Ankahi by
Parveen Matharu is a contemporary romance novella, mostly set in England. Zara
Khanna is an undergraduate student in Loughborough University. When she takes
up the flight for London from Delhi for her second year course, little did she
know that her life will not be same as it was up till now?
She is
beautiful, tall, and an excellent dancer. At the outset of autumn, cultural
events commence in the college. Zara is the cultural head of the society for
overseeing all sorts of performances, and she is to perform in a dance show as
a female lead. She is a wonderful dancer, pro in Indian classical. Well, the
problem is that she isn’t finding any suitable male lead. At the behest of
someone, she approaches Ayaan, a senior student and an excellent dancer, for
the male lead dancer. But he refused, being a final year engineering student,
he is occupied with projects and studies. Despite this, he mentors the new
dancers on weekends. On the day of performance, the chosen male lead gets
injured playing football and Zara grows gloomy knowing that there will not be
anyone to dance with her. And here comes the climax of the novella, Ayaan jumps
in the last minute and saves her from everything.
From here
onwards, they become good friends; they date, hang out, message and call each
other quite often. Communication reduces the formal gap in their lives. They
come close and begin feeling some kind of love or bonding for each other. Both
are attracted to each other, but they have no courage to express their
feelings. Zara is more sentimental than Ayaan. When she gets to knot that Ayaan
is going to USA for his MBA, she feels not only sad but also craved if he could
pursue the degree from England. She does not wish to be away from him. Ayaan is
ambitious but career is also important for him. He feels love for her, but he
is yet to propose her. In fact, both they don’t know what to do with their
feelings and how to express them – there is something that has been stopping
them.
Ayaan moves on
to USA for MBA. But still they video call and message each other – they keep
the communication on. But one day things begin shattering when Ayaan finds out
that Zara is possibly dating some other guy in the college. Things become as
bad as break-up. True love stories are destined to separation. It comes in
their lives – but the question is, will they meet ever, will they express their
love, or will they never cross each other’s ways?
The author has
used simple and lucid language to narrate this light romantic story. Above all,
her characters sounded so real and up to life even though the novel is set in a
cross cultural setting. As the story advances, readers can feel the love and
heat of the relationship that exist at the same time. Parveen is a promising
writer of romance genre, hope she comes up with more exciting stories.
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