Genre: Motivational/ Life skills/ fantasy fiction
Pages: 129
Edition: paperback (@ Rs. 170), kindle (@Rs 136, @ Rs. 49)
Publisher: Embassy Book Distributors
Publishing
year: 2019
RATING: ☆☆☆☆ ¼ (4.25/5)
Mayur
Sarda’s debut novel is a wonderful book to pick up, both in terms of the joy of
reading it as well as the impact it leaves on the readers. The story begins amidst
a crisis—with the protagonist of the story, Anusha gearing up for a suicide attempt
after succumbing to depression and anxiety. Anusha soon finds herself in her
afterlife and she is told that since she has chosen death by her own and hence
broken the cycle of life, she must relive her life with the same pains and
sorrows once again. When Anusha pleads, she gets a second chance to rectify this
fate of hers. She is allowed to come back to earth, but within a week she has
to find her Boon. The Boon is the special ability every soul gets gifted with while descending to the mortal realm, and some take lives after lives to realize and then utilize theirs.
Having no choice, Anusha agrees to
this unusual contract and soon resumes her life back from where she had left
off. This mystical episode seemed very original and well devised and it gave a
plausible explanation to Anusha’s dilemma after death. We are soon informed
that the cause of Anusha’s mental instability and hostility is majorly because of
Siddharth. Siddharth and Anusha were in love and they had married secretively, because
of parental disapproval of their relationship. But owing to several unprecedented
turns in Sidharth’s personal life, he was forced to stay back in USA and had to
call off the marriage, leaving Anusha back in India; helpless and inconsolable.
Anusha is soon fitted with another groom, but that episode too ends in trauma
and humiliation—as she herself witnesses Siddharth’s suicide and is forced to
disclose her former relationship with her husband-to-be on that very same day.
With no strings attached and every
hope aflame, Anusha is plunged into depression. After these vivid accounts of
events, the author then sets off in paving the way to the main plotline of the
story. Anusha’s Grandpa narrates the tale of his father, and how he had escaped
from Pakistan in the face of communal riots and settled in India. Inflicted
with mental heaviness and depression, he had been sent to an ashram in Dharamshala—the
Yukteshwar ashram. Within a week, the man had completely healed and returned to
his daily life. But the ashram had a clause—in order to transfer the spiritual
learnings across generations, whoever visits the ashram had to write about his experiences
and teachings in the form of 4 letters. These letters were to be collected by his next generation by again
visiting the ashram. Anusha is thereby instructed to go to Dharamshala and
collect the letters left behind by his great-grandfather. Thus, begins Anusha’s
quest—not only to get hold of her letters, but also to find her Boon as the
clock ticks. Anusha’s visit to Yukteshwar’s ashram turn into a full-fledged spiritual
adventure, at the end of which she finds her boon and is able to leave the
place without harbouring any burden or guilt from her turbulent past.
Through his writing, Mayur has successfully ingrained
the story with values and lessons on life—through the eyes of the protagonist
Anusha. The plot has been intricately weaved without leaving any loophole. Each
of the segments of the story connect with each other without any hassle and create
an atmosphere of mysticism and magical realism. Anusha’s portrayal of emotions
is raw and realistic and her vulnerability and flaws are exposed layer by layer
with each incident that comes her way. Even though the main storyline
concerning Siddharth and Anusha’s failed marriage lurks all throughout under
the surface of Mayur’s storytelling, many other episodes of Anusha’s past and
her previous delusive decisions spring up—and aid further understanding of her
character. Her quest to find the 4 letters carries an air of suspense and the
journey to find the last letter sort of ties the whole story together and plays
the role of the climax.
Although the book has many things to
offer, it does have some areas which could have been improved. When Anusha revives
from her near-to-success suicidal attempt, the tension and instability in her family
is not highlighted at all. The relationships which are strained due to this
fatal decision of hers are not shown in detail. To be precise, there seemed to
be a huge gap between the episode of her suicide attempt and the one where she
learns of the ashram from her grandfather. The philosophical discourses and
moral lessons sometimes went on for pages at stretch, and slowed down the pace
of the story. In the phase when Anusha is in the ashram, each chapter starts
off almost in the same way, leading to an extent of predictability.
I will heartily recommend this book to
everyone. Although this is the author’s debut work, he has proved himself to be
extremely capable as a storyteller. Can’t wait to read more of his works!
Title: ☆☆☆☆☆ (5/5)
Writing style: ☆☆☆ 1/2 (3.5/5)
Characterization: ☆☆☆☆ (4/5)
Plot: ☆☆☆☆ (4/5)
Overall impact: ☆☆☆ (3/5)
✔ Grab a copy of the book here.
✔ Reach out to the author Mayur Sarda: @mayur_author.
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