SPIDER

"Painful People" By Cyrus Daruwala : Book Review

Prashant Sani -

The month of September was quite eventful for me. I rejuvenated my creative & technical skills attending events like Google For Mobile, JSFoo, ON's #HeathyIsYummy Workshop and Creative Mornings.

Cyrus Daruwala was the speaker for the Month at Creative Mornings, Mumbai. The topic for the same was "Empathy". Although it was quite strange for a person who has written a book by the name Painful People to talk about empathy, he pretty much justified the topic in his keynote. Post his address, I purchased a signed copy of his book.

Painful people deals with Cyrus's view about dysfunctional & annoying characters in the metropolitan cities of India. Whether it's someone who smokes in public areas or someone who fights with everyone, or someone who always acts as a moral police officer; each character is satirically portrayed with a touch of brilliance. The book also sends a direct message to these "Painful People", with a bleak hope for instigating behavioural changes in them.

Cyrus used some of the most annoying experiences of meeting such people and turned them into a piece of art.

This is one of the most curiously handmade book on my shelf. The entire text in the book is handwritten by the author and digitally printed. Keeping this in mind, the author has placed some witty and playful elements in and around the text. The hardcover cardboard-texture of the book also elevates the feeling of the book being "hand-made".

Each illustration is hand-stamped by the Author. The place of illustration might differ a bit in each copy of the book, making it unique. Cyrus confessed during his keynote that some illustrations have been wrongly stamped, or stamped twice, or stamped upside down. For such books, he has written a personal note with an apology. Unfortunately, my copy of the book was flawless and all the character-illustrations were in place.

This is a limited edition book with only 1000 copies printed. Each book is numbered and the author has left his thumbprint on each book right above the book number.

Is there a "painful character" irritating you right now? Go, show him/her "10 Golden Commandments" from the book.

Last but not the least, this book's interactive cover allows you to throw your rant in a creative way when you come across someone annoying :)

SPIDer Rating 8/10