A Walk Down The Lane by Arpita Ghosh Sarkar !!!

             Completed one more book written by a female Indian author- "A Walk Down The Lane". In India, we have very few female authors as most of them are either flirting before marriage or looking after their husband after the marriage. :-) There are very few of them who are interested in trying something new. And, seeing any book by a female writer fascinates me. The reason behind this is that the whole family is depended on a girl/wife/mother, so its very hard for them to write a book after fulfilling all the demands of their family. And, just writing a book is not a compliment, but if the book is nice, the girl/woman earns all my respect. And the latest in this list after Preeti Shenoy, Rashmi Bansal and Sneha Gupta is Arpita Ghosh Sarkar. She is an ex-banker and has worked with Citigroup and HSBC Bank. She left her job as she is a mother of a toddler now. And, now she is up with her debut novel- A Walk Down The Lane published by Srishti Publishers. 

            The book is a story of Shuvika who is frustrated with her job and wants a leave for some days. Finally, she gets one by screwing her colleague who wanted to go himself in spite of sanctioning her a leave. She goes to Westland, the jungle resort. There she meets her old neighbour's son who is quite older than her. She wanted to be alone but as he approaches her with politeness and friendliness, she allows him to be with her. And the friendship starts growing. Shuvika is 28 and this man-Joyneel is 40, almost 12 years elder to her. And, they meet other characters in the resort too. And, then the way this mature amicable relationship grows day by day, and the way Shuvika realizes that may be she is in love with Joyneel after other characters of the book pings her, she starts worrying. She has a dark past and she does not want to get in any relationship, nor is she interested in marrying any time in future. And the same happens with Joyneel, as even he has been through worst times after his wife ran away with her boyfriend. How, the story unfolds, how this mature book travels from Page No. 1 to 198, go get the book.

             The best part about the author is- She knows the length of her story and hence, she kept it of some 30,000 words only; rather than adding useless scenarios and making it a novel of 50,000 words. She has used only those scenes that are really useful in the story. She has passed many emotional statements and scenarios without making them lengthy and assuming that people would remember it if it will be carried in 10-12 pages. She has just included the main part which keeps you happy as you see that you are about to complete the book in just 2 hours after few pages. She has used short sentences, hence making it easy for readers to fasten their speed of reading as they won't get confused in any sentence. I can't state one or two best part of the book as the story is like a short piece of fiction. So, the whole book is very sweet. The one part that really makes you emotional is when Shuvika leaves the resort before everyone even when they asks her to stay back. And the climax is mid-blowing. After 140th page, the story goes up by a level. And as Author herself is matured, she has stated the emotions of a 28 years old-woman and 40-years old-man up to the mark. And, she has slapped all the writers who think that Love story can be written only by adding love elements to it. Ghanta!!! She has not even used the word- "Kiss" in the book. That's the power of a Good Author. Seekh lo kuch. And yes, the cover page is perfectly designed according to the theme of the story.. and so is the title.. 

               There's no drawback according to me. I rate this book 4/5. YES!!! You can go for it without any doubt. 

 Thanks.

  ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU