A big thank you to the author for sending me a review copy. 🙂
When you say ‘cricket’ in India, there’s a sense of euphoria and loyalty that permeates the atmosphere, along with a brightening of the eyes. This sport affects so many people and shapes their lives into what they finally turn out that it simply becomes a part of them. They could go on and on for ages expounding knowledge about the sport, analyzing it, and playing it with a zeal that becomes so hard to find most times. And Life in the Sunshine: Autobiography of an Unknown Cricketer is the story of three such people: Sat, Sam, and Trib, called the Triple Sundae.
These three characters are the thickest of friends, brought together by their mutual love of cricket. They support each other in their cricketing endeavors and have fun as they navigate the cricket in their own life as well as live through the Indian Men’s Cricket Team’s journey from 1986 onwards. Of course, if you’re talking Indian Cricket and not talking about Sachin Tendulkar, you’re not talking at all.
While the language used throughout the book is not exceptional, merely above average, it is engaging and humorous enough that you stick with the book till the very end. Being entertaining and informative is a tough thing to achieve but Life in the Sunshine does it beautifully. Hardly have you turned a page than the author has a quirky comeback or comment that will have you sniggering to yourself while trying to retain the cricketing information that he’s skillfully doling out amidst the banters and experiences.
The funny thing about this book is that the moments it describes are vaguely familiar and I kept wondering why because many of them happened even before I was born. It took me back in time and watched as I looked on in awe. And I really didn’t understand how that was even possible because how do you experience, even in a vague memory-like state, something that you have never lived through before?
As children, we had the most ridiculous explanations and justifications for everything that happened around us. Kids like me, taking the smarter way out, didn’t tell anyone these explanations for fear of being mocked. Life in the Sunshine has a number of preposterous settings conjured up for historical cricketing events. “It must have happened like this, we thought,” and thus goes on the explanation that you can’t help but laugh at and enjoy.
The best part about this book is that it doesn’t get preachy and philosophical while telling their story. Coupled with interesting insights and statistics of the Indian Men’s Cricket Team, it made me laugh and made my eyes twinkle of mirth when I wasn’t laughing out loud. How the Triple Sundae celebrated their friendship and their passions and went from listening to cricket, to watching it, and then to learning and gleaning information from it. Not to forget the many life lessons they learned from this much-loved sport.
With Tamil terms sprinkled across the story, you get the feel of a Tamil accent and you’ll find yourself narrating the story to yourself in that accent!
The best part of this book is Abdul – a person who the three friends can’t stand because of his eerie, almost ghost-like existence taunting them about India’s losses to Pakistan. Now, in hindsight, I’m almost certain Abdul was a ghost, haunting the three friends and then leaving to go annoy the people of Pakistan. 😛
Sathish’s life, combined with the course that the Indian Men’s Cricket Team takes while he’s living his childhood and teenage is a light, easy, breezy read that you can pick up on a dull Sunday evening and fill it with the colors of your laughter! Recommended!
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Until next time, keep reading and add melodrama to your life. 🙂
The Melodramatic Bookworm 