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Bombay Rains, Bombay
Girls
"You’ve got to see two things in Bombay: the Bombay rains and the Bombay girls". Adi begins his journey to Medical College in Bombay with this piece of advice, as exotic as it is scary for an impressionable 18-year-old from a small town. He arrives in Bombay, with the usual stars in his eyes, and the extra baggage of a set of insecurities and the belief that he did not deserve his seat in Medical College. Bombay Rains is all about his gradual transformation into not just a successful student but also a confident individual with leadership qualities. It is also about ‘old-fashioned’ values like integrity, honesty with the world but first of all with oneself, courage in the face of mind-boggling odds and accepting the fact that the unfamiliar too can be right. Adi, Harsha, Sam, Toshi, Rajeev and Pheru—thrown together into the melting pot of ragging emerge as more than mere sketches. Bose paints them in flesh and blood, with distinctly different personalities and reactions—Pheru’s fatalism, Sam’s lack of personal hygiene, Rajeev’s self-absorption, Toshi’s struggle for recognition as an Indian `85 they are all meticulously portrayed, as is their struggle with a world that appears bent on subverting their values. Medicine, we are told, is about life and death, with doctors taking the place of God in the minds of patients. However, these patients are not just specimens to be studied but humans with a mind as well as a body, a fact that doctors are constantly reminded of. Dr Choksi’s statement in the book "Wearing a white coat and carrying a stethoscope around your neck means providing relief `85 there’s very little we can actually do to cure diseases in patients, but we can always bring relief by simply listening to them" describes ‘the art of listening’, which every medical student must learn before he can become a doctor. But what of the humanness of the doctors themselves, who have to suffer their doubts and indecisions on their own? Toshi’s death in an air crash shakes his friends out of their complacent existence and brings them face to face with issues far more complex than anatomy or biochemistry. Adi must face losing his hard-earned popularity for doing what he considers right, Harsha realises that in saving a young woman from an abusive husband he can face his own battered past better, Rajeev learns to see reality beyond his self and Pheru is finally able to redeem himself through their close-knit friendship. A wonderfully written book, which should be read not just for the beauty of the language but also for its lesson in compassion and humanity. Bose has proved himself as a writer to keep an eye out for.
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ANOTHER
point proven by doctors—in addition to being cerebral and possessing
the capacity of working inhuman hours, they can also write great novels!
Reminiscent of Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone, Bose’s Bombay
Rains, Bombay Girls also has a college hostel as its setting, a
group of misfits as its cast, and their transformation, as the book
progresses, into adults who will become not just first-class
professionals, but also sensitive and caring individuals as its theme.
That said, the similarity ends. Where Five Point Someone is a
celebration of mediocrity, Bombay Rains is all about rising above
it.