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The Song of Kahunsha
Abandoned as an infant, ten-year-old Chamdi has spent his entire life in a Bombay orphanage. There he has learned to find solace in his everyday the smell of the first rains, the vibrant pinks and reds of the bougainvilleas that blossom in the courtyard, the life-size statue of Jesus, the "beautiful giant," to whom he confides his hopes and fears in the prayer room. Though he rarely ventures outside the orphanage, he entertains an idyllic fantasy of what the city is like – a paradise he calls Kahunsha, "the city of no sadness," where children play cricket in the streets and where people will become one with all the colours known to man.
Chamdi’s quiet life takes a sudden turn, however, when he learns that the orphanage will be shut down by land developers. He decides that he must run away in search of his long-lost father, taking nothing with him but the blood-stained white cloth he was left in as a baby.
Outside the walls of the orphanage, Chamdi quickly discovers that Bombay is nothing like Kahunsha. The streets are filthy and devoid of colour, and no one shows him an ounce of kindness. Just as he’s about to faint from hunger, two seasoned street children offer the lovely, sarcastic Guddi and her brother, the charming, scarred, and crippled Sumdi. After their father was crushed by a car before their eyes, the children were left to care for their insane mother and their infant brother. They soon initiate Chamdi into the brutal life of the city’s homeless, begging all day and handing over most of his earnings to Anand Bhai, a vicious underworld don who will happily mutilate or kill whoever dares to defy him.
Determined to escape the desperation, filth, and violence of their lives, Guddi and Sumdi recruit Chamdi into their plot to steal from a temple. But when the robbery goes terribly awry, Chamdi finds himself in an even worse situation. The city has erupted in Hindu-Muslim violence and, held in Anand Bhai’s fierce grip, Chamdi is presented with a choice that threatens to rob him of his innocence forever.
Chamdi’s quiet life takes a sudden turn, however, when he learns that the orphanage will be shut down by land developers. He decides that he must run away in search of his long-lost father, taking nothing with him but the blood-stained white cloth he was left in as a baby.
Outside the walls of the orphanage, Chamdi quickly discovers that Bombay is nothing like Kahunsha. The streets are filthy and devoid of colour, and no one shows him an ounce of kindness. Just as he’s about to faint from hunger, two seasoned street children offer the lovely, sarcastic Guddi and her brother, the charming, scarred, and crippled Sumdi. After their father was crushed by a car before their eyes, the children were left to care for their insane mother and their infant brother. They soon initiate Chamdi into the brutal life of the city’s homeless, begging all day and handing over most of his earnings to Anand Bhai, a vicious underworld don who will happily mutilate or kill whoever dares to defy him.
Determined to escape the desperation, filth, and violence of their lives, Guddi and Sumdi recruit Chamdi into their plot to steal from a temple. But when the robbery goes terribly awry, Chamdi finds himself in an even worse situation. The city has erupted in Hindu-Muslim violence and, held in Anand Bhai’s fierce grip, Chamdi is presented with a choice that threatens to rob him of his innocence forever.
320 pages, Paperback
First published March 14, 2006
21 people are currently reading
1255 people want to read
About the author
Anosh Irani
12 books79 followersAnosh Irani is an Indo-Canadian novelist and playwright.
His novels and plays have garnered much critical and popular acclaim and he is considered to be a rising star in Canadian literature.
He was born and grew up in Mumbai, India in a Parsi family of relatively recent Persian origin (hence the surname Irani), but now makes his home in Vancouver, Canada.
He is a graduate of the University of British Columbia.
His novels and plays have garnered much critical and popular acclaim and he is considered to be a rising star in Canadian literature.
He was born and grew up in Mumbai, India in a Parsi family of relatively recent Persian origin (hence the surname Irani), but now makes his home in Vancouver, Canada.
He is a graduate of the University of British Columbia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
October 28, 2007
Kahunsha is a beautiful idea.
I know a friend who is like this boy, they would understand.
This book is:
Outstanding, simple and freeing.
Sad, trembling and understandably different.
I know a friend who is like this boy, they would understand.
This book is:
Outstanding, simple and freeing.
Sad, trembling and understandably different.
October 4, 2010
The Song of Kahunsha is a forceful story. It offers a concise yet painfully grim glimpse into the microcosm of the street dwellers of Bombay, highlighting the acute social and psychological conflicts played out in the day to day conditions of life on the streets of the Indian megalopolis.
At the thematic heart of the story is the boy’s existential conflict (where do I come from, why did my father abandon me) and his attempt to take fate in his own hands. Chamdi, a ten year old orphan decides to walk away from the protective environment of a Christian-oriented orphanage into the unknown labyrinth of Bombay, the world’s second most populated megalopolis (and model-city of urban planning for so-called Third-World cities in the new millennium). He is fuelled by innocent dreams of a fantastical alternate city, Kahunsha, that is the diametrical opposite of Bombay’s bleak and gritty living conditions. This journey eventually leads him to a most disturbing and dramatic quandary over right versus wrong.
