When we first meet Samar Garg he is in a deep depression. He has had a very tumultuous twenty-first year. He keeps himself locked up and does not speak to anyone. With great difficulty, he thaws enough to share his life story with his friend Arshi.
Just a year ago he was over the moon. He was in love with Kanika Merchant, a year his junior in college. She lived in the women's hostel and they tried to concoct as many reasons for being together as they could. Samar was living in a flat close to his college with his friend Roy. Things could not be better.
Roy was trying hard to find a girlfriend and settled upon Maansi, Kanika's pricey friend. In an effort to impress her he starts writing a novel. He seems to be getting closer to attaining his objective too.
This is the last year for Samar at the engineering college and soon he will have to make forays into the world of employment. But just then, when things seem so smooth for him he is dealt with a raw deal.
His world is shattered and he goes into a down spiral. He leaves Delhi without any money and with only the clothes he has on his back. He takes a train to Goa and starts working in a small shack-hotel there. He will do anything but go back to his previous life in Delhi. He waits tables, cleans up, learns to cook.
But will Samar learn to face up to things and quit running? Will he ever learn that by running away he might be compounding his troubles?
Frankly, I am not fond of 'college-romances'. I can do without those mushy maudlin stories. Most of the time the language is intolerable and the proceedings are boring, to me at least. They do have a lot of fans but I am not one of them.
Surprisingly, I liked Sachin Garg's book. Firstly, he keeps his trump cards well hidden and it was very hard for me to predict what will really happen next. Secondly, his book reads like an adventure romance (thanks to the Goa chapters) more rather than a boy-girl thing. Thirdly, he seems to like his heroines to be very strong which I appreciate. Fourthly, he was able to sustain my interest from the page 1 to page 257, which is the cardinal requirement of every novel.
I won't say the language was top shelf, but it wasn't the pits either. It needed a stricter check. One can use simple language without being ungrammatical.
I also have the author's next book in hand We Need a Revolution which has an interesting theme. I am looking forward to reading it as well.
1 comment:
A good review. Makes me want to read the book.
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