The Best Life Ever - Aditya Shroff

Forward by Milind Soman say like a whiff of breeze with this book, Malgudi days have returned.

The stories are written in first person narrative, and that makes it an experience more than just a book. Inspired by real-life experiences, by the magical landscapes of India, by beautiful people with hearts of gold and miles and miles of running; this book is a brilliant piece of read with 13 beautifully written different true life stories. The author himself say, it’s difficult to place it in fiction or nonfiction. Because these stories are based on real life experiences so they aren’t fictional. But still non- fictional writing isn’t usually like this. So he himself is trying to figure it out. Nevertheless, thought of including this as it would be a separate kind.

As far as you can see – Lost in a village in Kerala, he decides that he would never go out far on unknown roads, and he remembers his childhood promise to his grandfather that he would never be afraid of the things he can’t see. Just because he can’t see them.
The price of A coconut – In few years time price of a coconut has gone up from Rupees four to Rupees nine, and in city its thirty-five rupees, wonder where the rest of the money go? One day two guys come and steal them as they were hungry. Which was a bigger sin? Denying food or stealing?
Of Himalayan Wildflowers - When unwell he realizes, anyone can start the race, what decides the winner is how strongly you run the final kilometer, when your body is giving up, when you want to quit, when you are in extreme pain, even when you are dying.
Gone - Bruno was probably the angel in disguise who had come to teach him some simple yet indispensable life lessons, how beautiful place the world would be, if we could but for a moment, treat the people around us like they were - gone.
Dhanyavaad! – In the city of Meerut, on Diwali and on a day of strike he realizes the far-reaching advantage of Thank you/Dhanyavaad. There was only the cleaner on the street, and on Thanking him he says nobody has said that to him before. Once when the city is shut mourning the death of a leader, he could run the empty street but soon there were 8 men following/chasing him, and it was the sweeper who saved him.
The Left – What would you do, if you meet dead people on the road? You become part of a strange, eerie, supernatural world. They become a part of you and you become a part of them. Life is much easier when you don’t believe in ghosts.
Song of the Champions – Few years can make you go apart in a relationship. Time must move on. Good memories can make even death memorable. As a child during his visit to Mumbai Nana-Nani’s house he had created sweet memories with kaka especially the Vijeta Geet: The song of the Champions.
A midnight Boat Ride – Mantez given him life changing advise in the middle of the sea when the words ‘Genetically weak legs’ were echoing his ears. “ You are born to run free. You were born to climb mountains and catch the magical sunrises. To play with the wind. To fall asleep under the canopies of rain trees. You were meant to work hard. To fall. To get back up. To laugh through it. It is the experience that counts, everything you collect in life.” “Define your own success for that is where true happiness lies. Let the world point at you and laugh. You play your part”. “We are indeed minuscule, Sometimes, we need the roar of the blue sea, the vastness of the limitless sky, and the crashing waves at the shore to remind us we are just the speck of sand on the beach…and sometimes, we need them all to remind us that perhaps we are the roar of the blue sea, the force of the crashing waves and as limitless as the sky. “
A glass of milk – In Saurashtra they say, A glass of warm milk each day can cure any illness. All you need is a bit of love. When you sow rice, and it doesn’t sprout, you don’t blame the grains. You simply water it with a few drops of kindness. A cow-header Jeeven from drought-stricken Saurashtra made him realise this by taking care of Amar the mad beggar under the banyan tree, who saved his life.
‘Draw A Chair, Munnu!’ – All that will remain is the happiness from the memories you build in the sands of time. You would want to tell them to someone. So please do listen to someone today. Dadhaji and Bhalu’s story and the rive made him ponder over this.
The Bull-tamer – Everything is perfect the way it is. There is an inexplicable connect amongst all of us. Rustling of the leaves, the breathing…all resonate with the harmony of the universal frequency. It is a beautiful feeling that everyone in the world is a friend and a well-wisher. That the whole world is home and there are no enemies. There is nothing to fear. But sadly it isn’t. Communal disharmony caused him his Sarfraz.
The Cup of Life – When it is raining outside, resting his tired head against the cool glass of the window, he see the reflection of the landscape outside in every single droplet. The whole world in one drop. And then they slide down the window. Is it a metaphor for life? A world inside each one of us, until we hold on. But soon it will be time to go. And then we must simply slide away. Just pour yourself a cup of life, Nanaji breathes in his ear, and disappears into thin air.
The Best Life Ever – Whenever you want to spit at the world, swallow up your anger and if you must spit, first spit at your own self a hundred times over – A Gujarati saying. Mountains were teaching the same. There is ambition and there is ego. Land of ego, is also the land of self-sabotage. When you are lying on the rock, beneath the mountain gasping for life, dying before them, they simply observe. The mountains do not bother, world do not care, even a grain of sand will not move to cover body. Clouds will not cry even one drop of rain. You don’t ever conquer a mountain, you are merely permitted to stand on it. To cower like a mouse before the majestic mountain. Belief they say, is empowering and faith moves mountains. It is the stories we live for, and it is the stories we shall die with. This moment – this life – fortunate enough to live is beyond a shadow of doubt….the best life ever!


From a small village in Kerala to the Himalayan peaks enroute his home town Umarsadi, author makes us want to run and view the amazing landscape as he pass the forests, mountains, wildflowers, sea’s and rivers; at times all alone, and other times with a companion teaching us simple life lessons interwoven in 13 stories. As rightly mentioned in the Foreword by Milind Soman, we were missing the Malgudi, and Umarsadi would be the new Malgudi for the coming generation. A book for all ages though.