A Speck of Coal Dust by Award-Winning Author Rohit Manchanda

The name Rohit Manchanda refers to the writer’s gold. It is not often that readers can come across an Indian English writer, who is profound in his craft. After all, the award winner author completed his doctorate from the UK.

The moment readers open the book, they will find ‘To the Jharia and Raniganj coalfields of eastern India, where marvels abounded, and went largely unrecognized for what they were’ on the dedication page.

This goes to show that the author seemed to have a liking for his birthplace. After all, one’s native is always close to their heart. The book was first published as ‘In the Light of the Black Sun' in 1996.

However, it has been retitled as ‘A Speck of Coal Dust’. The classic coming-of-age book is set in a small town in India that is known as Khajoori which is based on the banks of river Damodar. Vipul is the son of a coal mine manager.

Though the book is not infused with loss, sadness, and tragedies, thankfully, but is quite entertaining with plenty of underlying truth. The novel is about his growing up & his boyhood in the town.

It elegantly speaks about friendship, and understanding the difference between attraction & liking someone. Besides, readers will be taken to a completely different perspective of knowing between love & bullying.

The author has effortlessly penned the thoughts of a young growing boy from a small mining town. This can immensely resonate with any teenage growing boy who is living in a village, town or even a large city.

Some readers may feel that this novel is somewhat on the lines of Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things of how two twins are still together despite various political challenges and unrest around them.

Noted Indian English writers Adil Jussawalla & Saikat Majumdar have appreciated Rohit Manchanda's work and hailed the book. Adil said that the book was finely paced and richly observant.

Besides, Saikat claimed that he found the book deeply personal and profoundly historical. Likewise, authors & novelists like Amit Chaudhari, and Pankaj Mishra who wrote The Romantics, have recognised his work as well.

About the author

Rohit Manchanda was born in Jharkhand. Rohit was born in a mining town, and perhaps, took that as an inspiration for the book. Moreover, after his initial bachelor's degree, he went abroad to pursue his doctorate from the University of Oxford.

Some of his fictitious works include In the Light of the Black Sun & The Enclave. He is a professor at IIT Bombay where he researches computational neurophysiology. The author received the posthumous Betty Trask award for his very first book, In the Light of the Black Sun.

This has been republished as titled A Speck of Coal Dust. A Place in Mind, which is his second novel, won a Tibor Jones South Asia Prize. Besides, he has won other awards for his work as a teacher like the INSA Teachers Award.

Conclusion

A Speck of Coal Dust by Rohit Manchanda is a generously descriptive narration of the life of a young boy living in the mining town in Jharkhand. This is the actual state of the author, who perhaps, has a liking for the locality.

Readers read about the life of Vipul, and how he views the world that is around him. Besides, how he reacts to the challenges & obstacles that are thrown at him, on a regular basis. The book is lively and takes readers back to the good old days when there were no gadgets and even TVs. A must-read for any book lover.