I know I have deserted my old love(mouthshut.com) for quite a long time now; but trust me you have been in my heart of the hearts, and in all my smiles of fond memories. How can I forget that this platform gave me the first opportunity and readers to appreciate & add reviews to my work. This opportunity boosted up my confidence in both, my creative and professional writing that eventually, made me achieve lot of things, which I never dared to dream when I was young.
I received a bunch of reviewers and readers who consistently supported, guided and appreciated my work. I am so thankful to this website, and to its readers & reviewers, that it will not be enough to express. The love and warmth that I received here, I wish to make a comeback for my second innings, with a book-review on Rajarshi Motilal’s book, which is a romantic bestseller already, named as’And then, she said Yes!’
The storyline is simple; in the sense in our generation and with change of lifestyle altogether, complexity is inevitable. Right from teenage issues, to peer pressure, professional dilemmas, personal aspirations, the expectations from relationships, and finally the society we live in, all of them add to our growing complexities in our daily lives. The novel produces a graph in a phase of life, which is an asymmetrical progression. The protagonist Ayushman Bose, is a geek who only comes to notice when he is participating in debates. He is a great orator when given a platform; but in real life, he is timid and is afraid to speak up his mind. He is not a liar, yet he is afraid to face his true self. He is not a person to run in a corporate rat-race, yet he is running out of desperation, and out of proving himself to an external force rather to himself. He is a possessive, expressive and talkative lover/boyfriend; yet he could not handle love when it came to his doorstep several times! He is a lover of freedom who dreams for a better world, a game-changer; but often caught in his own emotional influxes. He is someone who lends his shoulder willingly to anyone who is weaker, with his good intentions, support, being an inspirational batch mate/colleague, but gets into depression by his own weaknesses and insecurities. Such is the hero of this novel who is neither a prince charming, nor a valiant soldier; he is a common man who has common lifestyle, common aspirations and common way of living, yet life with its twists-n-turns makes it a tale to be remembered and be hopeful about.
Ayushman is a student who belongs to a middle class Bengali family, living in Kolkata. The description of a middle-class family which includes everyday taking public buses as means of transport and not cabs(cabs are luxury drive), importance of extra -curricular activities(like playing Cricket) along with studies, dream of the entire family of having an engineer or a doctor at home if you have a son, having maachher-jhol as daily bread, add amazing flavors to the advancement of the novel. These are key points of writing a novel. The description of the backdrop to create the atmosphere or the age for the characters and situations to fit-in smoothly, has been accurately written with utmost care and warmth.
Now, coming to the integral part of the book, the plot; the plot revolves around Ayushman and his search of love; to love and to be loved. He falls in love several times, with several women, who has been dumped several times, and in due course of time, he dumps too. A reader who is a metro-sexual being can relate oneself with this shift of love, women & friends. In a big city that has seasoned progressive Indians of all times, these rapid shift of’to be’ and’not to be’ have hit this generation massively. This age is an age of transition where east meets west, spirituality meets technology, where a community consists of heterosexual and homosexuals and transgender, where everyone is aspiring a free will state or community, where skills & talents can speak for you before you are judged, where equal rights of living is for all. We all know, deep down that we are imperfect, but every waking day we dream of a perfect world, which we will carve together. The characters loudly portray this aspiration. No one is perfect, yet they aspire perfection; in them as well as, from the external society. In this search of a perfect job, perfect friendship, perfect relation, perfect marriage, and perfect love they get lost in the pool of questions, uncertainty, ugliness and thereby failures. Ayushman’s love for Ahana, Srestha, Ritu were true. However, when wars of ego come between two lovers, it not only breaks but also leaves scars in the minds. Something similar happened when Ayushman met Ahana his first crush, and later on Ritu where their egos played the role of Lucifer over Cupid. Ayushman’s love of Srestha was genuine too. Infact, he was so weak towards her that even when Srestha took him for granted, dumped him several times because she was uncertain of her priorities, he never gave up on her! Here again, the protagonist portrays a shade of grey which is neither white nor black. One side of him depicts his inexhaustible and indomitable love for Srestha; the other side of him reveals his weaker self where he dumps his aspiration of becoming a journalist to a white-collar job he hated the most. The novel bears many such situations where the contradictory elements are juxtaposed revealing the modern day psyche.
Another interesting aspect of this novel is the narration. I love self-mockery narratives, and the deep sarcasm that goes with it. It is subtle; it appears that the protagonist is fooling himself with self-mockery but a little deeper insight will show you that he is hitting hard on the immediate society, social affairs, and society at-large. From student politics in Universities, to a friendship between a man & a woman, to the hollowness of MBA classes, to MNCs sending their trainees to overseas; there is a dig in all these social elements that seem to be so flashy!
One of the weaker sides(being a critic/reviewer I need to pen down few) of the novel, which I thought, was the fact that the sub-plots were weaker. A stronger and tighter sub-plot(s) would shoot up the reader’s engagement even better; and can make the reader long to wait to read more. In that way, the reader confirms his/her participation in all the work. For example, a sub plot would arouse curiosity on Ahana’s life running, parallel to Aayushman’s(of course, with lesser stress) before the final meet; or maybe Joanna’s as the last paragraph ends with Joanna’s name in it. It could have been a sub-plot on Ayushman’s other self, his journalist self and aspirations of being creative and how he emerged victorious when he was depressed with life. Something, I love about, and learnt from Ayn Rand; her sub plots run parallel to the main, with the same pace and dynamism. At times, I get confused whether the sub plot is the main; or the main is a sub-plot.
According to me, the most fascinating aspect of this novel is the intertwining of the Prologue and the Climax-chapter. Excellent work there Rajarshi! The patching up of these two parts have made the novel so believable, unpredictable and unique; even though the situations and the characters with their usual behavioural patterns were predictable and to an extent, monotonous! The climax has brought a smile on my face, as it was optimistic and realistic as well. The two contradictory elements of life brought together as if they are complimenting each other. Kudos there! That is where the author’s art of narration stands tall. Be it whatever, being truthful to your work, your relations, and your art is always rewarded with such a beautiful output, where readers take back hope, love and the interest of being truthful in their own way, when they get back to face their lives.