or his witty folly towards whomever he chooses"(58)
They all have ways of avoiding reality: Aman, with his lengthy philosophical letters to Roger Waters of Pink Floyd (not, so far, answered), Sophie with her habit of lying and her belief that she’s adopted, and Firdaus with the work on Jane Austen she’s been considering for four years without writing anything or even deciding what the thesis is about.
There’s a whole world that swirls around this calcified culture, a richly-realised world of small-town India. Aman’s life contains local Khasi thugs and hippieish lovers of Happenings (the Happening organised by Aman and his friends is very funny), Sophie finds a surrogate grandmother in Kong Elsa, the matriarch of Shillong with a shady Cilla Clarke-loving son, and Firdaus is in a nebulous relationship with Ibomcha, who may well be involved in something dubious, something that would enable him to make a quick buck. (103)
Hasan has a beautiful eye for detail:
Aman’s mother watches soaps all day "wearing an expression of careful consideration, as if what the characters were saying held some personal significance for her" (11)
Firdaus’ principal Mother Gertrude has feet in "bandage-like stockings encased in shiny black platform shoes, dodging puddles on the tarred compound. Mother Gertrude was Irish and as old and permanent as stone "(13)
Aman’s doctor father, son of a poor man, "had never been able to come to terms with the incongruity of sitting in the dark rooms behind the mithai shop, stuffy with fumes from the relentless frying of jalebis and kachoris by men in dirty vests, and reading about cholera and jaundice, food poisoning and indigestion" (62)
This is a book that deserves more attention than it’s got, at least in this part of the world. Although the characters are often sad, it’s very funny; quite apart from Aman and his Happening, I loved Firdaus’ clash with a colleague who bites her on the nose, and her encounter with a lecherous supervisor. Sophie is a touching and absorbing child (whose story has been continued in Hasan’s next book Neti Neti). And it feels so fresh, so confident in the ironic eye it turns on British influence, and so at home in being Indian. I’ll definitely be reading more Anjum Hasan.
Shillong, the hill-town where Hasan grew up and where the novel is set, has always had a lot of migrants but there’s still a strong feeling in the 1990’s world of the novel that the non-Khasi residents, no matter how long they’ve lived there, are dkhar – foreigners. Aman Moondy, making his second attempt at the Indian Administrative Service exam, Firdaus Ansari, trying to explain Shakespeare and Hemingway to teenage girls at a convent school and struggling to write a thesis on Jane Austen (she hasn’t read enough Dickens, the only other suggestion that’s been made), and 8-year-old Sophie Das are all dkhar. The elephant in the room is the extreme dkhar-ness of the system of Indian education and advancement. To pass his exam, which will qualify him to start his career in some small, dead-end town in the North-east, where he would fight to exercise authority over a dusty office full of people whose language he did not speak (59) Aman needs to mug up on Kant and Hegel as well as to answer questions on microwave ovens, virtual reality and the Theosophical Society. And really, he’d much rather be listening to Pink Floyd. Sophie, child of an ultra-pedantic English teacher, adores the British Royal family and knows that everything of value in this country was the legacy of the British (21). And here is Firdaus “teaching” As You Like It to her teenage class, reading from hand-written foolscap sheets that English department teachers kept handing down – their origins long faded, their anonymity adding to their air of authority (157):
"Jacques says to Duke Senior that his only suit or requirement is that he be allowed to wear a motley coat, one that will signal to the world that he is a fool. In addition, that is withal, he must have freedom as large as the wind to quote blow on whom I please unquote, that is to direct his foolish wit or his witty folly towards whomever he chooses"(58)
They all have ways of avoiding reality: Aman, with his lengthy philosophical letters to Roger Waters of Pink Floyd (not, so far, answered), Sophie with her habit of lying and her belief that she’s adopted, and Firdaus with the work on Jane Austen she’s been considering for four years without writing anything or even deciding what the thesis is about.
