Run Romi Run
Crazy about cricket
'Tushar Raheja goes a step further from Anything for you Ma'am, as he tells the story of four school boys, Romi, Sukhi, Golu and Sunny - crazy about cricket, worshippers of Sachin Tendulkar, hate morning assemblies, and love adventure. They could have been anyone, but the passionate writing makes their story exclusive and personal. The story is littered with moments that make you go 'aww'. The book grips you with the strong story of friendship, and how care free boys evolve into mature men while playing the gentleman's game.
It is the equivalent of watching Lagaan. You know the author has lived by the 'Eat, drink, breathe' cricket mantra some time in life. The writing style in the book, set in a small town, Mauji, is such that you find yourself praying for every run, and a four, as Romi, the protagonist bats to thrash the opposing team.'
- Hindustan Times
More than just cricket
'The parts involving street fights, conflicts between seniors and juniors, ragging, procrastination of studies, Romi idolising Sachin and his father will remain etched on our memories...
Raheja takes a dig at the education system and also delineates the importance of sports in school...
Run Romi Run is a piquant tale of chasing your dreams and a reminder that there is some innocence left in everyone. It is a must read for all!'
- The Hindu
Fragrance of lost childhood
'Raheja steers clear of the obvious trap in writing such a book. Romi never comes across as a hero who figures out mysteries that have stumped adults, and there are no easy victories over life’s problems. This only makes the characters more believable, and Raheja has a good economy in narration - he removes lengthy buildups and long-drawn-out scenes, instead starting from where the action really begins, and filling in any background details as the scene goes on, keeping the story going at a smooth pace.
Run Romi Run is a good attempt to take on a difficult subject, the childhood years of someone...'
- Deccan Herald
A labour of love
'Run Romi Run has an endearing allure enveloping its tale of a cricket-obsessed boy from a lower middle-class family in a small north Indian town...
As a novel for young adults, set in Mauji, a fictitious town in the northern plains of India, Run Romi Run does well enough in absorbing the reader in the school-home-studies-cricket routine of the young protagonist and his three best friends. With a lump-in-the-throat beginning and ending, the narrative makes us grow fond of the four, who are at that stage of boyhood where life revolves around cricket...
Life in Mauji, a sort of Indian counterpart of the one-horse town of Westerns, comes alive and fleshes out the coming-of-age tale...
The book would appeal most to a reader like its cricket-loving protagonist.'
- Asian Age
Anything for you, ma'am
'Tushar has this instinctive ability to hold your attention with narrative deviations that illuminate disparate subjects ...the charm of campus life, pig-headed Professors, the advantage of sisters, the adventure of train travel in India, the joy of an early winter in Delhi ...What Raheja does is to very cleverly localize the Wooster persona. So English aristocracy, the idle rich, the lad sent down from Oxford, the young man with great expectations and little ability, the chappie whose only survival tool is a smart gentleman's gentleman called Jeeves - all this is turned into rich material for humour of a local kind ...Some of the humour is side splitting ...'
- The Hindu
'Remember Bertie Wooster? ...the humour - most often arising out of situations poor Bertie gets himself into ...Anything for you, ma'am works on same lines ... Well, it would be too presumptuous to compare a fourth year IIT student Tushar Raheja's attempt at witty writing to a classic Wodehouse, but he does manage to get some laughs ...a laugh-a-minute book ...'
- The Times of India
'Raheja writes a touching book about a young lover's story ...that engrosses the reader, with its high speed rather hilarious turn of events ...Amidst all the chaos are the sweet love moments ...be it their date or their telephonic conversation ...It is the story of a boy-next-door, which any youngster can relate to. Raheja moves back and forth in time, reminding of ace writers like Virginia Woolf and Amitav Ghosh ...'
- The Pioneer
'The difference lies in the treatment of the subject ...the narrative is devoid of lofty idealism...the lingo and its texture is very close to what students use in colleges ...a good attempt by someone writing only his first novel ...'
- Hindustan Times
'Anything for you, ma'am is a delicacy of feelings with dollops of mischief and fun ...Infused with the sepia tinted fragrance of life at IIT Delhi campus and turbulent love terrain of tweeny days, the book is for those who are romantics-at-hearts and nostalgic about the good ol' college days ...'
- Society Magazine
'With all the masala of a Hindi movie, the story has interesting plots, interspersed with humour, enough to keep you glued to the pages ...'
- New Indian Express
'The author smears Tejas' life philosophy with a veneer of middle-class respectability and manages to bolster the book with the help of an extremely indulgent plot ...one must hand it to the young author for an enterprising race to the finish ...'
- Deccan Herald
'The story takes many intriguing turns. It has been penned in a language that is perfectly suitable for a story placed against a campus background, perfectly setting the mood and verisimilitude ...an enjoyable read ...'
- Seventeen
'As one goes through the book, there is just one feeling that a reader gets. The feeling that a movie is being screened before him, scene by scene ...'
- Vijay Times