I saw this book while casually glancing through one of the book stores at Janpath. What attracted me was the cover and title of the book. I thought it to be another campus type novels written by some young author but the back blurb gave an impression that it was a some suspense kind of story- a new for Indian fiction because now a days market has been saturated by the Indian fiction having the same old campus type of love stories(a trend started by C.Bhagat).
To my surprise I finished the novel in the first sitting itself in almost three hours! The story is definitely a new concept and manages to bind the reader to the last page. Here is my review of the novel-
The plot- One young woman Gauri commits suicide on the tracks of Delhi Metro. Two police officers Yahsvardhan and Arjun Singh are given the responsibility to investigate the case. The face of the victim has disfigured beyond recognition and they found a suicide note claiming that she has killed her husband. The only clue they found was an ATM card. They trace the card which belongs to her husband Siva who was employed in some company-NHEL(I presume BHEL since the author himself works in BHEL). He was missing for the few days from his office and they found out that he had secretly married the woman Gauri in a court in presence of two witness- Pooja and VPN Singh. They trace their addresses in small towns of Bihar and inform their parents. Another mystery – Siva’s mother has died mysteriously and one more person Rohit was accused by the couple before the suicide to be trying to murder them. In the backdrop of this there is another love story blooming –that of Mithilesh –Siva’s friend and pinki-Yahsvarshan’s daughter. Yahsvardhan go through the diaries of the couple(which had some vague entries) but he manages to crack the pass word of his laptop in which he had recorded his past.
His past story begin when he leaves his home town to take admission in class XI in Delhi( I presume this is author’s own story). Ragging scene in Modern school is hilarious. Then the tone of novel turns serious when the story shifts to Siva’s family where two of his elder brothers fell in love and face resistance from his family. Curiously the entry of the leading lady is in the mid of the novel. However their love story is the best part of the story. They also face tough opposition from their families and decide to elope.
Meanwhile Arjun Singh traces Pooja and VPN Singh and takes their version of the story. As the climax approaches the mystery behind their deaths are cleared but Mithilesh and Pinki encounters trouble when they are hounded for eloping(the chase sequence is truly bollywood type).
Pros- Finally there is a novel by some young Indian writer which is different from the same old campus love stories. The writer manages to weave a wonderful story around his own experiences of life and manages to bind the reader to the last page. In between the story he manages to provide his viewpoint and philosophy brilliantly(the dialogues between Pooja and Yahsvardhan is beautifully brought out). His take on education system, saas Bahu enemity(my wife loved it), backwardness of his home state –Bihar, was also good to read.
Cons- The language needs little more refinement. It seems the editors(there are two of them) have not done their work well and many grammatical and spelling mistakes have crept up in the book. The end was not convincing and I think it was abrupt and could be better. The plot was too racy. The author could have elaborated it more.
Overall it was nice read and recommended for all those who want to read Indian fiction but are tired of the same old stale campus stories. Here there is something new tried by a young author. On a scale of 10 I will provide him 7.