Well, it isn’t easy to write a book about doctors and the lives they lead, till you are not a doctor yourself and may be that is why Dr. Banerjee has the advantage and he has chosen well to write a book about doctors. I have read one book on Doctors earlier by Erich Segal and I loved it. There was almost everything in it – the madness, the stress, the loves, the conflicts and the lives. To read another book on Doctors and that too after watching Grey’s Anatomy, made it easier for me. To be able to understand the terminology and also the Internet was handy sometimes to look up stuff I didn’t know about.
What is the Long Road about?
It is about five medical students and their lives – that is to put it simply. There is Rahul and Sarika – from two varied backgrounds and yet in love. Theirs is a bittersweet love story so to say and somehow it can connect with almost anyone who has ever been in love. There is Hina from the bylanes of Bhiwandi who is trying very hard to create a space for her and her ideals amidst a world she has never known and is trying to fit in. Then there is Ranjiv, the proverbial spoilt rich kid who wants to prove a point desperately to his parents and the world that he can make something out of his life and finally Sagarika who is living the American Dream till it shatters in her face.
These five strangers come together and try and make sense of their lives. Along the way they realize and know many things through events and incidents, however it is the connect between them that I found most endearing in the entire book. The quips and the dialogues were unique and anyone can relate to it and that is what kept the book going for me.
I would not want to spoil the book for you so I am not going to say anything more about the plot, except that it is intriguing and only gets better. I liked the writing, though I also think that Dr. Banerjee tried to fit a lot of thoughts and processes in this short 176 page novel. The interaction between the doctors is funny and relevant in so many places that it makes you think about their lives in context to what we do as laymen.
The Long Road is the kind of book I would read while I am traveling and I do not know why. It just seems like a book that I would read while I am in transit – from one place to another – may be that is also because of the tag line which says, “Journey is the Destination”.
The Long Road; Dr. Vivek Banerjee; Cedar Books; Pustak Mahal; Rs. 150
Of Books and Reading 