These are complex issues, and unfortunately the books’s compact length limits the exposition, so that the progressive development of character that one expects suffers as a consequence, and the novel fails to come to a compelling conclusion.
The Song of Kahunsha serves up a rather spare and straightforward narrative lacking an expected complexity - the kind that I encountered, for example, recently in Jhumpa Lahiri’s short stories compiled in Unaccustomed Earth. There is an attempt to add some narrative layering, by placing a foreshadowing segment as the novel’s opening to create a sense of circularity. But this flourish isn’t a meaningful one; the time line juxtaposition doesn’t really inform the reader’s interpretation in any significant way.
Maybe the novel’s shortcoming is due to the fact that point of view in Song of Kahunsha is a necessarily simple one predicated by Chamdi’s tender age. Yet there is more at fault than the limitations of a young child’s perspective.
Irani states that “Story dictates style--the characters tell you what style you should use.... When I write about a boy's loss of innocence, it is essential to keep the writing as real, truthful, and simple as possible.” Unfortunately it isn’t so in this book.
During the first third in particular I found the narrative techniques stylistically contrived. The environment of the orphanage is described through Chamdi's eyes, as if they are the lens of a camera panning the scene from one end to the other. I was aware of Chamdi as an expository tool to justify the description of his surroundings, rather than as a character in his own right : "As he enters the room he sees....He turns his attention to....Now Chamdi watches...Now Chamdi sees...."
I also picked up several instances in the opening pages of the novel where the voice of Chamdi did not ring true for his age or for his specific circumstances (a confined world view that is up to that point limited by the walls of the orphanage): "The moment you ask for something, the prayer room becomes a marketplace." What marketplace can Chamdi be cognizant of, if he has not yet set foot beyond the orphanage? In fact, his very ignorance of the marketplace is what tragically leads Chamdi to his eventual predicament.
Later on, the street-wise Sumdi provides similarly pithy philosophical statements: "The problem is that we live. We find just enough food to stay alive, and we are forced to live on and on in this hell." I found these to be more appropriate to Sumdi's character & circumstances, given the homeless boy's living conditions and the shady adults he interacts with. Even if Sumdi himself is too young to have thought it up himself, most likely he heard it from his parents, from Dabba the box-man, or even from Anand Bhai.
Actually, it’s Sumdi's character that is the heart of this story, and once he is gone, the novel reverts back to the initial limitations of point-of-view. Sumdi is a most vivid character - at first threatening, aggressive, then protective, defensive; initially strong, then weak; swaggering, then practical; streetwise, but also naïve; possessing also an biting sense of humor ("I'm in love. Biggest illness"). Sumdi possesses a vibrancy that betrays the author may have been more (dis)engaged while shaping him, and thus allowed Sumdi to be who he is, unlike Chamdi who even at the most harrowing moments remains the narrative tool rather than a character in his own right.
This is the novel’s structural limitation. Chamdi the narrative tool starts off the story as a Candide-esque symbol of an idealized Western morality (thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill) and then his attempt to take his fate in his own hands eventually lead him into a most disturbing and dramatic quandary of right versus wrong.
One of the themes of the novel is the concept of dreams and storytelling as a means to (re)create an alternate reality/script from that which is being truly experienced.
Chamdi dreams of his Kahunsha, the city of no sadness and the city where ‘no’ does not exist. He is also drawn to stories – he reads out loud to the younger children in the orphanage – and he is a creator of his own stories (The Boy Whose Ribs Became Tusks). Yet Chamdi’s relation to stories, dreams and alternate scripts is limited. Even though he can create a fantastical city – Kahunsha – or recount whimsical stories ("So he made up his mind to achieve something so wonderful that if he were to tell anyone his life story, it would take days to tell, even weeks, and the ending would be a happy one…"), he betrays one significant limitation. He is unable to make the connection between storytelling and lying – both fabrications – unlike Sumdi who uses storytelling (lies) to win over the taxiwalla, or as a secret weapon against Anand Bhai. Again, Sumdi’s character is more complex: Sumdi allows himself to be mesmerized by Chamdi’s story of The Boy Whose Ribs Became Tusks, as a temporary panacea for the pain of his miserable existence, yet he knows full well it’s just a temporary reprieve from his condition, just like the alcohol & drugs (& even sex) of the adults’ world he warns Chamdi against. Which is why Sumdi soon ‘forgets’ Chamdi’s story, much to Chamdi’s dismay. Chamdi himself is still living in the delusion of the story, while Sumdi has moved on.
