7th Book of 2023
Well, sometimes National Holidays are really fruitful when you wake up on time and spend the whole day with your favorite act of reading book. I got a mid-week off for the celebration of Gudi Padwa and I found it a perfect opportunity to pick a 320-pages book named “The Drifting Stones” written by Anis Bari and Nilay Bipul. It has been published by Partridge publication. The book basically talks about two main protagonists named Ayaan and Malay right from their college days till their initial professional life. The book also discovers how their friendship changes with time and how life takes a complete turn and changes your overall personality with the kind of responsibilities it starts giving you.
Talking about the writing style, I must say that the book is written in a very simple language which helps you read with fast pace. It’s an easy read. I was able to complete it’s 320+ pages within two sittings itself. Initially, it’s little difficult due to multiple characters for you to pace up but once the characters are developed and you are able to relate with them, you are able to enjoy your reading journey. The book has been spoken in the first voice of both the main protagonists giving their version of their life’s important events. This is a fictional account but while reading you can sense it very well that it has been inspired by the real-life events because there’s few scenes which will make you question why they’re part of the story whereas no scene has been exaggerated. It gives you a sense that you are reading almost biographical accounts of few real people known by the authors or may be, their own story itself.
The book starts with narration of how the college life is and how folks enjoy during the course of 3-4 years without worrying about their future. It speaks about the kind of bond boys develop among themselves that they’re ready to do anything for each other. Through this story, authors also try to throw light upon the fact regarding how tough it is to get into a good college due to our education system. It tells about the pressure that a student goes through when everyone around them including family, family friends and relatives are tracing them to know update about their success in board exams or what college they got admission in. Maximum youths will be able to relate with this section.
Later on, when the professional life begins for the characters involved, you get a gest of how things changes as soon as the college life gets over. Author highlights the fact regarding how the group of friends who would think no one can set them apart doesn’t stay in touch anymore. All the professional challenges as well as the dilemma between working on a start-up or corporate is signified appropriately. The trauma of not getting funds for your startup is discussed which throws a light upon how it’s not a cakewalk to begin a startup which today’s generation thinks is as easy as ordering a pizza online.
The book discusses relationships as well and most part of the 2nd half of the book is about it. Authors also get philosophical at places and I really liked those sections where life is being discussed by getting into the core of the human problems. You will get many quotes here to share in your Instagram stories. Haha! The story talks about break-ups, heartbreaks, emotional setbacks, divorces etc. I liked how authors were able to discuss divorce and our gender-biased laws where girls are favored more than boys. How a man has to end up paying heavy alimony for no fault of his. How laws are being misused and husbands and their family/friends are alleged of acts they never commit. Not many Indian authors have guts to speak about this legal extortion but kudos to Anis and Nilay for bringing this out through a small subplot.
Similarly, authors have been able to talk about various other topics such as organizational politics, work stress, work-life balance, media industry, ground reporting, IT industry etc. which will help you get a bit insight into all these areas.
Now, talking about the drawbacks- I was able to find couple of grammatical and spelling mistakes in the initial 100 pages of the book post which the frequency reduced immensely. I don’t know it got missed in the editing phase. Secondly, I felt that authors were thinking in Hindi and translating it in English while writing due to which many sentences aren’t effective and crisp. Thirdly, I felt that the book could have been summed up within 250 pages or even less as there aren’t much twists and turns for which a reader would stay interested for 320+ pages. The usage of Hindi every now and then is also a turn-off. Lastly, I believe there is lot that could have been done with the kind of characters authors had developed but the story remains plain and simple without much surprising elements except couple of them.
Overall, this is going to be very relatable for the college-going students and new working professionals. The book will resonate with the beginners as it is written in a very user-friendly language with 3-4 good characters who will stay with you even after putting the book down. I would rate this book somewhere between 3.75 and 4. Well, let’s round it off- 4 stars it is.
Thanks!
WRITING BUDDHA
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