The other day searching for Salman Rushdie's Fury in the library, I found Haroun and the sea of stories.  Well, honestly speaking I have never heard of this book of his.  I had read The Midnight's children couple of years back, and whatever reasons bring Rushdie into news time and again, it was hard to imagine that he would write a fable (read a children's book).  Quite amazed, I picked both the books from that aisle, and blame it to my curiocity I picked up Haroun and the sea of stories first and finished reading it in a week.  Well, I am not that slow a reader, but I pretty much get time to read, when I am commuting to work/home.

The story is set on a very sad city, a city so ruiniously sad that it has forgotten its name.  Based there are a eleven year old boy Haroun, his storyteller father Rashid and his mother Soraya.  Haroun and his family seem to the only happy people in that sad city, but things change when one day Soraya runs away with their neighbour Mr Sengupta.  Which makes Haroun's father, also known as Shan of Blah very sad and eventually he looses his ability to fascinate people by his stories.  Haroun feels his rudeness towards his father's storytelling and imagination is one of the reasons for his sadness and tries to get back his father's abilities.  He soon finds out that Rashid's subscription for the magic story water has been cancelled somehow.  To get the subscription enabled again, he ends up in a strange magical world of Kahani, which has loads of amazement and adventure in store for him.  And this is not a spoiler as all children books have happy endings, Haroun with his wisdom and courage just does not make everything right in his family, he also makes the folks in the city remember its name.

The book subtly potrays the social and to some extent political problems in Indian sub-continent.  Many names of characters, and some places are either Hindi or Urdu or influenced by these languages.  Usage of symbolism is quite obvious and makes the book more interesting.  The book has obviously been influenced by Arabian Nights, Alice in Wonderland, Lord of the Rings and similar other classics.  There has been several indications of Pop culture, as well as Indian culrure .  The bus driver Mr Butt have been called 'looney tune' by some passengers.  Captain 'Mudra' of Chup city who can barely speak can convey a message only through an act called 'Abhinaya', Mudra means a posture and Abhinaya is performing an act, withought having to open one's mouth, conveying a message throughexpressions, both terms being used in Indian classical dance.

This amazing book, which tells the good ol' Good vs Evil story, with a much deeper meaning and with a very interesting and captivating set of charactersis an amusing read for children as well as adults.