Vikrant Khanna

The author Mr.Vikrant khanna has beautifully expresssed that your loved ones can be in your life even if they are dead.The cover of the book is beautiful and has this line written at the bottom "what if the loved ones you lost were to come back?".Although the characters in this novel are fictious but very influential. It is mainly a story of a man called Harvinder(Harry) who tells his life story and the miracle that happened in his girlfriend's life to a little girl named Akshara who lost her mother and wanted her back.He(harry) loved a girl named Sahiba who had come to live in his society in delhi.She is a short,fat girl with lovely eyes as addressed by the author.Sahiba used to bake delicious cookies and had planned to open her own bakery.He wanted to tell her about his love for her but she was in love with a guy named siddhu(siddharth) who had interest in acting and studied in delhi university. He(harry) being jealous of siddhu intentionally hit him with his car.Two weeks after which harry died in an car accident and was chosen as a living ghost(as punishment) by yama (the god of death)after death.Sahiba and siddhu (dropped his acting career)successfully opened her bakery and were to get married but ten days before their marriage he died in an car accident.Siddhu was very kind,big- hearted person who always helped and prioritize others before himself.Sahiba was in great trauma after his death and believed that if she does thousand good deeds then a miracle will happen and siddhu will be alive again.She joined several NGOs and used to help poors with money and free cookies but it took a lot of time.Then harry requested yama to make him visible to sahiba and grant him the power to see people's sufferings so that he could help her in completing her good deeds.Although siddhu can't be alive again but it could help sahiba to overcome her grief.They together helped many people in some way or the other and finally god impressed by her ordered yama to fulfill her wish. Since it was against the rules yama couldn't make him alive again but he did made him a guardian angel.This gave hope to the little girl Akshara and made her believe that the loved you lost can come back again.

The author through this novel has tried to awake a ray of hope in many people's lives.
Overall I liked the novel and was a good reading time who have lost their loved ones and miss them.It is beautifully narrated fictional story.… (mere)

Note : This review has been posted @ Readers' Muse

This book has been doing rounds in Facebook like forever. I always wondered how a book with that title and tag line got famous. The title and the tag line ticked me off : Love lasts forever – Only if you don’t marry your love. That statement misleading and sort of contradicts the summary. Curiosity got the better of me and I signed up for me as soon as this book came up for review from Readers Cosmos. Thankfully, after I finished reading the book, the title was justified( though it turned out to be a bit ironical).

The book back summary is rather well phrased which saves reviewers like me from the explaining what the story is all about without divulging the plot. Our protagonist is a sea farer who narrates the story partially while being captured by pirates of Somalia. The narration switches between his past, present and that of his captain’s past. There is always a factor of risk with time bound and character bound switch in narratives. I’ve read books by writers who messed up with emotions by switching timelines in the narration leaving me with a blinding headache. Thankfully, this writer sure got the switch bang on.

I felt Captain Shekar’s story was rather well written when compared to that of our protagonist’s story. This could be attributed to a fact that the writer actually completed Shekar’s story after a prolonged gap in the narrative.

Being a short fuse, I was almost prepared to throw this book out of nearest window during that part of the story when Ronit believes it’s his entire wife’s fault that their relationship has gone kaput after wedding. Why does the wife always have to “adjust” with the tantrums thrown by her SIL/MIL? Why can’t the husband actually understand that the poor girl has left her home and needs time adapting? That episode where our protagonist’s love walks out and he doesn’t really care was well written (which obviously is the reason behind “throw-the-book-out” feeling). I concluded that the writer was just another chauvinist who vented his feelings through his writing only to realise I was an absolute fool for the climax of the story blew me away (er…..I can’t tell why for that would give away the story!).

Amongst all the positives, the one thing that didn’t really impress me was the whole kidnapping drama. I couldn’t really connect with all the emotion that a person might actually undergo while being kidnapped at gun point by pirates.

The writing was simple and clean conveying all emotions intended but sort of slacked during with whole kidnapping scenario. I finished reading the book flat in day for the narration kept me hooked.

VERDICT: Intense emotions, addictive narration, why not?!

RATING: 4.3 on 5
… (mere)