No, it is not a question that I
am asking you, it’s the title of the book by Ravinder Singh that I just happen
to complete reading. Continuing with my sad romance book era, I had started
this book, only to find that it actually had a happy ending. Not that I was
disappointed because of its ending but the reason(s) of disappointment was
different, which I will gradually disclose as I take you through my journey of
exploring the book.
The love saga of Simar and
Ravin, with the exotic backdrop of Belgium was fascinating. The beauty of the
mesmerizing city and its changing colors with each season, is smartly and interestingly
used by the author. Ravin who was recovering from the loss of his dead
girlfriend Khushi, comes to Belgium for an official assignment. He wanted to
get back to normalcy but had little hope or intent to find love again. But with
Simar coming into his life, his inhibitions to love sublimes as he finds
himself gradually falling for her beauty and innocence (the author had numerous
times pointed to the innocence of his beautiful female protagonist). The depiction
of their growing attraction followed by love, was nothing new. Similar to many
other writers, Ravinder has uninhibitedly portrayed physical love making with
every minute details, sometimes even more elaborate than the emotional part,
which I disliked.
In major part of the novel,
Simar is, time and again addressed as innocent with childlike candidness. However
with turn of events the reader is left aghast to find her selfish and egoist
and the unfolding of events is too abrupt. The reader has no time to digest,
and his/her mind starts boggling with questions like “Was Simar pretending to
be someone else?” But unfortunately the book does not provide any answer. Again
the same girl, who likes being by herself, is extremely careerist, is broadly
non-compromising and has been in Belgium for around two years, has never
boozed. But at the same time, loses no time to indulge in a physical relationship
with a man she hardly knows. In a nut shell, the portrayal of Simar’s character
is quite hazy. Her change of
attitude remains unexplained and vague till the end.
Two people falling in love and
again falling apart, because the girl does not want to have fetters in the form
of in-laws around her, is not new. But that does not mean it cannot be written
about, my problem was the unclear
unfolding of events and the reasons behind it. The author does not take through
a laminar flow, and the plot fails to build smoothly in the mind of the reader.
The characters fail to come alive as they ideally should.
My last complain was the
million mentions of Ravinder’ s first novel “I too had a love story” being a best
seller throughout the novel.
Having said whatever I felt
after reading the novel, I want to mention that one aspect is extremely
positive about this one, it propagates true love and salutes them who preaches
it. Love can happen many times, but the honesty attached to every relationship
is important. It’s important for love to be selfless as conditions attached to
subjects related to heart is a must and just NO NO.
Aritra
Chakrabarty Sengupta
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