One wonders why Chamdi is not as preoccupied with fabrication (both storytelling, and outright lying) as a ‘mortal sin,’ as is the case with the other two Christian precepts that bring to light time and again the existential dilemma – that of the disparate realities between the ideal world of the orphanage and the complex realities on the streets of Bombay.
Unfortunately the problematic point of view manifests itself in the novel’s climactic passage. The events of that scene are too engulfing and momentous to have any real impact on Chamdi the lost boy. What the reader imparts from that scene is very different from that something (if anything) understood by the character himself. Thus the story’s conclusion fades away, like the sunset view from the Gate of India, and it’s difficult to place Chamdi’s character in context. What opens the story (the discovery of free will) and the climax (the inconsequentiality of free will, and the triviality of moral arguments involving right versus wrong vis-a-vis the struggle to remain alive), cease to have any real structural meaning – there is no narrative resolution - when juxtaposed against ‘the horror the horror’ imparted on the reader: the relentless poverty and human cruelty that has become an integral element of the economic & political fabric of the megalopolis.
At the thematic heart of the story is the boy’s existential conflict (where do I come from, why did my father abandon me) and his attempt to take fate in his own hands. Chamdi, a ten year old orphan decides to walk away from the protective environment of a Christian-oriented orphanage into the unknown labyrinth of Bombay, the world’s second most populated megalopolis (and model-city of urban planning for so-called Third-World cities in the new millennium). He is fuelled by innocent dreams of a fantastical alternate city, Kahunsha, that is the diametrical opposite of Bombay’s bleak and gritty living conditions. This journey eventually leads him to a most disturbing and dramatic quandary over right versus wrong.
These are complex issues, and unfortunately the books’s compact length limits the exposition, so that the progressive development of character that one expects suffers as a consequence, and the novel fails to come to a compelling conclusion.
The Song of Kahunsha serves up a rather spare and straightforward narrative lacking an expected complexity - the kind that I encountered, for example, recently in Jhumpa Lahiri’s short stories compiled in Unaccustomed Earth. There is an attempt to add some narrative layering, by placing a foreshadowing segment as the novel’s opening to create a sense of circularity. But this flourish isn’t a meaningful one; the time line juxtaposition doesn’t really inform the reader’s interpretation in any significant way.
Maybe the novel’s shortcoming is due to the fact that point of view in Song of Kahunsha is a necessarily simple one predicated by Chamdi’s tender age. Yet there is more at fault than the limitations of a young child’s perspective.
Irani states that “Story dictates style--the characters tell you what style you should use.... When I write about a boy's loss of innocence, it is essential to keep the writing as real, truthful, and simple as possible.” Unfortunately it isn’t so in this book.
During the first third in particular I found the narrative techniques stylistically contrived. The environment of the orphanage is described through Chamdi's eyes, as if they are the lens of a camera panning the scene from one end to the other. I was aware of Chamdi as an expository tool to justify the description of his surroundings, rather than as a character in his own right : "As he enters the room he sees....He turns his attention to....Now Chamdi watches...Now Chamdi sees...."
I also picked up several instances in the opening pages of the novel where the voice of Chamdi did not ring true for his age or for his specific circumstances (a confined world view that is up to that point limited by the walls of the orphanage): "The moment you ask for something, the prayer room becomes a marketplace." What marketplace can Chamdi be cognizant of, if he has not yet set foot beyond the orphanage? In fact, his very ignorance of the marketplace is what tragically leads Chamdi to his eventual predicament.
Later on, the street-wise Sumdi provides similarly pithy philosophical statements: "The problem is that we live. We find just enough food to stay alive, and we are forced to live on and on in this hell." I found these to be more appropriate to Sumdi's character & circumstances, given the homeless boy's living conditions and the shady adults he interacts with. Even if Sumdi himself is too young to have thought it up himself, most likely he heard it from his parents, from Dabba the box-man, or even from Anand Bhai.
Actually, it’s Sumdi's character that is the heart of this story, and once he is gone, the novel reverts back to the initial limitations of point-of-view. Sumdi is a most vivid character - at first threatening, aggressive, then protective, defensive; initially strong, then weak; swaggering, then practical; streetwise, but also naïve; possessing also an biting sense of humor ("I'm in love. Biggest illness"). Sumdi possesses a vibrancy that betrays the author may have been more (dis)engaged while shaping him, and thus allowed Sumdi to be who he is, unlike Chamdi who even at the most harrowing moments remains the narrative tool rather than a character in his own right.
This is the novel’s structural limitation. Chamdi the narrative tool starts off the story as a Candide-esque symbol of an idealized Western morality (thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill) and then his attempt to take his fate in his own hands eventually lead him into a most disturbing and dramatic quandary of right versus wrong.
One of the themes of the novel is the concept of dreams and storytelling as a means to (re)create an alternate reality/script from that which is being truly experienced.
