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Cobalt Blue by Sachin Kundalkar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When I first heard about this book, I was surprised as well as ashamed of myself. The reason was that I heard about the English translation of the original Marathi (my mother tongue) 'Cobalt Blue'. I was little sad that I didn't know about this book which was published in 2006 until it was translated in English. So, I decided to read it in Marathi and ordered the book from 'Majestic Book Depot' in Mumbai, one of my favorite bookshops in Mumbai. 'Cobalt Blue' breaks the myth that "new-age and progressive books are not published in regional languages". This book very boldly discusses homo and bisexuality hidden in plain sights of our society and our incapability of accepting the freedom of choosing who you love. These so-called "different" people have to fight the battle with society and themselves every day. This story of Tanay, Anuja and their anonymous lover is very modern and fast paced. Many sentences are repeated for dramatic effect and they work.
There's still a long way to go for our society to open up towards freedom of sexuality but literature like this helps the movement. I need to increase my Marathi reading too as it contains gems like this book.
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