There’s a whole world that swirls around this calcified culture, a richly-realised world of small-town India. Aman’s life contains local Khasi thugs and hippieish lovers of Happenings (the Happening organised by Aman and his friends is very funny), Sophie finds a surrogate grandmother in Kong Elsa, the matriarch of Shillong with a shady Cilla Clarke-loving son, and Firdaus is in a nebulous relationship with Ibomcha, who may well be involved in something dubious, something that would enable him to make a quick buck. (103)
Hasan has a beautiful eye for detail:
Aman’s mother watches soaps all day "wearing an expression of careful consideration, as if what the characters were saying held some personal significance for her" (11)
Firdaus’ principal Mother Gertrude has feet in "bandage-like stockings encased in shiny black platform shoes, dodging puddles on the tarred compound. Mother Gertrude was Irish and as old and permanent as stone "(13)
Aman’s doctor father, son of a poor man, "had never been able to come to terms with the incongruity of sitting in the dark rooms behind the mithai shop, stuffy with fumes from the relentless frying of jalebis and kachoris by men in dirty vests, and reading about cholera and jaundice, food poisoning and indigestion" (62)
This is a book that deserves more attention than it’s got, at least in this part of the world. Although the characters are often sad, it’s very funny; quite apart from Aman and his Happening, I loved Firdaus’ clash with a colleague who bites her on the nose, and her encounter with a lecherous supervisor. Sophie is a touching and absorbing child (whose story has been continued in Hasan’s next book Neti Neti). And it feels so fresh, so confident in the ironic eye it turns on British influence, and so at home in being Indian. I’ll definitely be reading more Anjum Hasan.
November 30, 2020
The lunatic is in my head
The lunatic is in my head
You raise the blade, you make the change
You re-arrange me 'till I'm sane
You lock the door
And throw away the key
There's someone in my head but it's not me.
And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
You shout and no one seems to hear
And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon
It's so hard not to think of Pink Floyd when reading this book. For starters, the name is from a Floyd song. And then there's Aman who's hooked on Floyd and goes to lengths defending them when necessary. And the whole book reads like a psychedelic medley.
There are characters going about their lives - one literature lecturer in her 30s, single and drifting through her routine of college and her grandfather at home, an IAS aspirant coming to terms with adult life and the pressure of needing to earn a living, while being hooked on Floyd. And finally Sophie Das, an 8 year old, looking at adult world and its quandaries and quibbles and trying to come to terms with it, her world a set of images - the verbosity of conversations cut down and indecipherable. 3 different stages in life before you "settle down" into the rhythm and become a parent to someone starting life.
All they do is just go about their lives, its rhythms, its shocks, the other characters. And through their lives, and the lives of others, you see Shillong, its rhythms, its lives, its seasons. And at the end you'll feel just a little bit sad that your window into these lives and this city is now closed.
It's like being in a city, closing your eyes and letting it wash over you - its beauty, its filth, the best of it, and the worst of it.
Do not come looking for a plot, there is none here.
April 14, 2015
I am astounded! ‘Lunatic In My Head’ would easily be my own story. It has to be one of those very books, of the little that are there, that represents Shillong in its true colours. The landscape, the colours, the people, the occurrences, Pink Floyd (the book borrows its name from one of their songs), rain-Anjum Hasan is a judicious observer.
I would disagree that the main protagonists are fictitious; I could see a part of me in each one of them, Sophie Das an eight-year-old girl, Aman Moondy, an IAS aspirant and Firdaus Ansari, a lecturer. It isn't a mind-boggling story but the charming description of the sights and sounds of Shillong and the truthfulness beautifully encompassed in the narration make ‘Lunatic In My Head’ a delightful read. Sophie, Aman and Firdaus are dealing with their lives in their own little ways intoxicated a desperate stagnancy. While Sophie has her vivid imagination, Pink Floyd fuels Aman and Firdaus has a not-so-sure love life and an ever-elusive PhD. Every person in the book is a caricature of people I have known and know from Shillong-be it the friendly and warm Kong Elsa or the villainous Robert or the street vendor selling ‘aloo-mudi’ (a favourite local street food in Shillong). The individual stories have been interweaved cleverly with variegated Shillong forming the dramatic backdrop.