Chamdi dreams of his Kahunsha, the city of no sadness and the city where ‘no’ does not exist. He is also drawn to stories – he reads out loud to the younger children in the orphanage – and he is a creator of his own stories (The Boy Whose Ribs Became Tusks). Yet Chamdi’s relation to stories, dreams and alternate scripts is limited. Even though he can create a fantastical city – Kahunsha – or recount whimsical stories ("So he made up his mind to achieve something so wonderful that if he were to tell anyone his life story, it would take days to tell, even weeks, and the ending would be a happy one…"), he betrays one significant limitation. He is unable to make the connection between storytelling and lying – both fabrications – unlike Sumdi who uses storytelling (lies) to win over the taxiwalla, or as a secret weapon against Anand Bhai. Again, Sumdi’s character is more complex: Sumdi allows himself to be mesmerized by Chamdi’s story of The Boy Whose Ribs Became Tusks, as a temporary panacea for the pain of his miserable existence, yet he knows full well it’s just a temporary reprieve from his condition, just like the alcohol & drugs (& even sex) of the adults’ world he warns Chamdi against. Which is why Sumdi soon ‘forgets’ Chamdi’s story, much to Chamdi’s dismay. Chamdi himself is still living in the delusion of the story, while Sumdi has moved on.
One wonders why Chamdi is not as preoccupied with fabrication (both storytelling, and outright lying) as a ‘mortal sin,’ as is the case with the other two Christian precepts that bring to light time and again the existential dilemma – that of the disparate realities between the ideal world of the orphanage and the complex realities on the streets of Bombay.
Unfortunately the problematic point of view manifests itself in the novel’s climactic passage. The events of that scene are too engulfing and momentous to have any real impact on Chamdi the lost boy. What the reader imparts from that scene is very different from that something (if anything) understood by the character himself. Thus the story’s conclusion fades away, like the sunset view from the Gate of India, and it’s difficult to place Chamdi’s character in context. What opens the story (the discovery of free will) and the climax (the inconsequentiality of free will, and the triviality of moral arguments involving right versus wrong vis-a-vis the struggle to remain alive), cease to have any real structural meaning – there is no narrative resolution - when juxtaposed against ‘the horror the horror’ imparted on the reader: the relentless poverty and human cruelty that has become an integral element of the economic & political fabric of the megalopolis.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 10, 2009
Anyone who loved Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner" and Rohinton Mistry's "A Fine Balance" will love this novel just as much. What 10-year-old Chamdi, Sumdi and Guddi go through together is unbelievable.
From back cover:
"In 1993, Bombay is on the verge of being torn apart by racial violence. Ten-year-old Chamdi has rarely ventured outside his orphanage, and entertains an idyllic fantasy of what the city is like-a paradise he calls Kahunsha, "the city of no sadness." But when he runs away to search for his long-lost-father, he is thrust into the chaos of the streets, alone, possessing only the blood stained cloth he was left in as a baby.
Chamdi struggles for survival in the harsh streets. But when he is caught up in the beginnings of the savage violence that will soon engulf the city, his dreams confront reality, and Chamdi finds himself growing up very fast."
From back cover:
"In 1993, Bombay is on the verge of being torn apart by racial violence. Ten-year-old Chamdi has rarely ventured outside his orphanage, and entertains an idyllic fantasy of what the city is like-a paradise he calls Kahunsha, "the city of no sadness." But when he runs away to search for his long-lost-father, he is thrust into the chaos of the streets, alone, possessing only the blood stained cloth he was left in as a baby.
Chamdi struggles for survival in the harsh streets. But when he is caught up in the beginnings of the savage violence that will soon engulf the city, his dreams confront reality, and Chamdi finds himself growing up very fast."
March 14, 2025
Qué horror, qué drama, qué pena...
Lo he sufrido mucho, muchísimo, no se lo recomendaría a nadie.
La sinopsis es una patraña.
Lo he sufrido mucho, muchísimo, no se lo recomendaría a nadie.
La sinopsis es una patraña.
January 20, 2024
Splendido! Uno dei miei libri preferiti.
June 4, 2025
Questo libro parla di un bambino che è costretto ad abbandonare l’orfanotrofio in cui vive e fa amicizia con altri due, un ragazzo e una ragazza, entrando nel mondo della povertà a Bombay. Inizialmente l’ho trovato un po’ banale nelle descrizioni, dopo si sviluppa nello scoprire la realtà della megalopoli indiana e della guerra politico-religiosa. Temi del genere sono un colpo al cuore, non mancano di ricordarmi quanto sia importante essere grati di quello che si ha e non giudicare realtà che non conosciamo. È un romanzo dolceamaro, in cui l’ottimismo del piccolo protagonista è costantemente minacciato dalle crudeltà a cui assiste e assistiamo.
June 25, 2020
In realtà 4,5 stelline
India mon amour
.
