Sialkot Saga by Ashwin Sanghi - A Review

Sialkot Saga by Ashwin Sanghi - Cover

India's history has lot of events spread over the past seven decades. It has even lot more if you include the time when kings ruled this great nation. For many of us in the current generation, history is what we read and learnt in the social science class - mostly memorized. Business, unless it interests you when you are brought up, is a difficult thing to grasp. Even when we read a thousand books on business, the basic concepts if not inculcated right in the beginning years, will always make us feel timid when attempting new things. Similarly, many of us are timid when we grow up! Once some event happens to challenge that limitation, we become strong and forever! Sanghi presents Arvind and Arbaaz to depict these two sides. What happens when their lives meet is the plot.

It is not unusual for us to see many such plots in movies, or read in books. Yet, what makes this book interesting? It is the way that Ashwin has intertwined the historical events with the stories of Arvind and Arbaaz. A business man learns from his cues on what is going in the state - it is based on lot of factors, but the characteristic of the ruler is an important fact. Ashwin presents this fact to us through Arvind. What is Lal Bahadur Shastri's character, and what will be his first job and ties it to business investments. It also presents in detail the development stages that our great nation has gone through in different periods (yet, wondering why is it still a developing country; with all these happenings in the past six decades we should have been 2x developed by now). One could easily realize that a great research has gone into the writing of this book! Great job, Ashwin!

Arbaaz's story presents us with the dark side of Bombay. How dons rule it, and how they don't even think about finishing off people that stand in their path! One has to have right person on his side here too, for their own development. Abdul gets Arbaaz, and Arbaaz gets Murali. Arbaaz's and Arvind's love with Paromita adds softness to the book (the way Arvind & Paromita communicates their love through periodic table is awesome!). With excellent plots and turns, there is never a time when you feel like putting down the book (I know, we need to - to attend our work, or family matters, or get some rest. If these things are not there, one could finish this book in a 10 hour marathon read).

Coupled with the snippets from the period of Ashoka, Samudragupta, Harsha and all the way till Thiruvananthapuram, the reader will be able to degust this book certainly. We do feel happy when we see Arvind and Arbaaz listed in Forbes top 20, and also get emotional when Arvind's life comes to an end! That explains the power of Ashwin's writing. All in all - a beautiful fiction with a good mixture of history, business, crime, love, hate, politics, emotions!

Some animals hunt. Some animals hide. Few animals hide and hunt! Similarly, some writers write. Some writers entertain. Only few writes and entertains! Sanghi is part of this group!