When the Heavens Smiled, by Ritesh Arora is story of Sarthak and Sarangi. Sarthak hails from Delhi. He gets a job in a software company at Kolkota through campus placement. His two friends Raja and Ankur have failed to get a job through campus interviews. But both of them live in Kolkota. So the three of them party hard at Sarthak’s expense. Once they visit a luxury hotel by name the Grand Vilas. There Sarthak meets Sarangi. She works in the said hotel. She lives in Raja’s colony. Sarthak and Sarangi fall in love. Even her parents are fine with it.
Everything seems hunky dory when Sarangi is diagnosed with leukemia. She is in advanced stage of the malignant disease and even doctors abroad say that she has only three months to stay. That’s when Sarthak’s grandfather tells him to visit his guru at Rishikesh. The guru assures that if he helps someone in similar situation he will come to help him. Also Sarthak’s father suggest him a doctor, an ayurvedic practitioner from Haridwar. Will the guru and doctor heal Sarangi? For that you will have to read When the Heavens Smiled.
What I liked about the book is its simplicity. It is a simple tale told very simply. The writer doesn’t spend much time in developing the love track between Sarthak and Sarangi. They simply fall in love. The friends, the landlord are all easy to relate characters. KC jeweller and Sarthak’s boss Rajan are cliched characters. But they work in this story which no where claims to be path breaking.
What has drifted Sarthak away from his father is no where explained. Sarthak’s grandfather appears all of a sudden in the story. Sarangi who is a vegetative state, suddenly springs up from the bed and makes breakfast for Sarthak. This development in the story is hard to digest. Who healed her the guru or the doctor is no where answered. Even the question - whether Guru and the doctor is one and the same person, is left open. Forwarded jokes, stories and motivational quotes are cleverly implanted in the dialogues between the characters. Sarthak drops messages in search of Amit. Sarangi’s illness is no where mentioned in these messages, which simply say that he wants to urgently talk to the right Amit. Then too he receives reply from one of the Amits saying that he sympathizes with Sarthak’s friend’s case. Now is this Amit clarivoyant or he is the guru? This mistake in editing comes as an unintended twist in the story which like other twists is no where clearly answered.
Then too I liked When the Heavens Smiled. This is no brainer is certainly entertaining in some of its parts.