Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Review: Call Me Dan


Anish Trivedi, an ex-investment banker is more popularly known for his stint as a Radio Jockey and a TV anchor. Call Me Dan is Anish’s debut novel. The topic he has chosen to write about may lead to comparisons with another erstwhile investment banker who is now an acclaimed author, Chetan Bhagat. The backdrop of the Chetan Bhagat’s book One Night at the Call Centre and Call Me Dan’s are the same. But this is where the similarity ends.
Call Me Dan is the story of thirty year old Gautam Joshi who works in a call centre in Mumbai. Gautam lives in Mumbai with his parents and a younger sister. While Gautam is happy with his call centre job his parents are not. They look at the job as that of a glorified telephone operator! They want him to change his job but he is perfectly happy with his life, his job and the perks that come along with it!
Gautam’s call name is Daniel but he prefers to be called Dan. Gautam wants to mould his actual life into that of Dan- a beer guzzling, smooth talking, cool dude. Dan is everything that Gautam is not. Dan is what Gautam aspires to be.
Gautam comes across as a very self-centered youth who believes in living for today. He has absolutely no compunctions lying to his girlfriend of four years, Michelle, family and friends. His world is only that of me, me, and me.
The book is very much as the blurb puts it “The book is a look at the new India, where arranged marriages and one night stand are all part of a young man’s search for love. Even true love.”
The book is well paced making the reader want to know what comes next but at the same time you find it difficult to relate with the characters. Most of the time, as a reader you feel, the characters of the book come across as shallow.
The book is a light and easy read without taxing your grey matter too much! A light hearted read which many of the call centre generation can identify with! An interesting debut novel.


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