OUR IMPOSSIBLE LOVE

Title: Our Impossible Love

Author: Durjoy Datta

Number of pages: 289

“13 year old girl gang raped in south Delhi”, “6 year old daughter raped by servant in the house” and many such headlines are not a new thing to people in Delhi. Such horrendous crimes have become common and majority of the people do nothing except cribbing about the situation and the authorities just get away with the situation by offering handsome money to victims (if alive) and their families(if dead). 

Going by the name of the novel many readers would have expected the review to start with the girl and boy and how they met but this novel is not only about the love story of two characters but it is more than that. The story is about friendship, kinship, jealousy, and many other perils that are prevalent in the society. The story revolves around two major characters Danish, student of psychology, belongs to high class society of Delhi and his parents are well educated and his brother, Ankit, is always in the news because of his amazing IT ventures and Aisha, 17 year old student who loves her family from the bottom of her heart and belongs to middle class society whose father is getting transferred from here and there and her mother is fighting against dialysis with all her might. Danish is the student counselor in Aisha’s school and she usually consults him about every personal matter and in all this process she is trying to become a better woman. Another major role is played by Aisha’s new boyfriend, Vibhor who is another hot-shot boy living on the luxuries of his parents. 

Things changed on the 18^th birthday of Aisha when Sarthak, her brother, throws a big party and she got drunk so much that she blackouts in Vibhor’s home and without her consent he had sex with her. Aisha terms this as rape whereas all her friends just think she is overreacting. After facing weeks of discomfort and shame in her own self she tells this to Danish who supports her, discloses it to her family and helps her in filing a case in the court against Vibhor. Lack of evidence and strong ministry support to Vibhor helped him and Aisha was proven wrong in the court. The bond between Danish and Aisha fostered when he helps her to fight back against people who don’t believe her and have started teasing her, calling her slut and made her life hell in the school.  Aisha came to know about Danish’s love for her through a document in his laptop that clearly spoke his heart out and after few days she confronted her feelings as well. Sarthak who turns out to be a gay and also has a boyfriend, Eriskin, in Poland and comes for her rescue and her mother is so open minded that she accepts the way her son is and only thinks about his happiness. Such stories are rarely visible in real life even in metro cities of India. Their mother’s behavior will actually come as a surprise to many readers. 

Before leaving for Poland, Sarthak and Eriskin became the partners in crime with Aisha and played a prank on Vibhor and tried to prove him a gay with the help of social media and that’s when he realized that what he did with Aisha was actually a rape and not something what he called little rape and she wasn’t overreacting. The story ends here when Aisha and Danish decides to live happily together ever after. Misconceptions of people regarding what rape is and what it is not is so wrong that the society and even the authorities that are supposed to do justice failed to understand what the girl has actually gone through during all those moments. In the nutshell, Durjoy Datta tries to bring out various aspects of different relations, a simple and cute love story, impact of western world, hype of social media and how the most educated people fail to understand the very simplest of the things. The novel is a good read if somebody is just interested in a small real world story that will have some fictional angles.

Do consider it if you are travelling as it is a light read!

THAT AUTUMN IN AWADH by RACHNA SINGH

TITLE : That Autumn in Awadh A true Love Story
Author: Rachna Singh
Publication : Alchemy Publishers


That Autumn in Awadh though a work of fiction is inspired by the author's life.
The story reflects the diversification and rigidness of our society especially when it comes to matter of marriage and also how inter cast marriages find difficulty in being accepted.

Love bubbles and simmers between Sara Shergill a Punjabi Christian and Samar Solanki, a Rajput boy.
Sara and Samar both trainees at Telco, starting out their careers, enjoying their new found freedom with friends and colleagues, slowly and steadily slide into love.

