MY NAME IS CINNAMON BY VIKAS PRAKASH JOSHI
BOOK REVIEW
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‘My Name is Cinnamon’ is the heartwarming tale of Roshan Rishikesh Paranjape, aka Cinnamon. He refers to himself as a ‘heart baby’ who lives with his adoptive parents in Pune. From the first chapter onwards, the readers get drawn into this sensitively crafted narrative, as they travel with Cinnamon and his parents along the path that leads him to his birth parents. There is no evading the fact that the young boy is adopted, and the way the author has tackled this fact is exemplary.
The attractive cover is reminiscent of the covers of yore
– maybe those of RK Narayan or Mulk Raj Anand. A sense of warmth and bonhomie
pervade the pages of the book with its endearing illustrations. Cinnamon lives
the life of a normal, fun-loving boy, a winning goalkeeper for the Diamond
International school, a skilful artist, a history buff and like so many
children today, petrified of math, as is evident from his childlike query to
his friend,
“Don’t you think math was basically invented to torture
us?”
Vikas Joshi
purposely keeps the tone of his book light through gentle humour.
“It was impossible for anything thrown at Teacher not to
hit him, there was so much of him.” An aside about a portly friend of Cinnamon’s!
“It is Newton’s fifth law that when a teacher steps out
of a primary school class for more than a decent period of time, somebody starts
singing.”
Cinnamon’s schooldays are full and interesting, sometimes
thrilling when they win matches, otherwise dull when it comes to Mrs. Godbole’s
(nicknamed Kadubole by Cinnamon) Math classes. The author makes this even more evident
through a Blake parody.
“Teacher, teacher … boring right?
In the classroom of the fright
What inhumane hand or eye
Could frame such monstrous syllabi?”
The most heartening part of the theme right through is
how Cinnamon refers to himself as a ‘heart baby’ and his birth mother as his ‘tummy-mummy’.
He declares that he is adopted, a fact that he has known ever since he could
understand the situation, His adoptive parents brought him up on beautiful parallels
of the lives of Krishna and Karna, leaving him with not a trace of shame or embarrassment
about his own adoption. A wonderful message that touches the reader’s heart!
The moment comes when Cinnamon sets out to meet his birth
mother who lives in Ratnapur after her first husband’s death. The author brings
out the nuances of his nervousness, his excitement, his doubts and his fears before
the meeting. The understated emotion of his adoptive mother is also revealed equally
subtly through her silence, her loss of appetite, and her wearing black shades.
It is a revelation to both Cinnamon and his birth mother when they finally understand
each other, realising that there are shades of her in him – his confidence, his
curiosity, his courage, and his intelligence. He watches her with awe, as he
realises that “Bravery was also in the small, everyday things you did in your
life to keep going from day to day.”
Other subtle messages stud the narrative – the significance
of the Swadeshi movement, and support to Indian products and services is woven
in without a fuss.
The beautiful and unexplored district of Nandurbar also serves
as an example of how life can be simplified – “the trees, the pure air and
water, the forested hill, the clean streams and ponds, and the healthy village
food grown without using any chemicals” – a message of sustainable living explained
simply by Devendra to Cinnamon.
That the author is a gastronome is obvious in the
evocative food descriptions wherever Cinnamon goes. It starts at Pune with tambda,
kosha mangsho, chingri malai curry, missal pav, vada pav and many more. The
cuisine at Kolkata is also described lovingly – aloo posto, kumro chingri
curry, narkel ladoos, ghugnee and luchis, doi maach. How can any gastronomic
experience in Kolkata be complete without its mouthwatering rosogullas, sandesh
and chom-chom? Finally, at Ratnapur, Cinnamon samples paatre, sev bhaji,
phalari chewda, upma with green peas and kadhi khichadi. This is only a sample
of the delicious food mentioned across the book.
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I have read this book twice, once to envisage the story
being told, and the second time to fathom the depth of the experiences that Cinnamon
goes through. As the author himself said in his note about the book, “I hope
the book has provided both a mirror to reflect the reader’s experiences and a
window to provide a glimpse of another world.”
This book needs to be read by many, many readers. It is a
testimony of how a simply, but lucidly told tale, can transcend the normal and
soar towards the sublime. I congratulate Vikas Prakash Joshi on a tale,
sublimely told.
802 words
Book title – My name is Cinnamon
Publisher – Hay House Publishers India Pages – 210 pages Language – English
Genre – Drama, humour
Author – Vikas Prakash Joshi
Available on – amazon.in
Purchase link – https://www.amazon.in/Name-Cinnamon-Vikas-Prakash-Joshi-ebook/dp/B0BRYKFB17/ref=sr_1_1?crid=32R2AULBDYCA0&keywords=my+name+is+cinnamon&qid=1675393561&s=digital-text&sprefix=my+name+is+cinnamon%2Cdigital-text%2C266&sr=1-1
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