And then it rained (Book review)

Despite repeated warnings to myself, I commit the same mistake again and again. I pick up books by amateur Indian authors and repent over my purchase later. A cancelled class and a messed up plan led me to buy a book by a first time author Gaurav Dashputra to kill time. Name of the book? "And then it rained". Now titles with "rains" in them resonates with me. Somehow, I love to write about rains. And that was the only reason I hastily picked up this book, hoping that atleast it would be decent, if not good. I was in for a huge disappointment. So although I will try to give a fair review of the book, I might get a little harsh and pardon me for that.

To begin with, the "author" is a final year medical student in Mumbai and he has written the story of a medical student in Mumbai. So far, so good. It always helps to write about the environment you have been in , because you can easily describe the intricate details in your story. The protagonist of the book is a guy called Akash Sarin (Or is it aman Sarin?) who shifts base from Nagpur to Mumbai, lives a "fairy tale" life and is struck by tragedy. That is the story for you in a nutshell. I will not go into the details for 2 very fair reasons. One , I don't want this blog to be a spoiler and two, there is nothing much to tell about the story. Its filmy, melodramatic and (in my language) tacky. You might as well go and watch an 80's or early 90's drama hindi movie. At the very least you will be spared with the childish language used in the book. I should have understood the very moment I read the tagline of the book as "COZ life is not always a fairytale." Coz?? Really Mr.Dashputra? Although, the sentences were grammatically alright (atleast they were not down right ultra pathetic like "The thing between u and me" ) but , it was still childish. You do not use phrases like, "I guess" , "Nothing re", "I wanna" in a proper book. You also do not say "I and Krish" or "I and Riya". Its always "Krish and I" and "Riya and I" (Atleast till I checked last). I do not want to be an English teacher here. My command over the language is far from perfect or even strong. But, it is disappointing to read such amateur use of the language when you can make it pretty readable. Also,I did not understand the connection of the hero worship of SRK in the book.

On the plus side, however, the end, WAS unpredictable. It did come as an "Oh" moment, but thats really about it. I did not find the book funny or entertaining or even minutely "touching". Probably I was reading it with a really closed mind or well ...

So yes, I am not a published writer. Maybe, I will never write a book (Not much of an ambition anyway) Maybe, its not such a bad book, just probably not my taste. But I am keeping my distance from the so called "metro" reads.

I'll close here by wishing all the luck to Mr.Dashputra the doctor/author. Hope you become a good doctor and hope you write an amazingly well second book.