Delhi was struck by an unexpected bomb blast which exploded in the vicinity of the high court in late 2011. It killed several people and destroyed several lives. In the memory of those hapless children, women and men, Durjoy Datta and Nikita Singh teamed up to write a romantic novel. This novel inundates from time to time the life of a person, who narrates the incidents.
The authors have tried to bring out the story as a semi-travelling romantic story, with bits of unnecessary elements diffused at some parts of the book. The main character is Deb, the story being narrated by him. So it necessarily points out to the novel, mostly being written by Durjoy at large. There are not going to be any big spoilers in the review, for I would want the read to read the book with novelty. As it starts off, Deb is caught in the middle of a blast besetting a heap of people. He wakes up to see love and concern in the eyes of his girlfriend, Avantika. He suddenly is bogged down when he picks up a half burnt diary, from the scene and is held by only one thought; to get the story of the dead guy from the diary to his lover. And he goes on a road trip with his buddy, Shrey with only few leads to his dispatch. He’s left with no choice but to tell Avantika, Shrey and his newly met girlfriend, Tiya; the truth. Soon, they uncover the mystery about the dead guy and are dumbfound by what they learn.
It goes without saying that, there’s a lot of love-making and sexual talks which is to be inferred from the genre. But thankfully, that ends with the first half. You wouldn’t believe how horrible it reads when Deb is narrating the story. I mean, he’s just a lustful guy. He talks about love at one point, says something nice and appends it with a sexual comment. I think that was the most awful and abhorrent aspect of the novel along with a use of lot of spontaneous comments and phrases created apathy. Everything literally narrows down to intercourse with this guy. But what made me stick to the novel was the enigma and curiosity to find out what happens next.
The Final Word:
Whatever the reason may be, I am not repelled by this novel. In fact, I’ve come to like it. Though don’t expect much from this amateur writing style. I thought, at some point, Chetan Bhagat might have been able to do something more if he wrote this one. But that doesn’t take away the novelty of a bland created by Durjoy and Nikita, by infusing it with a thriller touch. Also, look out for the climax, actually two of’em. The climax singlehandedly made up for the disgusting and sexual comments.
The storytelling was what kept me going though, something could’ve been done about the perspective of Deb towards women. One wouldn’t know what Durjoy and Nikita garnered about the case or the diary, but they convert an atrocious act into a memorable romantic story.
My Rating: 3/5.
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