Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Book Review: Love Across the Borders




Love across the BordersPublisher: All about Books Global

ISBN-10:
81-925690-0-0

No. of Pages:
250

Format: Paperback

Language: English

 
 
 
 
About the book:
 
Winter brings in, its own charms- and snuggling romances are the common choice. Yet, that is an option for the common circumstances. For when you are expecting something out of the box- you won’t pick up a mundane Nora Roberts!

Sudam Chandra Panigrahi’s “Love across the Borders” seems one such offbeat romance.
There is a little thing I would like to share. The title of the book shares many of its words with a famous short story by K. N. Daruwalla- called “LOVE ACROSS THE SALT DESERT. “ in a way even that was a cross border love saga with village politics poking its nose. Around the same time, when I read this short story, a Bollywood movie had come up with the same theme introducing two star kids- but that can be left out of this post for the time being. It is not as serious as the present book. The story runs around as numerous rivulets drawing upon world politics, social stigma, cultural differences and accidental hazards. All of the above are but working as catalysts to draw the protagonists closer to each other.  Across the barriers of cultural and linguistic differences- Jia and Jivan helped each other out of the traumatic bomb blast experience during their stay in the hospital. A Chinese rep for Bejing Power and a local official of Indian firm- the only link was this singular truth- they stood by each other at the time of need. Soon it turned into a need of lifetime companionship and togetherness and the two decide to tie the knot. But apart from the country borders, they had to deal with the wrath of Chinese immigrants, local sentiments, the malicious bureaucrats and the Visa dispute.

But winning over love is worthy any man made battle! Thus- Jia is ready to please her mother and sister in law and Jivan is ready to bash any other drunken admirer trying to make advances on Jia. When one group of religious bigots don’t permit- the lover don’t give up hope- instead they approach another and with pure devotion to their mutual love tie knots. The author brings in lot of political references. And has a tendency to give his chapters a definite introduction and conclusion. This approach is long forgotten. It so seems he is found of classics and the evergreen authors and draws much of his inspirations of the Victorian Novelists. Still I feel in order to bend with the new age readers’ books on bookshelves- he has to find a way to mix his poetic lines, his socially enlightening notions and his thoughtful stories- intelligently. The lack of such precision is acceptable only in the first attempt. I can award 3 out of 5 to this new author.
 
 
 
 
 
 

2 comments:

Ritesh Agarwal said...

That's cool. The title evokes a lot of interest. Hoepfully, the book lives up to the expectation. Well done Shreya. And i didn't know that AABG has also started publishing books. How come.

PS- I have also started my review section in my blog. U can check out. Your feedback wud be helpful. Here is the URL in case u forgot
http://thirstydesires.blogspot.in/

Ritesh Agarwal said...

By the way, the review was short and nice. However, seems to have been written in a rush :)