I would disagree that the main protagonists are fictitious; I could see a part of me in each one of them, Sophie Das an eight-year-old girl, Aman Moondy, an IAS aspirant and Firdaus Ansari, a lecturer. It isn't a mind-boggling story but the charming description of the sights and sounds of Shillong and the truthfulness beautifully encompassed in the narration make ‘Lunatic In My Head’ a delightful read. Sophie, Aman and Firdaus are dealing with their lives in their own little ways intoxicated a desperate stagnancy. While Sophie has her vivid imagination, Pink Floyd fuels Aman and Firdaus has a not-so-sure love life and an ever-elusive PhD. Every person in the book is a caricature of people I have known and know from Shillong-be it the friendly and warm Kong Elsa or the villainous Robert or the street vendor selling ‘aloo-mudi’ (a favourite local street food in Shillong). The individual stories have been interweaved cleverly with variegated Shillong forming the dramatic backdrop.
September 20, 2012
I chose this book because of the name, a reference to Pink Floyd's lyrics. Usually these whims never do me any good but this one paid me back in more than just a good reading experience. My own memories of Shillong were refreshed, somewhat altered even. For a debut, this book is pretty effing amazing. The story comes together beautifully, linking the threads of four different lives into an elaborate web. The sights and smell of a passive Shillong come alive. Everything she writes is so true, and in the end, for me it became more about Shillong inhabiting the people, rather than the people inhabiting the place.
Loved the characters, even though the women in it left me a little cold. Great read.
Loved the characters, even though the women in it left me a little cold. Great read.
November 17, 2020
I enjoyed reading this book. It's a quiet start and does not follow 'traditional' novelistic tropes or frameworks. The novel is a vibe in a way, it evokes a feeling of slowness; of time moving but nothing really happening with that. Im keen to read Neti Neti next, which I think is a sort of continuation of young Sophie's story. I haven't read many stories which are set in the North East of India, this is possibly a lack on my part but grateful to have read this and hopefully more to come.
It didn't take me long to finish. I did stop mid-way and then I had to return the library copy and could never re book it again. I was glad to find it in a second hand store a few years later because I wanted to finish the story. I enjoyed Firduas' character the most and I sorely hope I meet her again in some of Hasan's other novels.
It didn't take me long to finish. I did stop mid-way and then I had to return the library copy and could never re book it again. I was glad to find it in a second hand store a few years later because I wanted to finish the story. I enjoyed Firduas' character the most and I sorely hope I meet her again in some of Hasan's other novels.
September 21, 2012
I'm trying to put my thoughts together here to decide if this book is a 3 or a 4. 3 1/2, probably, but goodreads doesn't allow that for some reason.
This is the first book I've read in a while where the characters and the dialogues seemed real, and attention was paid to bringing the physical setting of the story to life. Hasan tells sad stories about people whose lives seem to be stuck, who seem to be failures. She tells these stories with care and precision, showing us in great detail the insides of their minds. And it strikes you that this is probably how such people are in real life.
Consider Aman and his obsession with Pink Floyd - it's pretty close to some real Floyd fans have come across. Or Mr.Das - his arrogance and his temper. When he has to teach schoolchildren for a living, the reader completely understands how this can be devastating for him as a person, even though, outwardly he seems to be doing well - money, new baby, little girl doing well at school, and so on.
Consider Thakur going "yehi sab hai" while advising Firdaus on her thesis - an immediately recognizable example of the mindset we often come across in this country, one that combines a reasonable degree of intelligence with cold practicality that is seemingly devoid of sensitivity. Jane Austen's work reduced to a few simple points, a thesis produced mechanically without the author caring for it.
Some of the dialogue is pretty good, and close to how Indians speak IRL. When it comes to *bad* Indian English though, Hasan doesn't do justice. But then, I guess it is pretty hard to do that.
Brownie points for Floyd references. I only spotted a couple of them, but I'm sure there are more in there for Floyd fans.