By the time they realize the significance of what has happened, it is too late to do anything about it. Sara and Samar, aware of the futility of their situation, find themselves helpless. Still they both make an effort of going back to just being friends. Being from diverse background, they both are aware that their families are not going to accept their relationship easily.
Samar's resigning from the job and joining a management institute albeit in the same city does not make things easy for the love birds.  In midst of all the on goings Sara and Samar get hitched in a civil ceremony without their immediate families know how!
 The book is about Sara and Samar's love, their anguish and embarrassment of being married but forced to live apart, their difficulties in overcoming all the obstacles and love conquering all!

 Is love really able to conquer in this case?                                                                                                                                                It is for readers to find out and the reviewer to keep a secret.

 Readers who are in their late 30's till mid 40's can see glimpses of their youth reflected in the book. Rachna Singh has a keen sense of observation and puts it to good use in her book. You find instances of every day happenings of life woven into the story. She finds humor in very small  little things.

 I had reviewed Rachna Singh's debut book 'Dating, Diapers and Denial' and had found it unique and a very quirky book. I had found her style of writing very unconventional.
 I had high expectations from this book as well, though this is a different genre, but, That Autumn in Awadh, has left me disappointed, wanting for more. The author has not been able to do justice to the story though the main plot itself is sweet. Rachna Singh has not been able to maintain the smoothness and the free flow in the narration. It is as if Rachna Singh had a few incidents in her mind which she wanted to incorporate in the story and has gone ahead and done just that, somehow jammed them in the story! There are also editing issues in the book.

 In spite of this I would say That Autumn in Awadh makes a decent light read for romance readers.

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

Author: Nicholas Sparks

Publications: Warner Books

A really old man reads to a really old woman. She can understand only little. A boring beginning. He opens his notebook and begins reading. The story starts to get better. Go further. It becomes intense. In the end you ask, "Why did it have to end?".

A simple yet touching story line, the main focus is on the description of the events and the emotions involved and this makes the book stand apart. Noah and Allie have had a great summer romance, but due to the difference in their social standing, they are not allowed to be together for  long. Time passes and they move ahead with their lives. Noah gets work at a Jewish man's estate, then he works at a war and returns with big money, to realize his dream of buying and restoring an old property. Meanwhile Allie has grown up, she is now a socialite and is engaged to one of the most famous lawyers of her town. But some corner of her heart tells her to give her lost love another chance. She goes to meet Noah and they have a real great time together and she is torn between her true love for Noah and her engagement with Lon, the lawyer. The notebook story of the old man ends here.

The story progresses and we come to know that the lady has Alzheimer's and that the notebook story is of the couple itself, who has had a fairy tale like life, with a calm and serene backdrop, perfect home and hearth, complete harmony and above all, contentment. 

Through the story we meet a lot of amazing people and amazing revelations. Janice, the nurse on duty on Noah and Allie's 49th anniversary, decides to go away on the pretext of having coffee, when she already had it with her, just to allow Noah to slip into Allie's room. "Once again I learn that there are good people in the world"

There is absolute sense in the fact that no fairy stories can ever have a 'happily ever after' ending. Even the most beautiful and well-lived and well-loved lives end. Recalling the past is often either the sweetest or the sourest experiences for a human, and both leave a bitter-sweet taste, either of having loved the past and being forced into the present or of a horrid past and the relief of having gotten away. The former, of course, being more poignant.

In the Harry Potter Book 1 (Philosopher's Stone), J.K. Rowling mentions, "It does no do to dwell on dreams and forget to live." But, this book forces us to pose a different question, "What if our dreams and the reality decide to go for a joint venture; or rather - a joint adventure??

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Title: WutheringHeights

Author:Emily Bronte

Publication:Peacock Books; Price:Rs. 95; ISBN:978-81-248-0009-6

Having learnt from my teachers as it being one of the best classics English literature could possibly gift and having read its abridged version as a child, I could not resist myself upon seeing this complete and unabridged version of ‘Wuthering Heights’ at the World Book Fair’12 in Delhi. And so my romance with the classics of English literature begins once again.

