Saturday, December 10, 2011

Dilli-Mumbai love story: by Abhimanyu Jha









Well, this novel was quite different from what I had expected.

This novel tells about the love story of Aniruddha and Aparajita. It describes how their love burgeoned and blossomed. It is a story about the determination and courage to stand by your love in any circumstances.

Aparajita is a christian girl and Aniruddha’s parents are dead against their marriage. Aniruddha prefers his love over family. He leaves his home for the sake of his love and marries Aparajita despite his parent’s objection.

Aparajita tries hard to bridge the gap between Aniruddha and his family but he is stubborn enough to cooperate. After an emotional clash with Aniruddha, Aparajita comes to Mumbai to overcome her tension by spending some time with her friend and gets trapped in Taj in a horrifying night when a massive terrorist attack shuddered Mumbai.

After so much terror, tribulations and valor, finally, she has been saved but Aniruddha dies in order to save her wife (Or rather unnecessarily)
Yes, I think death of Aniruddha was unnecessary as the novel says “…When love won over terror”

I would have liked it if after such strenuous effort, they would have emerged as a winner.  Nevertheless, the author has described the parting (Final) scene very skillfully. The novel is written in diary form and the story leaps from past to present very nicely.


Few things I found awkward:

1. First of all, their age. As the story proceeded,  I found it difficult to digest that they are just twenty one. This story is too mature for their age.


2. There are no chapters. The novel is written in diary form but there are no specific dates or even months.
 For example, some incident starts with ‘Delhi 2005’ and after two pages it restarts with ‘Delhi 2005’ and again after two or three pages it restarts with ‘Delhi 2005’.
I don’t find any logic behind this and it is a bit irritating. It could have been written in just one flow or in different chapters or at least specific dates or months should have been mentioned.

3. Sometimes, the author seems to forget the rule of ‘Showing, not telling’
For example, during a conversation Aniruddha’s father asks him,

“I’m asking your age Sonu.” (Sonu is my pet name.)

Any reader can easily understand that Sonu is his pet name. I don’t find any need to describe it in a bracket.

Overall, I didn’t enjoy this novel that much as expected (Maybe expectation was too high after reading some really nice reviews). But it is not bad either. Characters and incidents are quite identifiable. There is a nice storyline. You can read it in a lazy afternoon when you have nothing much to do.











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