Amazon.in
What ensues whenCOVID-19 wipes out the entire human race
and animals take over the world? Angry Junglee Bosses by Cross (Gaurav Roy) tells you just that. It
is an allegorical novel that is faintly reminiscent of Orwell’s Animal Farm.
The bright red cover image with a dapper Fox winking at the reader catches the
attention at once, rousing curiosity in the contents of the book.
The shrewd Fox, armed with his exuberant inner Fox, is
surely the perfect protagonist for this book. His business degree aids him to
walk into his first job at We Feed Ya as a sales representative. Fox had never
envisioned himself as an employee, which he felt was a “never acknowledged form
of slavery” almost as good as serving jail time.
From the start, the façade of the corporate world comes
into play, with offices on different levels atop a tall broad tree, a reception
area, meeting rooms replete with framed, garlanded photographs of the Great Bat
that infected humans with the virus. “The Age of the Animals came with the extinction
of the humans.”
Multi-lingual and well-travelled, Fox is initially impressed
by the facilities in his new workplace – hollow bamboo pipes for communication,
the Bugged Lines that connect the vast jungle, the bustling cafeteria, the fascinating descriptions of
animals used for agriculture according to their strengths, and the seemingly
efficient running of the office. He meets his bosses and his colleagues and puts
his acumen to work at once, multi-tasking to meet his deadlines.
The first bosses he meets reinforce his urge to prove
himself – the understanding Bison, the friendly and helpful Himalayan Bear, the
elderly African Elephant and the mature white Liger, with whom he shares a
rapport.
However, Fox’s expectations come crashing down as delays stall his tasks, forcing him to burn the candle at both ends. One bone of contention is that he does not wear the dirty yellow uniform shirt. His biggest disappointment comes when he realises the duplicity of the other animals who have the power to make his life uncomfortable – Hippopotamus, Gharial, Hyena and above all, the obnoxious Sheep.
How does Fox handle the situation? Is he able to stem the
rot in the system and contain the rumours that surround him? These and other
questions are answered in great detail by the author, whose imagination
certainly runs riot, albeit in a good way. One can only marvel at the time he
must have spent to create punny alternatives to our human rockstars, litterateurs
and classic books, many of which were hilarious. To quote just a few – ‘Tom
Hangs’ in ‘Forest Bump’, ‘Sir Sean Canary’, ‘Pythanne Hathaway’, ‘Brad Pigg’ and
the like.
The list of songbirds brought a further smile to my face –
‘Alisha Chinchilla’, ‘Ducky Ali’, ‘Enrique Eaglesias’ and ‘Brayin Adams’. There
are myriad other references, a testament to author Gaurav Roy’s unstinting
research and undoubted sense of humour, as the glossary at the end of the book reveals.
While I did enjoy the idea behind the book and the satire
that imbues its narrative, there were pages of intricate details, and
repetitive dialogues, which somehow brought the tempo down. For a person who is
not from the corporate world, the jargon does become heavy after a while. A
round of editing would have elevated this book to a different level altogether.
However, that does not take away from the fact that this is an amazing read
from a debut author who believes in the adage that writing is meant to hold up a
mirror to society.
PS: I received a copy of the book from the author as a
prize for the ‘Beyond the Desk Blog Hop’ by Manali Desai and Sukaina Majeed.
#AngryJungleeBosses #satire #interestingread #debutnovel #humour
No comments:
Post a Comment