Manan: A review

Manan is the debut novel of Mohit Parikh, my senior from MNIT. Published by HarperCollins the book captures the predicaments and dilemmas of a teenager attaining puberty. Written in a beautiful way, this book can be the story of any teenager from a middle class family who grew up in a town in '90s. It evokes happy memories of an age when the internet was still knocking on our doorsteps, when kids used to watch WWF (now WWE, but do they still watch it??) and played Mario on their TV sets.

We all were kids once whose noses leaked, shirts got untucked and the post office in pants was always open, ready to take in letters.  

Manan, a topper of class (the first ranker) day dreams as often as others, something I didn't know then that toppers did. He dreams of a giant evil eye, imagines a Version II and Version III of himself competing against each other. Mohit is reminding us of what we used to be, rebuilds a dream world which is long forgotten but will always be there, a part of us. 

There are Tenthies and Ninethies, there is The Missing Mail by R.K. Narayan, there is Geotropism, there is Poshamba bhai Poshamba, there are PT Sirs and Skit Ma'ams.  And there is Hriya, the girl whose name you used to write in your text book, whose name you murmured every time you needed luck to be on your side, whose initials you wrote with your own in a heart shape you drew out in the mud. 

But Manan is more than that. I suspect that Manan is the story of Mohit Parikh himself. Knowing him from my college days, it seems that Mohit is telling his own story, a bright and intelligent kid who relates everything in the world around to what he has read in his Science Text book. Manan is a thin and lanky fellow who feels insecure about his physical appearance but is a heavyweight when it comes to studies and extra curricular activities like debating. Is it a co-incidence that Mohit Parikh has used flow charts in the book to explain his thoughts, when one knows that he excelled at Digital Electronics, Microcontrollers and Computer Architecture (subjects taught by Rakesh Bairathi. You'll understand  what I am saying if you are from MNIT)? Or that many characters in the book share their names from actual people who were students at MPS, the school Mohit hails from. 

"And I am going to be what I want to be, nobody else will decide it for me. Neither you, Mummy, nor you, Papa. "

Mohit Parikh quit a lucrative job which used to pay a handsome salary to be what he wants to be. Because he indeed, is the Pride of Jaipur :). 

Read Manan if you were a teenager in '90s and especially if you are from Jaipur. You won't be disappointed.