This book is a kind of the book which won't make you happy , rather it will end you up in a question. To make it simple, this is life story of a man and his struggles of life.The way Aman Sethi wrote this book is amazing. Book started in Delhi and contains a lot of flashbacks of events that happened over the course of protagonist life.This is a book which brings you the essence of reality.

when i bought this book, i had no idea it was as much a story of Delhi, as it is of the protagonist - md Ashraf. And that was a pleasant surprise!For this gem, and gem of a book it is - is not the story of Delhi that we see in Khushwant Singh's Delhi or Dalrymple's City of Djinns! this is the story of the Modern Delhi - the 'glistening metropolis of a rising Asian superpower' - A city constantly under construction and the biggest magnet around for migrants from Northern India. And its brutally h...

*Won through a a Goodreads Giveaway*If I were walking through the aisles of my favorite book store, I would probably have not given this book a second glance. I ususally don't read too many biographies so I can only review this book based on how entertaining and enlightening it is for me. A Free Man: A True Story of Life and Death in Delhi is a rather short book and I was able to read it in one sitting and has a pretty interesting voice that isn't stoic or depressing, as I have found some biogra...

I love books about India, so this sounded VERY interesting! I can't wait to get it and to read it.

Thought provoking and realistic- whether it's the life of a laavaris, what if I was the one in Ashraf's shoes? What does it feel to be anonymous with nowhere to go, no door to knock on? , or the unpolished language used in the book or the casualness of the casual labourers and of life at Bara Tutti. The book, for most parts, is both a little haunting and disturbing and yet, rejoices the prosaic and trivial nuances of everday life which the privilaged ones take for granted. Ashraf's life is a mos...

I WAS SO PLEASED WHEN I WON THIS BOOK ON GOODREADS. I THOUGHT THIS WAS ONE OF THE MOST THOUGHT PROVOKING BOOKS I HAVE READ IN A VERY LONG TIME. IF YOU WANT A GREAT READ YOU NEED TO PICK UP THIS BOOK.

A friend of mine gifted this book recently. We had discussed how our middle class upbringings had kept us so far away from the lives of so many around us - laborers, daily wage workers and such. My ignorance had created a curiosity.I finished this book in a few days and found it a remarkable ethnography, It also filled me with an incredible sadness I expected to experience picking up this book, but had no idea how intensely I would experience it. The melancholy of the characters in this book sta...

Thank you Goodreads First Reads for this great book!At a point in my life when I feel tied down to a not-so-great job, desperately looking for a better one, or fantasizing about irrational alternatives (like opening an indie bookstore!) to be free of dysfunctional offices and bad bosses, the idea of working and living wherever and whenever you want, working for money and living until the money runs out, leaving a city at the drop of a hat to go live and work somewhere else for a few days or mont...

It is a different book, if you don’t read much into the cover. Should you see it in one of thebookstores and are slightly fazed by indecision, wondering if you should pick it up or not, then youshould!Here’s why:No matter where you are in Delhi you must know that the hands that have borne Delhi into its ever-changing shape are those hands that live on a daily wage. These hands that go through an almostsimilar fate everyday: The Morning Tea, Everyday (a country distilled whiskey), Brushes, Hammer...

Amid the streets of Bara Tooti Chowk, one of New Delhi’s oldest and largest labor markets, and in between marijuana joints, shots of cheap liquor and good old tea, Mohammed Ashraf offers insights on what it is to become a 40-year-old (“a man starts to fear strangers”) on the career ladder for construction workers, and the creed of his profession. “Azadi, Aman bhai, Azadi. Azadi,” says the house painter. “Azadi is the freedom to tell the maalik to f**k off when you want to.”Ashraf is the main cha...

A free man, for sure will never leave your mind free of thoughts, once you have put down the book. It’s one of the rare books which will leave an impact on you for a long time. I guess it will take a long time for me to avoid thinking of Ashraf's character when I look at laborers’ sleeping on the pavement and wondering how long they have been away from home and for what reason.In a very subtle but detailed narration author has brought in very touchy topics. The BIS system for beggars, the condit...

The blurbs rave about it. If you can stop smirking at the obviously PR induced sound-bytes and look inside the book you'd find it worth a read. In fact it is a recommended read. The writing might be a bit similar to a rushed notes in journal kind but the acute sense of 'people watching' and, awareness of language ('helpery' - a word that I last heard in the college canteen from the canteen attendant) make it a good reason to stick till the end. And, at the end you'd ask yourself whether you were...

**I received this book free of charge courtesy of Goodreads First Reads Giveaways**Wow. Just wow. This book has left me speechless, I am sure I cannot do it justice in a written review but I will try. This is the true story of one reporter who followed homeless workmen throughout their day on/off for years in Old Delhi. In particular a man named Mohammed Ashraf. He wanted to get their perspective on things and used an audio recorder & hand written notes throughout his interviews with them. Their...

Refreshingly honest. Would say it's better than Katherine Boo's 'Behind the Beautiful Forevers' - it's much more personal and sensitive to the author's position in the class/caste hierarchy.

I absolutely loved this book--actually finished it in one night! Aman Sethi does an amazing job transporting the reader to Delhi. The people he chose to write about are colorful and insightful. I hope the author decides to do more research on the lives of those struggling in the slums of India. It's a section of the global population that is largely ignored. I truly felt like I was given a window inside the lives of these interesting people.

Not so long and a well-written book on Delhi. Aman Sethi follows the life of 'Ashraf' and his friends –a gang of impoverished daily wage earners. I enjoyed reading this book, and knowing more about the people who are so brutally ignored in everyday life as if they do not exist. The indifference of middle-class Indians is astonishing. Sethi follows 'Ashraf' and shows us what his life is like. It is rare that someone like Ashraf becomes the central character, someone we can see and identify with.

I very much enjoyed reading this book. I struggled with the first part of the book trying to wrap my mind around all the foreign words and phrases. As I became more familiar with the writing and characters it became easy to lose myself into this book. This is a book that I most likely would never have experienced without the Goodreads First Reads program and I will forever be greatful for the opportunity to share in the lives of the author and characters even for a short time. I would recommend

This was a fairly interesting book focused on day labor in Delhi, and one laborer in particular. It wasn't brilliant, but it kept my interest and had its moments:But why am I telling you about Raja again? How did we start this conversation? I remember now — I was telling you the way home from Raja’s house. But for that I had to first tell you where his house was and then of course how he got the house. Funny how every short story is actually just the beginning of a really long one.‘The santrash

Sethi gives a revealing glimpse into the lives of day laborers in Delhi and Calcutta. He humanizes them with the many details of their dreams, schemes, sorrows, and infrequent victories. To a man, they lack any supportive relationships from family members, and one by one they die tragic deaths in their 30’s or 40’s. xWhat does it mean to be "free"? Free from knowing the names of your children? From knowing whether your mother is alive or dead? From ever having enough money to settle down in one

What is a human being worth? James Joyce lampooned the typical thinking on this in Ulysses: "You love a certain person and this person loves that other person because everybody loves somebody but God loves everybody." God may, but humankind sure doesn't---if you need proof, take a look at modern-day India. "A Free Man" tries to understand the life of day-laborer Mohammad Ashraf, an itinerant alcoholic with a past full of painful failure. The book begins cheerfully---Ashraf claims that his way of...