Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Review: The Lost Paradise by Anjali Vaswani & Vikas Bansal

Stories are written sometimes to convey a beautiful message to the readers. Some stories manage to do it but some don't. Authors Anjali Vaswani & Vikas Bansal have come up with a story in their novel "The Lost Paradise" which highlights our society and leaves a message for the readers. Is the message deep enough to influence people's hearts or it's just a story? Let's find out. 

Riya was in a dilemma. Should she help her hostel-friend Kamini, who was involved in a sex and drugs racket and was depending on her to get her out of the mess? Riya had always dreamt big of becoming a politician some day. So this was her chance to really help out innocent girl victims and bust a racket or should she just concentrate on her studies and enjoy the attentions of her handsome boyfriend Vivaan with whom she soon planned to tie the knot? More important, could she help Kamini without getting into really dangerous waters herself and risking her own life and the lives of all those whom she loved? 'Some love....' unravels the rare path taken by a gutsy, urban collegian and the repercussions it has on her life.


The cover page of the book shows a young girl with some mixed looks and the title gives glimpses of a story which can take hearts away. The blurb focuses on Riya who is ambitious and wants to become a politician one day but is in a fix too because of her friend Kamini and then comes Vivaan the love of her life and it unfolds a series of events which might change the entire landscape in Riya's life. So is it just a love story or a love story with a message. Let's sort it out for the readers.


The story starts off with Riya a small town girl with big dreams in her eyes and her conservative parents strictly against her dreams. Luck favors the brave and she lands up in Delhi to fulfill her dreams. She befriends Kamini and later finds out some shocking stories about her which make her feel helpless in that situation. Along all this drama comes Vivaan whom she admires a lot from the first day in her college and then love blossoms between the two. But Kamini's problems lands up Riya in a huge political mess which threatens to spoil her life. She somehow musters strength and with the help of few people just tries to get to the roots of the problem and help her friend and the society too.


The story is smooth and it's not a very long book by any means. It's a flashback of events that happened in Riya's life The chapters in the first half are about dreams & ambitions of a girl and love knocking on her heart's door. The mushy love story has a parallel plot i.e thriller which runs in tandem with the love story. The thriller part tries to highlight the dirty politics and trafficking of girls and drug abuse in the society. The authors have done complete justice to both the stories. They have successfully managed to capture the essence of love and the filthy elements of the society and blended them into one story. The poems towards the end and the emotions of a struggling soul are best described by the authors. The characters have been built up and maneuvered around quite beautifully in the story.

The editing is not so good with spelling mistakes in the story and few abbreviations and spacing errors occurring at various places in the story. The marriage part has been stretched far too much in the latter half of the book. It could have been kept a little smaller. The Vikas & Anjali part was unnecessary towards the end of the story. Social causes don't invite jealousy which looked out of sorts in terms of the story of the book.


The books leaves a lovely message for the readers that no matter what the odds if you have will and courage to fight the evil, then nobody can deter you from your path.Sometimes success comes at a sacrifice in life is another very important message in this book.  Readers will get to enjoy a love cum thriller story. The latter half might feel a little overstretched but the end of the story will make up for that dullness. It's a story with an important message for the readers and the society.

RATINGS:

3 OUT OF 5

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