Anche quando è sporca, violenta e difficile... L'India nei libri è qualcosa di magico, nonostante tutto ciò che rappresenta
.
"Il bambino con i petali in tasca" è un romanzo duro, brutale, che ci fa conoscere l'India più difficile, quella di strada. Tra sporco, topi, miseria, fame e violenza
.
Il protagonista, un ragazzino di 10 anni, nella folle impresa di cercare suo padre si ritrova a dover vivere per strada. A dover fare i conti con quello che questa vita comporta
.
Ma nonostante tutto il brutto che ne scaturisce l'India non smette mai di fare magie. La magia della speranza e dell'amicizia
.
Un romanzo toccante, emozionante e duro che mi ha conquistata. Ho amato i personaggi e i messaggi di speranza che ne scaturiscono
.
Un romanzo ben scritto, scorrevole e che dipinge a tinte forti ciò che l'India è, perché è anche questo!
India mon amour
.
Anche quando è sporca, violenta e difficile... L'India nei libri è qualcosa di magico, nonostante tutto ciò che rappresenta
.
"Il bambino con i petali in tasca" è un romanzo duro, brutale, che ci fa conoscere l'India più difficile, quella di strada. Tra sporco, topi, miseria, fame e violenza
.
Il protagonista, un ragazzino di 10 anni, nella folle impresa di cercare suo padre si ritrova a dover vivere per strada. A dover fare i conti con quello che questa vita comporta
.
Ma nonostante tutto il brutto che ne scaturisce l'India non smette mai di fare magie. La magia della speranza e dell'amicizia
.
Un romanzo toccante, emozionante e duro che mi ha conquistata. Ho amato i personaggi e i messaggi di speranza che ne scaturiscono
.
Un romanzo ben scritto, scorrevole e che dipinge a tinte forti ciò che l'India è, perché è anche questo!
September 19, 2017
It is a brilliant book. Charles Dickens of India in a way. This novel is just like Oliver Twist but happens to be in Bombay. Poignant, and natural. One of the most underrated Indo-Canadian authors.
March 12, 2018
A novel full of despair. I found no hope there!
It was depressing and difficult to read.
It was depressing and difficult to read.
June 23, 2016
You can read this review and others like it over at The Nomadic Reader.
A friend was giving away some of his books because he’s running out of room, and of course being the book lover I am, I decided to pick out a few to add to my own collection. One of them was this Canada Reads book from 2007 that I had never heard of.
The Song of Kahunsha is about a 10 year old orphan boy who lives in Bombay. One day he learns that the orphanage is going to be shut down, and instead of going that rout he decides to take his fate in his own hands, and sets out to find his birth father who left him on the steps so long ago.
One of the great things about this book is the innocence that Chamdi has, no matter how many hardships he faces. This comes across as a child’s method of coping, and it’s written in a magical way that pulls the reader through his world. His world is one of heartache, pain, and violence but also one of incredibly colours, hope, and belief. He learns that the world is rough, and even though he meets up with two children around his own age, Sumdi and Guddi, things are going to get a lot harder. Together they start collecting money for Anand Bhai, who “turns people into boxes”. Chamdi’s world is further shaken when on the day he is supposed to steal from a local temple, something terrible happens (as if enough had not already happened).
Still, Chamdi finds beauty. He sees things with the eyes of a child and he’s unable to completely give up his child-like ways, even though he sees evils all around him, evils that the reader understands but that the 10 year old Chamdi cannot.
This isn’t a happy ending book but sometimes you need something deeply emotional to shake you up a little and get you out of a reading rut.
4/5 Stars
A friend was giving away some of his books because he’s running out of room, and of course being the book lover I am, I decided to pick out a few to add to my own collection. One of them was this Canada Reads book from 2007 that I had never heard of.
The Song of Kahunsha is about a 10 year old orphan boy who lives in Bombay. One day he learns that the orphanage is going to be shut down, and instead of going that rout he decides to take his fate in his own hands, and sets out to find his birth father who left him on the steps so long ago.
One of the great things about this book is the innocence that Chamdi has, no matter how many hardships he faces. This comes across as a child’s method of coping, and it’s written in a magical way that pulls the reader through his world. His world is one of heartache, pain, and violence but also one of incredibly colours, hope, and belief. He learns that the world is rough, and even though he meets up with two children around his own age, Sumdi and Guddi, things are going to get a lot harder. Together they start collecting money for Anand Bhai, who “turns people into boxes”. Chamdi’s world is further shaken when on the day he is supposed to steal from a local temple, something terrible happens (as if enough had not already happened).
Still, Chamdi finds beauty. He sees things with the eyes of a child and he’s unable to completely give up his child-like ways, even though he sees evils all around him, evils that the reader understands but that the 10 year old Chamdi cannot.
