2066th BLOG POST
17th Book of 2023
People often ask
not to judge a book by its cover but there are times when I still pick books
based on their cover, title or just synopsis. There is one such book I read
recently named “Afternoon” written by Nidhi Dalmia. This 225-pages book is published
by Rupa Publications. It is based in the timeline of 1950s and 1960s hence
reading it makes you understand what the world thought about many things during
that era. The story revolves around different places in the world such as
Kashmir, Delhi, San Francisco and New York. You get a gist of how certain
revolutions took place globally and the way mindset of people was getting
transformed gradually. It tells you about how people were themselves evolving
and accepting many forms of relationships which earlier were considered as
taboo and unacceptable.
Nidhi’s writing style is powerful and keeps
you engaged. He knows how to narrate even small setups that you read it so
carefully as if there’s a larger meaning to it. The way he has used locations
and its aesthetics speaks a lot about the research he must have gone through to
understand how to portray them through the story. Similarly, the historical
events are mentioned so beautifully that you never find them forced in the
story setup. You are able to accept all such inclusions and want to know what
happened simultaneously with the main plot of the story. Dalmia has also mentioned
many poems and lyrics of the songs which are such a beautiful piece of
literature and art that you wish this was a separate book altogether. If you
are poetic, you are definitely going to enjoy reading these segments.
The story basically
speaks about how the relationships define a person and also brings major
changes in one’s life without any plans. The protagonist, Rajiv, falls twice in
love. The 1st one mentioned with Ayesha is something I could very
much relate to. The way book starts with their rising chemistry and eventually
discusses how their kisses started getting better day by day. Frankly speaking,
those sections are very sensuous and I just couldn’t stop myself from imagining
things. Haha! How their love story gets impacted is also narrated aptly as it
makes you emotional and empathize with the character. The 2nd part
of the book which is Rajiv’s relationship with Catherine speaks about how
nothing could come in between their feelings for each other despite of their own
growth as individuals.
Their inter-continental
love speaks about the challenges that occurs when people from two different
cultures and time-zones falls for each other. The long-distance relationship
and its difficult path are evident from few sections when the couple goes through
the same. The book is basically going to resonate with people who are aware of
multiple cultures beyond India as they can relate with many real-life incidents
and other art-related development that the author discusses; otherwise, for me,
this has just been a soft-porn where you will end up reading about two people
kissing and getting physical every now and then. There’s not many twists and
turns in the book and no deep-diving in terms of characters in love.
The story is very
plain with nothing that can actually touch your heart. I found it very absurd
in terms of how can someone write a book with no major set-up but only with
over-description of few places, culture and sensuous scenes. It’s good to gift
to your partner if you are below 25 as it can help both of you get more closer
in terms of your love-making process but other than that, I don’t think that
the story goes anywhere. Anyway, I give this book 2 stars out of 5. I wish I
could have stopped reading it midway but my anticipation that some twist will
bring an impact to the book made me stay up till the end.
Thanks!
WRITING BUDDHA
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