‘WutheringHeights’, a complex piece of artistic literature is a narration of events relating to two households Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights, by a certain Mrs. Ellen Dean, inscribed as the diary entries of a certain Mr.Lockwood.

In1801- Mr. Lockwood, a tenant at Thrushcross Grange, went to meet his landlordand his sole neighbour, Mr. Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights and found the atmosphere of the house quite dismal, with the residents including an uncultured lad, a beautiful but bad natured young widow and two servants apart from Mr. Heathcliff himself. He had to stay there for that night as it had started to snow and he could not go back to his own residence. At night, in the room he was made to spend the night, he saw a strangs set of books containing labels, Catherine Earnshaw, Catherine Linton and Catherine Heathcliff. He also had a nightmare where he encountered Catherine Linton telling him that she had been roaming on this earth, all alone and cold!

A confused Mr. Lockwood, upon reaching Thrushcross Grange asked his housekeeper, Mrs. Ellen Dean to tell him what the events that had happened actually meant and who were the three Catherines.

She began her narration that many years back the Wuthering Heights had been the property and abode of the Earnshaws. She was the servant employed to play with the children Hindley and Catherine Earnshaw. One day their father brought home an orphan, an uncivilized creature, whom he named Heathcliff and whom he loved more than his own children.

Heathcliffgrew to be a real devil, basically wanting to gather and possess all the property he possibly could, but he loved Catherine dearly. Though even she loved him much, she married Mr. Edgar Linton of Thrushcross Grange. Mr.Linton and Mr. Heathcliff could not get along with each other at any time in their lives.

In due course of time, Hindley Earnshaw gets married, his father dies, his wife too dies leaving behind a son, Hareton. Isabella – Mr. Edgar Linton’s sister fell in the trap purposely laid by Heathcliff as revenge against taking away Catherine and also as a scheme to finally be the owner of Thrushcross Grange. Isabella fell in love and married Heathcliff. Mrs. Catherine Linton kept losing her health over her divided love for Heathcliff and Edgar (Heathcliff basically, for they lovedeach other dearly, and Edgar, a little for he was her husband). She leaves behind a daughter, also named Catherine (or Cathy, as her father fondly callsher) and leaves for her heavenly abode. Ellen Dean and Mr. Linton bring up young Cathy in the most protective and loving manner in which they possiblycould.

Meanwhileat Wuthering Heights, Isabella is oppressed, tortured and she finally runs away to the south where she has a son, Linton Heathcliff. She dies young and her sickly son is brought up by his inhuman father, merely as a tool that might fetch his father the ownership of the Grange if he might inherit it one day. Hindley Earnshaw gambles and loses all his land to Heathcliff and Hareton is left a pauper after Hindley’s early death.

Heathcliff makes young Cathy Linton his prisoner and trickily gets her married to his son. He gets his son to write a will that after him, all his property will got to his father, Mr. Heathcliff.

Soon, sickly Cathy’s husband Linton Heathcliff and her father Mr. Edgar Linton (who had been suffering long) slip into eternal slumber. And this was the present state whenHeathcliff, the present owner of both the estates, Hareton Earnshaw, the uncivilized fellow Lockwood had met and Mrs. Catherine Heathcliff, the youngwidow of Mr. Linton Heathcliff lived at Wuthering Heights at the mercy of the old crook Heathcliff.

Very soon Lockwood leaves the Grange and moves to London.

In1802- Mr. Lockwood had another chance of visiting Thrushcross Grange where he finds that Ellen Dean has shifted to Wuthering Heights. He goes there to meet her and to settle some pending transactions with Mr. Heathcliff and finds that Heathcliff has died and thus now young Catherine is the owner of the two estates and very soon she and Hareton would be tying the knot and moving to the Thrushcross Grange, for she liked that place better and because they thought that Wuthering Heights was now haunted.

And thus the book closes on this peaceful and happy note.

