Book review: 'I too had a love story'

I picked up this book recently from a book store. The cover looked plain with a picture of some flowers on it. I actually picked it up, for the sake of picking up a book. The author's name was unheard of. Nevertheless, I was curious. The book lay unopened for a day.

The next day I was alone at home, getting bored when my eyes fell on this book. I decided to give it a try. I soon realized that the book couldn't be classified as a literary masterpiece in any way. The story was unravelling itself in a very ordinary way. At one point, it seemed so full of cliches that I almost decided to put it down. For lack of a better thing to do, I continued with it.

The book is about a guy 'Ravin' who meets a girl called 'Khushi' through shaadi.com and falls in love through phone calls and SMSs (Something which most of us can relate to :) ). ' The book was supposed to be tragedy, which I had known from the summary on the back cover. Slowly, I started getting involved in the book. There was no side-by-side story line, no extra characters. The concentration was totally on those two, Ravin and Khushi, which kept me reading.

As I continued with my reading, slowly I realized that I was getting the feel of the book. The simplicity of the narration, the honesty of it all, was beautiful. The author doesn't go into too many details anywhere. He just tells the reader what he has to know, in order to enjoy the book, just the required amount of details. I rejoiced when the couple kissed for the first time. When the heavy rains played havoc and she had difficulty reaching home in time, I glowed at the way Ravin played the role of a hero. Before I knew ,all the happiness had turned to sorrow, when the tragedy struck. She was fighting for life and I could feel the pain that he was going through. I cried with him, later on, cried my heart out after finishing the book.

It was just one of those love stories, nothing new, nothing special in the story. But the honesty of it all, won my heart. It was obvious that the author wrote the book for the feelings and emotions in the book. He didn't write it to win awards. It was so touching, one can't help but melt. People who value emotions, relationships would love this book. Forget that you read are a fan of Hardy, Dickens, Austen ( which I am) . Forget the endless descriptions of a situation going on for pages and pages. Forget that you read those classics too. Have no preconceived notions. Don't have any expectations. Then, read this book. If you too have a love story, you will appreciate the simplicity of the whole thing.

One line of the author, which I loved-'She died. I survived. Because I survived, I die everyday.' Hard to believe this is just fiction. The way it has been narrated, he makes you believe it all actually happened. I honestly hope it didn't. You wouldn't want anyone to go through such pain and agony.