“Men and dreams in the Dhauladhar” written by Kochery C Shibu.
Kochery C Shibu has graduated from the prestigious NDA and served the Indian Navy.
After serving in the navy, he worked for a few hydro projects in India.
“Men and dreams in the Dhauladhar” have a strong and very long storyline, with many different lives like Nanda, Rekha, Khusru and Mangu Ram and how they end up being in the same place with different stories and different dreams
The story surrounds around a Hydro project based in the middle Himalayas, there are three main protagonists in the story: Nanda, Rekha, and Khusru.
Everyone is running away from their past in the hope of making a better tomorrow and they end up being in the same place.
Though most part of the story is based in Dhauladhar it introduces you to the different part of the country, different cultures of the country and different society barriers.
The story talks about the oldest martial art forms “Kalliari” and its glory, the story talks about the Kathak and a passion, the story talks about the affection for the family, it talks about the desires, it talks about the love we always crave for.
Nanda, who is an engineer by profession who tried his best to end the decades-old tradition and bloody rivalry, but ended up being a victim and to save himself and last few members of his family, who are left from this rivalry, he had to run, from one corner to another corner, keeping his dreams alive.
Rekha, MBBS by education, but a dancer by profession, she kept her grandmother’s dreams alive by doing MBBS, and lived her own life by earning fame and performing all around the globe, creating fusions with different dance forms, but when she was forced to get married her last wish landed her into Dhauladhar.
Khusru, a young rebel, a heartthrob, who has done mischievous wrong things for his childhood dream. A dream of being with his family, a Jihadi who is misguided and misleading, but always clear on what is right and what is wrong. Khusru is always on the side of humanity and he has proved it many times in the story.
The perfect articulation of the words will let you imagine and feel the cold weather of the Himalayas, and the emotions of the plot in this story.
Shibu has just not written the story, he lived through all the characters very delightfully, and each chapter comes as a finishing on a clay pot.
A beauty of the story is that there are so many different characters with different shades of life, creating altogether a different experience of reading.
The story successfully creates an impact on the readers. The way the author has showcased and given a perfect touch of culture by using famous local phrases, and the way characters recited the “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”, the author succeeds to leave an everlasting effect on reader’s minds.
Those beautiful lines at the end of each chapter, are not just the hopes and dreams of the characters in the novel, but they are the truth and desires of the modern society in India.
What made it different?
The diversity of characters, a story-line and dreams altogether makes a different experience of reading, different experience of dreaming, and by touching so many aspects of life Shibu justified the title “Men and dreams in the Dhauladhar”
-Ashutosh Chaudhary
Apollo 18 