Through the entire story, we get a good number of pieces that require a thought. Generations after generations, the same mistakes are repeated. As a famous quote goes, “Every generation thinks that it is better than the previous and wiser than the next” and the proverb “love is blind” comes true through this text. It was the baseless, blind yet tender love of Mrs. Catherine Linton for Heathcliff that ultimately destroyed her. Her sister-in-law, Isabella, even after having a lot of intelligence about his character, thought the entire world was against her and that her love was divine, married the rascal and suffered much. Young Cathy also believed that her love for the junior Heathcliff was pure and would pay little heed to anyone showing the the light of realitythat existed in life.

In the story, Mr. Edgar Linton comes across as a perfect gentleman, a good son, a caring brother, a really awesome husband (it is mentioned that no mother would tend to her only child as Edgar tended to Catherine) and a perfect father (the example is the bringing up he gave to his motherless daughter).

Another thing that comes in view is the human greed and selfishness. It has been there ever since and shall remain till human race exists. Heathcliff is shown to be a greedy man whose sole intention in life was to own the two estates mentioned in the book and he could go to any length to achieve his aim. He ruined two proper families, apart from his own, of course, to fuel his ambition and in the end he barely survived for six months after fraudulently gaining the ownership of the Grange, to enjoy the fruits of his wickedness. The question arises that if the grave is our ultimate destination and that all we do/make shall remain behind,why do we indulge in all sorts of wrong deeds, schemes and frauds?

A beautiful pattern can be seen in the way Mrs. Catherine Linton, born and brought up at Wuthering Heights cherished her old home more than the Grange; Isabella having spent her early years at the Grange found the Heights worthless. Young Cathy also decided to shift back to Thrushcross Grange upon her marriage to Hareton, for she loved that place much better.

The beautiful scenery, the vast open moors, the parks, the holy influence of the Church and the bible, colourful and picturesque description of the seasons, the varied facets of human nature, the deep running emotions and feelings of people that undermine all the rigid rules that are laid down by civilized society and of course the exuberant description and narration of the events, make‘Wuthering Heights’ a must read for those who want to cherish English literature in its pristine and the most beauteous form.

Melancholy of Innocence by Raj Doctor

Title : Melancholy of Innocence

Author : Raj Doctor

Publisher : Frog Books

ISBN : 978-93-81115-05-3

Melancholy of Innocence by Raj Doctor is a passionate love story of Umit who barely made his presence felt in the teen years and a beautiful girl Masum who happens to be eight years elder to Umit. The story is told in a flashback set in late 1920s in Istanbul against the backdrop of post political revolution that led to Turkish independence.

Umit finds a connection of 'Ruh' with Masum and obsessively follows his soul's inner voice. He does find a way to be with Masum and to show his pure feelings to her. Gradually their love blossoms and they decide to seal it with signature of permanence. But are they able to successfully do it and where does Umit find himself thirty years from the time he first set his eyes on Masum? And why is there melancholiness in this love saga?

A couple of sub stories are also added to the narrative, for instance that of Masum's brother and his relationship with his friend but these subplots neither help the main plot move forward nor bring in any freshness to it, hence are complete waste.

The story began quite promisingly and I liked the introspective philosophy sections that appeared in bits and pieces in between the narrative but then the mundane day to day activities were dealt in such elaborate details that it started becoming very drab and a mere chore to read through. I did read through the whole book because I was expecting a great climax at the end when Umit returns to the present time but then the climax and the conclusion were very weak and very naively handled.

The narration is beautifully peppered with philosophy and poetry, a unique style adopted by the author. The poetry is worth reading and pondering upon. However, as the story progresses, the philosophy part lingers on a little too longer than can be easily savored.

There are plenty of editing errors that the whole story suffers from. I always maintain that a tight editing is a must to have a presentable piece of writing and if a book falters on that account, it becomes a big put off.

However, the book is still not a complete wash out as the commentary on human moralities and human frailties, is interesting to read but the absence of a strong plot is sorely felt all through the story.