A picture speaks 1000 words

This photo in the cover page of a novel not only caught my eyes but also made me think unusually more. A girl with some shoulder long hairs in classical forck-surwal like dress is hugging a man slightly taller than her. Their legs are apart balancing themselves. The body touches lovingly. And above, her forehead is just touching his nose. How romantic! The other half of the photo shows the girl is simultaneously catching left hand of other guy with her right one. I automatically start analyzing the psychology of these three and possible content of the novel as well. 

Does the boy, possibly boyfriend have any idea who he is with? What’s going to happen in near future about his relationship? Are there clues in his real life for upcoming disaster that he is ignoring?
And the other boy, is he sure the girl will come to him? And why is she coming? Is he richer, smarter or something else? Even more, is he sure that the girl dumping her current boyfriend for him won’t dump himself too for someone else better than him? Or is he happy to be a time-pass until she wants?
What about the girl herself? What is she thinking with her master piece human brain? Will swapping the boy with his hands around her waist would be easy for her? Moreover, has she got similar previous experience thus pretty confident? Would she like her ex to know she had parallel boyfriend or will try to make him understand that her new affair started only after they broke up?
Even more, what’s the novel about? Is this like a classical Hindi-film story? Two boys, one socially and personally good other morally and ethically bad, some drama in middle, and finally the good one get the girl… Perhaps not! Then is the girl central character of a tragedy story with boyfriends- before the hugged guy as well and also after the other guy in queue? I doubt. This would be a cheap story for a professional writer like “Chetan Bhagat”.

After the series of such questions ran in my mind, I needed to know the answer. And the answer was just there. Thus I opened the novel “Revolution 2020” and started reading and completed it within 10 hours or so. I noticed during the novel that the pictures of temples, rowing boat etc. as well in cover page were closely related to the story.

I remember a famous Nepali quote, that suggest to “visit Gorkha for justice and visit Kashi for education”. This is the story of same place Kashi, Vranasi being the new name of it. It is story of childhood friends who are coming towards relationship. “Did u have your dinner?” a question being asked every night since past 5 years or so is fascinating him nowadays. The character explains that he wanted her to tell her not to hold his hands publicly now. It is fine at twelve but not at seventeen. Even though, he liked it more at seventeen then at twelve. A silent love existed in heart of both. After intermediate, they fight for engineering scholarship entrance. The girl is poor student with no hope. The boy is good student but was not proved to be good enough. He was not selected by some six marks. His best friend was selected. Story twists and the best friend becomes new boyfriend of the girl. This incident changes him drastically and makes him alcohol abuser. He claims that the only way to get rid of an unpleasant feeling is to replace it with other unpleasant feeling. May be he is true up to some extent but not admirable. As a reader I felt pity on his Devdas style. I remember an incident during my posting at department of psychiatry. The resident doctor was counseling a guy being depressed after breakup. He suggested not to forget her but eternally accept as you never even knew her. I wish there was someone in this character’s life as well who would appropriately council him and bring him in right track. I could feel that- continuing to love her as he did or to hate her for what she did, both the way he was going to get hurt, get burned. However, after being failed in entrance, some change comes in his life and he ends up having some political links. He uses it opens an engineering collage and gets unusually rich. The best friend being selected in entrance is economically left behind. Now again the girl twists, and come back to her childhood friend. She asks him to tell her boyfriend, “We decided to get together, but only did so after the break-up” so that he won’t know she had parallel relation with other one for some time.

Do you really want to be a doctor or an engineer by your own eternal interest? This question is of no meaning to a student of lower middle class or middle class family. They just want a profession that could earn them living. Medicine or engineering does that. This is true for many students and professionals who are not from ‘the one percent’ class. I was really touched while going through these claims in the novel.

I wrote about some unfair means used in establishment of medical college in Nepal in my previous article. This boy too, while opening an engineering collage bribes plenty of officials. He uses- Unfair means to get land cleared from court issue. Unfair means to rezone the agricultural land to build collage. Unfair means to register the collage. Unfair means to approve the proposal of collage by University Grants Commission. Unfair means to get building plan approved. Unfair means to lure the members in inspection. Unfair means to get approved from regulatory council. Unfair means to get university affiliation. Unfair means to get number of students increased. Unfair means for publicity to get students. Even more… unfair means to get the pass out students have job, right after collage. The novel introduces honest people who didn’t take money but none of them were honest enough to stop others from taking it. I really find it interesting and close to reality in our context too.

I thank the author for his extensive research for this novel. The mixture of love and corruption makes the novel really good and makes you enjoy reading. The way corruption is shown, it is very strong story in a communist or socialist view. But the way girls are shown, the story can be criticized in feminist view. I doubt if the girls will appreciate such story. Yet I personally find it somehow close to reality in our part of world. The language of novel as well is easy for us, the Asian people. After some dozen of Nepali, this one was my first English novel and I didn’t struggled with its language at all. Over all, this book was good enough and makes you understand some real part of current world. The novel keeps you sad almost throughout the story. The last few pages crush the heart even more. I consider this a “good to read” novel but not a “must read” one. My personal rating for it would be ‘4’ out of ‘5’. 

This would be good for your next vacation...