Once There Was Me: The Extraordinary Life of an Unknown Indian | 9789389109559

 

To Purchase the book click below-

Once There Was Me: The Extraordinary Life of an Unknown Indian

Product Info 

Cover - Paperback ( 427 Pages )

Publisher - Pan
Author - Bobby Sachdeva

Publishing Year -2020

Language - English

ISBN-9789389109559

Category -Indian Writing Books

Product Description -

Caught in the web of communal violence repeatedly, Bobby Sachdeva stares at his burning house set afire by the bloodthirsty mob of the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. As a fourteen-year-old, his world turns upside down, exactly at the age his father had escaped from Pakistan during the Partition of India. Recovering from the trauma, Bobby re-builds his business and journeys across the US and China, experiencing a life unhindered by religious animosity. Having experienced both sides of religion – of immersion and detachment – he starts questioning the role of religion in our lives. Based on his vision of an emergent India, Bobby finally submits a PIL in the Supreme Court for religious shrines to distribute their excess income for the downtrodden. What happens next as religious hardliners turn against him?

 

Author

Bobby Sachdeva is a story teller and a businessman based in Amritsar. While his profession and his circle of interaction marks him out as an outsider in literary circles, his radical views on religion, society and tradition make him stand out as an unconventional writer from among the non-literary common people. Several of his short stories are under consideration by media houses. He is currently producing short films based on these short stories in Punjabi and Hindi. After The Stories of Us, Bobby Sachdeva's novel Once There Was Me releases in April 2020. 

Review

‘A man's search for freedom from an imposed identity and forced displacement to an understanding of religion and finally a rejection of how the idea of God is marketed to billions in India. Lucid prose, deeply emotional, and scathing in its treatment of organised religion. Powerful!’ – AMANDEEP SANDHU, author of Roll of Honour

 

‘Bobby Sachdeva's book Once there was Me is at once raw and sincere. Filled with painful memories of a tumultuous past, this is a narrative that is deeply personal but one that the world must read - especially today when differences can be deadly’ –PARO ANAND, author of No Guns at My Son’s Funeral


‘A compassionate novel about lives distorted by the tragedies of Partition and the events of 1984 and 2002, and one man's attempt to break free from the stranglehold of the past in order to usher in a brave new India. A work with especial relevance for the times we live in’ –VIKRAM KAPUR, author of The Assassinations: A Novel of 1984

 

‘A deeply personal account on a sprawling canvas of history in which desires and conflicts intersect with borders and pogroms. An unsettling story of dispossession and displacement in a world where the earth keeps moving under the feet. Pointedly topical for the times we live in’ –ANIRUDH KALA, author of The Unsafe Asylum: Stories of Partition & Madness