The game always wins

I just finished reading Sacred Games. I take a long time to read books. For one, I don't sit and read for six hours at a stretch. For two, I read slow taking it in.
I picked up Sacred Games because of the cover. Honest. I judged the book by its cover and it was good. It has a Sardar inspector on the cover. For one, I can't think of any other novel you would find in bookstores with a Sardar on the cover except maybe some of the stuff that Khushwant Singh keeps dishing out. Either way, it has a Sardar inspector on the cover and another Mahrashtrian fellow who is apparently a Mumbai don. And the book cover says it relates to the former investigating the latter's death.
It's 900 pages long. Given my lifestyle nowadays, it is surprising I ever finished it. But that's the thing. It is fantastic. It is not plot boiler subterfuge and spies and gang wars and stuff. Sure some of it. But no heroes, no action nothing.
It has characters, some- fantastically etched out, most- believable.
Sartaj Singh is my new favorite fiction character. He is the surdy cop and apparently finds mention in Vikram Chandra's other book of short stories, 'love and longing in bombay..'. So I'm going to read that next.

What is interesting? The book concludes. The multiple persons' stories end. They have satisfactory closure. Most of them are not abrupt. But none of the closure is necessarily fair- bleak or white. All the characters are related in their contexts. I can't think of a villain. Except maybe Suleiman Isa (who is loosely modeled on Dawood Ibrahim) who is really a side character, a presence and never explored. And a spiritual guru, who speaks well, but if you are a libertarian (which I am), you won't be able to really justify him at all.
Outside of these fellows, you have:
a. Mumbai gangsters/ warlords
b. Cops- corrupt, semi-corrupt and otherwise
c. Dance bar proprietors
d. Pimps
e. Spies
f. Women who have sold themselves
g. Innocent girls who grew up in villages inPunjab
h. Persons who committed murders during partition
i. Naxalites
.. and maybe more..
And then there are all sorts: the abusive and the pious, the tolerant and the intolerant, bisexuals and heterosexuals..
And everyone of them written about in a casual nonchalant fashion.

And maybe, that's the reason this is a fine novel. There aren't judgments on anything. They are yours to make. You could love any one of the characters or hate them. You could say the novel ends happily or you could say it is a tragedy. You could feel that the world within it is turning for the better at its close. Or you could say it is doomed.

And all of this is against the backdrop of Mumbai- so the world is really Mumbai. And these contradictions sit nicely, fittingly with the city.