This isn’t a happy ending book but sometimes you need something deeply emotional to shake you up a little and get you out of a reading rut.
4/5 Stars
October 16, 2018
The song of kahunsha - by Anosh Irani
Another book written on bombay- i wonder why isnt much written on delhi in the indian writing scene. If you know any books please do share.
This is a story of chamdi - an orphan who runs away from his orphanage and lands up in the dirty world of bombay beggars and is ultimately forced to kill an innocent family during the hindu- muslim riots.
The imagination of a little boy who thinks of a world called kahunsha was very beautiful.
The ending was a bit abrupt but i was hooked to the book all the way. I am not satisfied with how the story ended - it makes you feel like there should be more to it. Maybe the author should write a sequel.
The story is sad and is very well written. Happy to have read it. I give it a 3.8/5
Another book written on bombay- i wonder why isnt much written on delhi in the indian writing scene. If you know any books please do share.
This is a story of chamdi - an orphan who runs away from his orphanage and lands up in the dirty world of bombay beggars and is ultimately forced to kill an innocent family during the hindu- muslim riots.
The imagination of a little boy who thinks of a world called kahunsha was very beautiful.
The ending was a bit abrupt but i was hooked to the book all the way. I am not satisfied with how the story ended - it makes you feel like there should be more to it. Maybe the author should write a sequel.
The story is sad and is very well written. Happy to have read it. I give it a 3.8/5
February 8, 2020
It was so good I finished it in one day! There was certainly some disturbing parts of the book, but seen through the eyes of a 10 year old, it was an interesting perspective of life in a politically divided country and how one survives with a vivid imagination despite being placed in awkward situations and seeing what life was like in the poorer areas of Bombay
July 28, 2022
La storia di Chamdi, un bambino che si trova ad affrontare eventi che una qualunque persona non dovrebbe mai.
Parte da un orfanotrofio, luogo in cui, nonostante tutto, vive bene, amato, curato; tuttavia lo tormentano domande sui suoi genitori, sul motivo per cui l'hanno abbandonato.
Dopodiché si ritrova da solo a girovagare per Bombay e, per sua fortuna, trova Sumdy e Guddy, due fratelli senzatetto, che lo accolgono nella loro famiglia. Anche se la scusa è quella di fare un furto nel tempio, motivo per cui scelgono Chamdi per la sua magrezza, i tre si affezionano e instaurano un legame quasi fraterno; tra Guddy e Chamdi sembra che il legame sia più di un semplice legame fraterno.
I tre lavorano per un criminale di Bombay; non vogliono farlo, ma ne hanno bisogno per sopravvivere. Escogitano il colpo, ma proprio il giorno in cui deve avvenire i musulmani fanno un attentato al tempio (luogo della rapina); Sumdy muore, Guddy viene ferita gravemente e Chamdi rimane miracolosamente illeso. A questo punto si susseguono una serie di eventi, che portano Chamdi e Guddy a vivere nella casa del criminale, con i suoi dolci genitori, che li curano e li difendono. Chamdi viene costretto a compiere un reato molto grave per evitare che il criminale venda Guddy. Tra i due bambini, perché alla fine questo sono, si instaura un legame ancora più forte, che li lega nonostante tutto ed è molto di più di semplice fratellanza.
Il bambino con i petali in tasca è un libro emozionante, scritto molto bene, che si fa leggere in un baleno; la storia è triste, ma purtroppo è rappresentativa della condizione di molti bambini orfani che vivono in questa città.
Parte da un orfanotrofio, luogo in cui, nonostante tutto, vive bene, amato, curato; tuttavia lo tormentano domande sui suoi genitori, sul motivo per cui l'hanno abbandonato.
Dopodiché si ritrova da solo a girovagare per Bombay e, per sua fortuna, trova Sumdy e Guddy, due fratelli senzatetto, che lo accolgono nella loro famiglia. Anche se la scusa è quella di fare un furto nel tempio, motivo per cui scelgono Chamdi per la sua magrezza, i tre si affezionano e instaurano un legame quasi fraterno; tra Guddy e Chamdi sembra che il legame sia più di un semplice legame fraterno.
I tre lavorano per un criminale di Bombay; non vogliono farlo, ma ne hanno bisogno per sopravvivere. Escogitano il colpo, ma proprio il giorno in cui deve avvenire i musulmani fanno un attentato al tempio (luogo della rapina); Sumdy muore, Guddy viene ferita gravemente e Chamdi rimane miracolosamente illeso. A questo punto si susseguono una serie di eventi, che portano Chamdi e Guddy a vivere nella casa del criminale, con i suoi dolci genitori, che li curano e li difendono. Chamdi viene costretto a compiere un reato molto grave per evitare che il criminale venda Guddy. Tra i due bambini, perché alla fine questo sono, si instaura un legame ancora più forte, che li lega nonostante tutto ed è molto di più di semplice fratellanza.
