Book Review: Those were the days by N. S. Ravi

Book Name- Those were the days

Author- N. S. Ravi

Publisher- Frog Books

Price- Rs. 195

Blurb-

I get frustrated when I hear my own people criticizing India.

I feel sad when I realize that more than half of the Indian population is unaware of what we have achieved in the recent past.

It is unfortunate that we seniors along with the government have jointly failed to make our younger generation know how great this country is. We teach them about Ramayana, Mahabharata and few selected leaders during the independence movement. We name all our new schemes after one or two leaders as if they were the only ones who did everything.

India is more than just few leaders. India has been a movement which assimilates everything which comes in to contact with it and it is people who live here who make it happen.

The last fifty years have seen tumultuous changes world over. These have had vibrations in India as well.

Let us re-live these years.

My take-

‘Those were the days’ is not just a novel telling you about India in 1950s or 1960s. It’s much more than that. It’s the author’s journey of life. The author has seen India changing and he has narrated his vision about India to us. He does it by writing letters addressed to his son and daughter. This is the first book I have read wherein the narration has been done using letters as the medium. He talks about the postal system of India, the buses, the trains, the radio systems, the typewriters, the cameras and many other things. Every letter has that personal touch. It gives you a homely feel when you read it. I could very well compare it to my grandmother recounting the stories of her childhood.

The narration is in simple English and very much understandable. The Memorabilia at the end of few chapters was the cherry on the cake. The flow of the chapters has been smooth.

The author’s love for our country is visible in his writing.

I would recommend this book to all those who loved listening to granny’s stories. ‘Those were the days’ made me miss my granny. I had an awesome time reading it.

I rate the cover with 3.5/5 stars.

My overall rating for ‘Those were the days’ is 4/5 stars.

You can get your copies here.