Things that happen to the characters also strike you as real - for example, the scene where Mr.Das slaps Mrs.Das, and that very evening, they behave as if nothing has happened, as if there was no fight. Anyone who has seen their parents fight will immediately identify with Sophie's need for "something to happen to undo what had been done". Aman's brain freezing when max threatens him near the aloomuri-wallah, the "numb panic" he feels is an all too familiar state of mind for me.
Not that I liked everything about the book. I didn't understand what Firdaus liked about Ibomcha, why she was with him. One never understand what is going through Jason's head, and feels like his character might have been underused. Sophie is endearing because of her childish innocence, but one wonders if the character might have been more believable had she been made difficult and unreasonable (like children are) in some ways. I have to admit though, that I never found her characterization cloying.
Overall, a good read, but not great. The pieces are all very nice, but unless I'm missing something, the core doesn't seem to be there. When I read Neti, Neti by the same author, I was struck by how accurately she captured the sense of emptiness that fills our lives. I felt no similar central theme here, so three out of five it is for me.
This is the first book I've read in a while where the characters and the dialogues seemed real, and attention was paid to bringing the physical setting of the story to life. Hasan tells sad stories about people whose lives seem to be stuck, who seem to be failures. She tells these stories with care and precision, showing us in great detail the insides of their minds. And it strikes you that this is probably how such people are in real life.
Consider Aman and his obsession with Pink Floyd - it's pretty close to some real Floyd fans have come across. Or Mr.Das - his arrogance and his temper. When he has to teach schoolchildren for a living, the reader completely understands how this can be devastating for him as a person, even though, outwardly he seems to be doing well - money, new baby, little girl doing well at school, and so on.
Consider Thakur going "yehi sab hai" while advising Firdaus on her thesis - an immediately recognizable example of the mindset we often come across in this country, one that combines a reasonable degree of intelligence with cold practicality that is seemingly devoid of sensitivity. Jane Austen's work reduced to a few simple points, a thesis produced mechanically without the author caring for it.
Some of the dialogue is pretty good, and close to how Indians speak IRL. When it comes to *bad* Indian English though, Hasan doesn't do justice. But then, I guess it is pretty hard to do that.
Brownie points for Floyd references. I only spotted a couple of them, but I'm sure there are more in there for Floyd fans.
Things that happen to the characters also strike you as real - for example, the scene where Mr.Das slaps Mrs.Das, and that very evening, they behave as if nothing has happened, as if there was no fight. Anyone who has seen their parents fight will immediately identify with Sophie's need for "something to happen to undo what had been done". Aman's brain freezing when max threatens him near the aloomuri-wallah, the "numb panic" he feels is an all too familiar state of mind for me.
Not that I liked everything about the book. I didn't understand what Firdaus liked about Ibomcha, why she was with him. One never understand what is going through Jason's head, and feels like his character might have been underused. Sophie is endearing because of her childish innocence, but one wonders if the character might have been more believable had she been made difficult and unreasonable (like children are) in some ways. I have to admit though, that I never found her characterization cloying.
Overall, a good read, but not great. The pieces are all very nice, but unless I'm missing something, the core doesn't seem to be there. When I read Neti, Neti by the same author, I was struck by how accurately she captured the sense of emptiness that fills our lives. I felt no similar central theme here, so three out of five it is for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 26, 2013
What a great story, probably one of those that I found at the right time in my reading history having just been to Bangladesh. A lot of the references were much easier to enjoy having experienced them first hand.
There are three main characters who all live in Shillong. They are all united in their desire to escape their supposed humdrum existence. In unusual and surprising ways their stories interweave and the sub characters fill out and become integral parts of the plot.
Sophie is an 8 year old girl who believes she is adopted. Firdaus is an English teacher who is putting of her phd and has a weird relationship with her boyfriend whom she is trying to ditch. And Aman is a a Pink Floyd fan who believes he is being sent messages through their music. What a great bunch of characters, set against the colour and intrigue that is India.
