Aman Sethi’s “A Free Man”

Aman Sethi’s “A Free Man” is a disturbing tale of the life of an itinerant labourer, told painstakingly by the young author. In fact when I began reading the book, I didn’t even know it was non-fiction.

The book bubbles with dark comedy and sadness. It is a movie waiting to be made, a la Peepli Live, an urban version, if you may.

My favourite part of the book isn’t even about its protagonist but it stays with you long after you have read the book . Here it is

“…Though the tender had mandated a “scratch resistant” scanning surface, the scanner - as befitting any high-tech gadget – was extraordinarily sensitive to dust. It worked best when recording images of clean, slightly moist thumbs that when pressed down onto the glass surface, flattened ever so slightly to allow for a true record of the fingerprint in question. ‘But these beggars’, the exasperation in Sharmaji’s voice is palpable, ‘their hands are so dirty, so filthy, that the scanner just cannot pick up the image.’ All they got were blurry smudges that the machone was unable to identify, let alone catalogue and search. ‘So we started washing their hands before registering them. But that took long. ‘ The department also tried bathing them – but after a bath, the beggars look ‘just like anyone else’. How then can the judge make his decision?...

In the course of 140 words, Aman Sethi paints a whole canvas ranging from irony to despair to absurdity. And that is how the book is. Must read.