Skip to main content

Book Review: Forever and A Little More by Praneet Dabral

After reading ‘Forever and Little More’ by Praneet Dabral, it becomes difficult to predict whether the novel falls in the genre of romance or some other category. It seems a cute love story, but there are elements of sadness and tragedies in it. It seems a biography of a lover, well there is more to that. On the other hand, the author has made it a riveting read by mixing two techniques simultaneously – flashback and biography style.


Tanish Cainthola is the protagonist of the novel. His story, mainly a love story, shuttles between two times i.e. 1977 and 2012. Basically in 2012, he is brooding on the events that happened in 1977-78. He returns to his hometown Snowdon after 34 years from Mumbai. He is frustrated with himself for many reasons.

In the attic, he finds a broken bat and a diary which once was written by him. The diary is mainly about his love affair with Jessica Jones in the winter of 1977. It has been long that he has kept his past suppressed but this time he finds hard to control himself, thus he begins reading the diary.

Tanish meets a beautiful girl, Jessica, stranded in rain one night. He helps her to reach her home. Soon he comes to know that Jessica is a daughter of Mr. Jones, whose window pane he recently broke. They meet, talk, and walk together to the riverside and to some amazing places like Paradise Land. A typical adolescent romance begins taking place between two of them. Their love for each other almost cements when they attend a carnival together and thereafter miss the bus back to their town. Apparently, they are in love. But who is going to propose first, is the concern?

Finally, Tanish decides a day to propose her. When he takes her over a beautiful spot for proposal, he fails to express his love. Rather that time he comes to know that her father, Mr. Jones, has been diagnosed with cancer. This is the turning point in their love affair. He tries to lift her spirits up.

Next, Jessica and her father leave for Bombay for treatment. Now what next? Will she comeback for Tanish? Or Tanish will go there to bring her back? How will they confirm that they were in love, as neither of them expressed? There are many questions that seek answers by the time readers reach the end of the novel. However the ending is not what everyone expected…it is quite different from normal love stories. Once you get to know what had happened to that girl Jessica and the lover boy Tanish, your heart may break down. You, as a reader, probably will take time to come out of it. Written in very simple language, it is a terrific story of romance and heartbreak. Kudos to author Praneet!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversatio...
65 comments
Read more

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should ...
68 comments
Read more

Character Sketch of Binya from ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond

The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond is a popular children’s story. It features Binya as the main character, though there are other important characters as well, but the story revolves around Binya and her little beautiful umbrella. The story is widely popular among children, thus it has also been included in the schools’ syllabus all across the country. Since it is often taught in the school, thus the character sketch of Binya is often demanded by students from year to year. Character Sketch of Binya from The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond Binya is the main character of the novel ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond. Her full name is Binyadevi. As in the hills or anywhere in India it is a kind of trend to call children with their short nicknames. Binya’s elder brother’s name is Bijju, whereas his real name is Vijay. Binya aged eleven is a hilly girl. She lives with her small family in the hills of Garhwal. Her father died when she was two years of age. For sustenance, the...
41 comments
Read more