There are three main characters who all live in Shillong. They are all united in their desire to escape their supposed humdrum existence. In unusual and surprising ways their stories interweave and the sub characters fill out and become integral parts of the plot.
Sophie is an 8 year old girl who believes she is adopted. Firdaus is an English teacher who is putting of her phd and has a weird relationship with her boyfriend whom she is trying to ditch. And Aman is a a Pink Floyd fan who believes he is being sent messages through their music. What a great bunch of characters, set against the colour and intrigue that is India.
December 14, 2015
Beautifully evocative, lyrical and complex, Lunatic in my head made me yearn for my childhood in the mountains. The author has brought alive the "suspended in time" feel that permeates Shillong, the place where the novel is set. Nothing is rushed, life unravels at an easy, leisurely pace, even as its characters are caught up in great upheavals in their personal lives.
June 9, 2010
Different from most of the Indian novels. Didn't like the ending too much, but I enjoyed reading this one. And Sophie Das is a great character. =)
December 7, 2020
I've realized that this is the kind of book I love the most - contemplative, grounded in ordinary lives delicately made out, understated (but not stagnant) in its narrative movement. Anjum Hasan's writing is gorgeous, quietly evoking landscapes (specifically here of Shillong) and lives with insight and care. I found myself caring for the characters and their location in life more than I'd expected to - and it's a testament to Hasan's subtlety that I didn't feel goaded into it. The book on the whole is imbued with a melancholia that nevertheless doesn't get overwhelming. And it all feels so very real - poetic, but veined with the true. I picked this up on a whim and found myself liking it far more than many books I'd read recently that tried desperately to Say Something Important. Wonderful
April 8, 2020
This book is super awesome. If, like me, you haven't read Anjum Hasan before, then just 10-15 pages into this book you get a good sense that you are in for a treat. As you continue reading, you can't stop but admire everything you come across. Her writing, her craft and, the thing that I most admired, her way of telling three different stories in eight parts which are nothing but eight different emotions (namely courage, wonder, sadness, anger, fear, joy, love and peace). It was very new to me. I thoroughly enjoyed every single second of the time I spent with this gem of a book. If you haven't read it, please do. If you have read any of her other books, I would be interested in knowing your views.
September 24, 2020
Have never holidayed in a place, about which I hadn't read atleast a couple of books. Travelled to Shillong last week and was frantic with worry - I didn't know a single author from Meghalaya!. Then came upon this and strongly urge you all to give it a shot. It's not just that she brings out Shillong in all it's beauty and disparities. She writes beautifully. Shillong is a melting pot of so many cultures. The author brings out the joy and trials of this, through the eyes of Khasi and non-Khasi people.
And if you are a Pink Floyd fan, you will just love how she has captured the passions that fly high at the mere mention of the band's name, in coffeehouses of Shillong.
And if you are a Pink Floyd fan, you will just love how she has captured the passions that fly high at the mere mention of the band's name, in coffeehouses of Shillong.
January 26, 2023
Life seeping through everyday in a town where almost nothing ever happens and someday, out of the blue -everything starts to happen. Shillong comes alive in Hasan's words. The city, the weather, the people, the spirit - all comes in line and fall in place, like a drop of rain on your forehead. Drop, after drop.
March 20, 2020
What a delight
Hadn't read anything ever, based in Shillong. What a great one to get introduced to life and culture of the place. Loved her writing style.
Hadn't read anything ever, based in Shillong. What a great one to get introduced to life and culture of the place. Loved her writing style.
February 27, 2021
inconclusive but i liked the Mish mash of characters
August 2, 2021
Beautiful, poetic & atmospheric (slow) read. Feels like you're in the North East watching these characters and their slightly messed up lives. Need more such books set across India.
March 4, 2023
Reread this beauty again. Relived my favourite moments and scenes from the book and made new favourites too. I won't be surprised if I start feeling the urge to reread it the third time.
What a book!
What a book!
June 16, 2023
A breath of fresh air amidst the chaos of Hoover/Huangs and Bookstagram in general.