Il bambino con i petali in tasca è un libro emozionante, scritto molto bene, che si fa leggere in un baleno; la storia è triste, ma purtroppo è rappresentativa della condizione di molti bambini orfani che vivono in questa città.
January 9, 2023
India in the early 90s is still an epoch I am learning about despite my ethnic background. It was an era erupting with religious antagonisms, poverty, violence, and bad memories for those that survived to tell the story– or not.
The Song of Kahunsha takes place a year after the demolition of The Babri Masjid. A young and naive orphan boy, Chamdri, runs away from his orphanage in pursuit of finding his father. Instead, his ambitious dreams and idealistic vision of a utopian city, Kahunsha, comes in confrontation with the ruthless streets of Bombay.
What stood out the most to me in this book was its depiction of the religious conflicts in India. Picking up the book felt really relevant to the conversations that I was having with my Indian parents, and I needed another perspective.
I think it’s really hard to write about these religious conflicts in an unbiased manner. In fact, I think it’s impossible to do so entirely. And of course, the book tried to do so, and succeeded for the western perspective and in other ways it could, so I really give Anosh Irani credit for that. I loved the bleak imagery of the writing. It showed Bombay in a less exoticized, more genuine picture. And to have it in the perspective of ones that are rarely ever highlighted, of poor and homeless Indian children, made for a difficult and new experience. It was an at times, revolting, but an overall unique book, and especially one that I am grateful to have read in the time that I did.
The Song of Kahunsha takes place a year after the demolition of The Babri Masjid. A young and naive orphan boy, Chamdri, runs away from his orphanage in pursuit of finding his father. Instead, his ambitious dreams and idealistic vision of a utopian city, Kahunsha, comes in confrontation with the ruthless streets of Bombay.
What stood out the most to me in this book was its depiction of the religious conflicts in India. Picking up the book felt really relevant to the conversations that I was having with my Indian parents, and I needed another perspective.
I think it’s really hard to write about these religious conflicts in an unbiased manner. In fact, I think it’s impossible to do so entirely. And of course, the book tried to do so, and succeeded for the western perspective and in other ways it could, so I really give Anosh Irani credit for that. I loved the bleak imagery of the writing. It showed Bombay in a less exoticized, more genuine picture. And to have it in the perspective of ones that are rarely ever highlighted, of poor and homeless Indian children, made for a difficult and new experience. It was an at times, revolting, but an overall unique book, and especially one that I am grateful to have read in the time that I did.
January 11, 2023
This book should come with a warning label due to the extreme violence. Fortunately it is a quick read and after two days immersion in the slums of Bombay I can move on to something more uplifting.
This is the story of a ten year old boy who leaves the orphanage and finds himself on the mean streets of Bombay. He hooks up with a boy and girl who are looking after their mother, who has gone mad and is carrying an almost lifeless baby. The boy and girl are part of a gang of beggars, most of whom are disabled and disfigured. When we meet their boss, we learn that he is the one who is doing the disfiguring, as it increases their earning power.
The backdrop to the story is that it takes place during the Indian Partition. Moslems have recently murdered a Hindu family, and retribution is being planned.
The boy has dreams. He has created the imaginary city of Kahunsha, where people are happy. His own future, however looks bleak.
The book is bleak, but well written. I would like to know about the author's motivation in writing this story, which seems realistic. I will be mulling over his intention.
This is the story of a ten year old boy who leaves the orphanage and finds himself on the mean streets of Bombay. He hooks up with a boy and girl who are looking after their mother, who has gone mad and is carrying an almost lifeless baby. The boy and girl are part of a gang of beggars, most of whom are disabled and disfigured. When we meet their boss, we learn that he is the one who is doing the disfiguring, as it increases their earning power.
The backdrop to the story is that it takes place during the Indian Partition. Moslems have recently murdered a Hindu family, and retribution is being planned.
The boy has dreams. He has created the imaginary city of Kahunsha, where people are happy. His own future, however looks bleak.
The book is bleak, but well written. I would like to know about the author's motivation in writing this story, which seems realistic. I will be mulling over his intention.
July 13, 2023
I read this book about 15 years ago, and it has stayed with me ever since. It is a story about an orphan's struggles growing up and trying to survive on the streets of Bombay. Irani writes evocatively from the perspective of a young boy. The description is so realistic and immersive: of the streets - the sights and smells; the ordeals he goes through as he meets various conniving adults who try to take advantage of him and his friends; the description of Chimdi's emotional turmoil and his bravery, and sometimes his lack of comprehension of events that are too foreign to the mind of a child.
I would recommend this for mature young adult readers not only because of the writing itself, but also because of the subject matter.
