Ajay and the Mumbai Sun by Varsha Shah
Ajay and his friends are the abandoned orphans of Mumbai station and children of the nearby slums. He is a boy with ambition and a mission and nothing and no one is going to stop him. Watch out world, here comes Ajay!
His mother’s pen is all he has of her, and with it he is going to be a journalist and since he’s too young for the job he creates his own paper The Mumbai Sun. And before he knows it he is uncovering corruption and somehow he will have justice rule in this world .
The story rips along, each short chapter bounding like its hero, scarcely stopping for breath. But beautifully constructed, so that we encounter so many different emotions as a chapter ends. The storyteller’s beloved triumph and despair are here, of course, but others more subtle: self-doubt, realisation, grief, bewilderment, elation. All sketched with an efficient but very graceful brevity.
At one level it’s a romp that defies gravity – easy to pick up, hard to put down – but much more is woven into its fabric. Here is a passion for justice and fairness, a belief in the power of intention alongside acknowledgement of its dangers, a recognition that bad actions do not define a person, that friendship matters a great deal, that we all (even a little street kid no one notices unless to shout at) can and do make a difference in the world. And if you like cricket, there’s a great cricket match too.
There are echoes of Emil and the Detectives and surely Varsha Shah has seen the old Ealing comedy Hue and Cry. It will make a great movie.
Good news! There’s a sequel (published next month – I’m writing in March 2023) Ajay and the Jaipur Moon.