Loved it.
4.5/5
Loved it.
4.5/5
May 23, 2024
This book is a mood! Somewhat of a gloomy vibe now and then, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It goes well with the weather of the setting. Interesting and well etched out characters. Firdaus and Ibomcha were an odd but cute pairing.
July 21, 2018
Elsa fended off entreaties to stay for dinner. They drove back through the now dark streets with their orange streetlights and brightly lit shops. Sophie was lulled by the slow movement of the car. She was thinking of the bride's face, of the many different kinds of shoes she had noticed, the colour of a woman's lipstick, the ribbons in a toddler's hair. She thought that the nicest thing, the nicest thing by far, even better than being adopted, would be if she could somehow turn into one of them, somehow become Khasi.
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Story of three individuals, their understanding of family and it's bonds and their love hate relationship with the place called Shillong. Firdaus is that academician who wants to pursue knowledge for its purpose not the title it comes with. Aman is the example of those youth who wastes away their lives because of their indecisiveness despite having a great brain. Sophie was the best creation of author, a child who longs to belong to some place or community.
The book touches multiple themes from literature and music, and runs them parallel with the characters. Dickens's bleak world, Austen's spinsterhood, Hemingway's conflicts, all are just there in the text making you think. And I totally missed out the Pink Floyd reference Aman was build on!
____
Story of three individuals, their understanding of family and it's bonds and their love hate relationship with the place called Shillong. Firdaus is that academician who wants to pursue knowledge for its purpose not the title it comes with. Aman is the example of those youth who wastes away their lives because of their indecisiveness despite having a great brain. Sophie was the best creation of author, a child who longs to belong to some place or community.
The book touches multiple themes from literature and music, and runs them parallel with the characters. Dickens's bleak world, Austen's spinsterhood, Hemingway's conflicts, all are just there in the text making you think. And I totally missed out the Pink Floyd reference Aman was build on!
January 1, 2021
A very well written short novel, full of intricate parallel running lives of 3 people unknowingly linked to each other by 2 common threads- 1) their location, the beautiful town of Shillong that lends itself to the backdrop and everything about this book is refreshingly small town, 2) all the characters have downright bleak present and an uncertain future that lies ahead adding to their growing frustrations waiting to implode any minute.
The title is apt, as the current state of things continues to bother them to a breaking point sometimes.
Will they break free of their destinies and find their own peace. Well read it to find out more
The title is apt, as the current state of things continues to bother them to a breaking point sometimes.
Will they break free of their destinies and find their own peace. Well read it to find out more
September 14, 2017
This is the second book I've read of Anjum Hasan, and probably the word to describe her writing is "fluid". Word follows beautiful word and it makes me keep on reading the next one, the next page and the next book. The stories, or the people, or the places don't really matter, because her words are pure joy, jumping out of the page, engulfing you and smiling at you. She can charm writing about anything at all. A Reading Nirvana, if you will
December 23, 2012
I enjoyed the characterisation and the portrayal of ordinary lives struggling to find a sense of place amid conflicting social and personal expectations.
There were no neat solutions and the book manages to capture something of the shape of life and all its messy unsatisfactoriness. It also gives the reader insights into a contemporary India not often portrayed: the middle class.
There were no neat solutions and the book manages to capture something of the shape of life and all its messy unsatisfactoriness. It also gives the reader insights into a contemporary India not often portrayed: the middle class.
April 9, 2013
I picked up the book BECAUSE of the pink floyd reference and was certainly not disappointed. The story was as good as it can get and the added bonus was that the protagonists shared the same sentiments towards Pink Floyd and The old man and the sea. Kudos to Anjum Hassan for making such an impressive debut. Absolutely loved reading this one.
May 25, 2016
As another reviewer said, this is less a novel and more a collection of fragments and moods about a place. It's beautiful and evocative, dreamy and inward-looking. But I preferred Firdaus' story the best of the lot and feel there's a whole interesting novel in there about her compared to the two other characters; one a child, and another a man whom I forgot about as soon as I finished book.
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