Never let me go... by Sachin Garg

Finally I finished another novel (now don't think I haven't finished one in last one month...that's just not possible, I need at least a novel a week), but then I finished a novel, I would definitely write about...it's by the same author, Sachin Garg, I had once gone gaga about (reading his first, I'm not 24...) and turned too critical reading his second (It's first love...)...and with the third, I never knew where I am going...

For starters,  the second novel and this one, 'Never Let Me Go..' are supposedly true accounts...sort of his autobiography...taking a year of his life at a time...I am saying supposedly, because I am the one who claims to have had a super-happening life...with things one doesn't even dream (or have nightmares of) happening in real...and still reading these books, specially the latest one, I am still not able to accept such tragedy do happen in real life...that's what the main issue with any tragic event is...they are hard to believe...it's human nature to believe in fairy tales, but seldom does one really think something bad can happen in reality...unless it happens with us...

Coming back to the book, it starts with the twenty first year of the author's life...and somehow rather than being Sachin in the book, he went ahead and took the name Samar...and in case he had used the same name in his last novel, than I shockingly had missed out on it...but if he hadn't, it's kind of understandable...it's easy to write the happy phase of your life with your own identity...it's the sad phase, the guilty phase, and the phase we never really could understand; where we need the identity of some third person, some other name to hide behind....but to think of it, it really isn't much of a sad novel...unless of course you inch towards its last parts...

I guess, it's the raw emotions that touch me way more than the cute college romance...which is kind of so lovey dovey that I no longer am able to identify it (yeah, I know, the granny aged me)...so the beginning of the novel was kind of expected for me...it was the way the first novel of the series (It's first love...) had gone by..with the old characters returning...a couple of more thrown by...and to some extent, it did take me to a place where I really wasn't expecting much from the book...it seemed like the usual, 'I always was the right guy, she wasn't' saga...

Then came the place with too much of beer, weed and partying around...being the person I am...drinking/ smoking/ joint/ partying all night...it never strikes a chord with me...the only thing that kept me hooked was the new gal in picture...somewhere I did identify with her (don't ask me why...because I can never have guts like her...to take those risk)....and then when her character ended (in a way that opens all the ways for her to return in coming books)...it was again casual turning of pages for me to finish the novel...

To give the  book its dues, the last few pages did shock me out...I believe I should appreciate Sachin...for not going for the publicity stunt by stretching those emotional parts (oh, we all know, tear jerkers find a lot of fans...and I know, he could have actually gone ahead and made a whole novel out of those last few pages...garnered all sympathy...but I do respect him for keeping it short...because so often, there really aren't words to express what we feel)...but then a part of me says he wasted too many pages of the novel talking about inconsequential things rather than talking about those part which mattered the most...the ones who found a place only in last 30-35 odd pages of the book...but then, it was his life...it's his novel..I'm sure he wrote it in a way that justifies his life..

So it touched me...it still touches me...We all make mistakes...and we all talk about our mistakes...to the ones we trust, to the ones we can confide in...to the ones who we know won't whisper about it to the world...but coming out in open, talking about our mistakes and consequences openly...it takes a lot...at least I haven't found the courage to do it...and I don't know how it feels after doing...does it feel a lil more free...as if a weight did lift up from our heart...or would it make me feel as if all the eyes are at me...accusing me of doing something deadly wrong...I don't think I ever would take chances to find out what it really feels like...

Anyways, coming back to the book....it's a light read, till it gets a lil too heavy...but even in those light moments, I found places to think about...places I could identify with (which definitely weren't the places where an engaged guy tries to get laid with a gal...or a guy pursuing engineering, decides to run a shackle...or the endless drinking session and getting wasted...) but then tiny small things that were said and done, does make one think at points...

All in all...a nice read...quick one too...and definitely one, I would think a couple of times even after ending...and yeah, I know the 22nd year of his life would be coming out too...and I for sure 'll read that too...the guy still has my attention...in fact, he is now like a mystery to me...I still am unable to believe all this is true...after all, novels do have hint of fiction in them...how else would they sell...but I know it all could very well be truly true...and he can be yet another example of, life moves on...no matter what happen, we continue to live...we come to term with the past...and start building a future...I am not the only one who did that...the whole world does it...

Do read it...if you have any affinity to love stories and emotional stuffs...but don't read it before you read the first one in the series (and I am saying this, even when I was the one criticizing the first one...but then you have to read that one...to really know the characters of this one...else it's a plain disconnect..) And I hope to find the author had happier and better life in the 22nd year...after all, when post peak came the trough...after trough should come the peak...