Funnily enough, a couple of years after I read this book, the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" was released. That story is very similar to this novel, except the novel is more tragic because the characters are still children. Being young and helpless made the story that much more suspenseful, moving and inspiring.
I would recommend this for mature young adult readers not only because of the writing itself, but also because of the subject matter.
Funnily enough, a couple of years after I read this book, the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" was released. That story is very similar to this novel, except the novel is more tragic because the characters are still children. Being young and helpless made the story that much more suspenseful, moving and inspiring.
October 3, 2019
Chamdi is a 10-year-old orphan Who lives in an orphanage in Bombay. The orphanage Is about to get closed down, and the children will be sent north to an unknown place. Chamdi doesn't want to leave Bombay because he dreams of finding his father, so one night he runs away. Instead of finding his father, he finds a corrupt landscape where he's drawn unwittingly into the grip of the leader of a ruthless gang.
Beautiful and terribly sad, full of characters to love and despair of, and descriptions of vivid, at times revolting sights and smells.
Beautiful and terribly sad, full of characters to love and despair of, and descriptions of vivid, at times revolting sights and smells.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 14, 2022
Story of a young boy who leaves an orphanage when he learns it is closing. He sets out to find his long-lost father. He ends up in Bombay where he meets a poor family, and through them, learns to survive on the streets. It's always fascinating for me to read about other cultures, but this story seems to end without resolution, as least not that I could recognize. Perhaps that is the author's intention, i.e. the hopelessness of poverty, but hopefulness in our relationships with fellow human beings.
November 3, 2024
I enjoyed this read but it was really very sad. Despite the main character being such a naturally kind, creative and loving soul, the story is simply sad throughout. You continue reading and you hold hope which keeps you wrapped up in the story. It gave me a very heavy heart. I will need a break from reading this kind of thing for now even though I want to read more of this author's books. I will give myself some time and read something else. A great read but be prepared for sorrow, heartbreak, etc.
July 25, 2018
Trovo che gli scrittori indiani abbiano il grande talento di raccontare temi duri come la povertà, la guerra, la morte senza gettare il lettore nell'angoscia, con una delicatezza tale da farlo sembrare "protetto" per poi, voltando pagina, spiazzarlo con un momento di brutalità inaspettato. Le tre stelline sono dovute all'estrema leggerezza di alcuni passaggi; i protagonisti sembrano essere spettatori, freddi e distaccati nostante ciò che gli accade.
November 8, 2017
I had the honour to meet Anosh Irani last year, as he was promoting "The Parcel", which I loved.
I wanted to read more of his work and grabbed a copy of "The Song of Kahunsha"
This book is a beautiful coming of age story, with strong yet vulnerable characters. The prose is exquisite, the setting is rich and the descriptions are vivid. A beautiful story written by a master.
I wanted to read more of his work and grabbed a copy of "The Song of Kahunsha"
This book is a beautiful coming of age story, with strong yet vulnerable characters. The prose is exquisite, the setting is rich and the descriptions are vivid. A beautiful story written by a master.
May 18, 2020
It's always hard to say that I liked a book when the subject was just so darn depressing but I liked this book. I liked the resilience and optimism of Chamdi but it was sad too, to see that in the end he was also realistic enough to know what he had to do to survive, even knowing what horrible things that would include.
May 23, 2017
I read this book in one day. I could not put it down, hoping for a miracle for Chamdi. It is overwhelming to read about the conditions and lives of children in Bombay. Hoping and praying it is not as bad as portrayed. Naive of me.
September 12, 2017
This was a 2007 Canada Reads selection. I don't know where it ended up, but this is one powerful, well-written novel. And very heart-wrenching to boot. It pays tribute to the human spirit and the hope that is always around the corner.
January 12, 2019
Heartbreaking; beautiful imagery; a fearful tale set in Mumbai’s dangerous slums of a boy with a magnificent, impossible dream. At times my heart really broke. At times I felt something good would come. A story of goodness and evil and the truth of life within those walls.
May 14, 2019
If it wasn't so sad, I'd call this book perfect. A poignant portrayal of how to remain hopeful in a world that treats you badly. Chamdi finds solace in growing things, in colors, in his imagination, even while continuing to love and care for those worse off than he. A beautiful book!
March 6, 2021
Difficult story to read. Beautifully written. Loved the cover of the book. Different than above but could not find my copy on goodreads editions. Didn't really understand the ending. Very similar to A Fine Balance. The world is too cruel to children everywhere.
November 2, 2023
Interesting read, I love reading and learning about other cultures. Although it is very sad to think about the hardship that children have to grow up in other countries around the world in our day and age.
August 30, 2017
Un racconto toccante, a tratti straziante, della vita di strada a Bombay, a cui il bambino protagonista cerca di sfuggire rifugiandosi nella fantasia e nel conforto dell'amicizia.
February 4, 2018
Available at SPL and SERC
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