You Raise me up
Book details
Title –
You raise me up
Author –
Arjun Hemmady
Genre –
Fiction
Publisher
– Leadstart Publishing Pvt Ltd
No of
pages – 363
Main characters – Aalok Sharma, Isha, Priyanka and
Tanvi
Other characters – Tanvi’s father Kishore, Mother
Rohini, Sheetal – Isha’s husband
The plot
The
story revolves around the lead character Aalok Sharma where he encounters
beautiful and cheerful Priyanka Mehra on a flight from New Delhi to Mumbai.
They quickly get hooked to each other despite of their opposite nature. After
the first meeting on the flight destiny continues to meet them again and again
in several occasions where their friendship flourishes. However, something is
holding back Aalok. The question arises here whether his opposite nature
concerns him or will he be able to conquer his demons from the past in order to
pursue this girl?
My review
The
title ‘Raise me up’ itself hinted me
that the novel must be around hope and life. Guess what? I wasn’t wrong. Who
wouldn’t want inspiration, moral support throughout the difficult times of
his/her life? Certainly, the story has weaved around hope and life, fears and
possibilities.
The main
characters in the story are Aalok Sharma, his twin sister Isha, Tanvi and
Priyanka, the two leading girls in his life. The life of Aalok Sharma is
intertwined with his past and present. The first few chapters of the novel
starts with introducing lady love Priyanka along with his overprotective twin
sister, Isha. While his personal life progressing towards something, Isha is
always there to protect and help him in whatever ways she could. I wanted to
see how the story has justified the lesson by giving advice never to lose hope
for current generation no matter how difficult times you’re stuck in through
this love story.
As I
read Aalok’s painful past, his past failures, his sister’s guidance
throughout bad times; Tanvi’s father (Kishore) alcohol habit, and Tanvi’s
little brother’s fight against cancer and Tanvi’s own troubled life with Aalok
and his current relation with Priyanka, all these instances the author keep
hammering us about the golden lesson of never giving up.
The
attempt is nice; however, somewhere I felt the plot was losing its grip. For instance,
the story never sheds a light on how Kishor manages to get rid of his alcohol
habit or at least makes an attempt to reduce it. In first few chapters, the
domestic abuse is shown in Tanvi’s house due to Kishor’s alcohol problem and
the last few chapters the scene is quickly changed when Kishore is shown as
mature and responsible father.
The climax
Whether
it is just another love story or we learn something from this story I will
leave that for the readers to decide.
Writing style
The
narration is very simple to follow and the writing style is suitable for both
young and adult audience. The characters such as Isha, Tanvi and Priyanka are
involved well. In many places, the phrases have become repetitive.
What I liked?
The
author has given several instances where he emphasizes about possibilities,
destiny and keeping your hopes high. Certainly, the title suits to the theme of
the story as the author have built characters like Isha, being a supportive
sister and Priyanka, an understanding girlfriend.
The moral at the end of the story is
that –
Always
raise your hopes up when going through difficult times and see life in a
positive view as you never know what possibilities come on your way. In short,
every cloud has a silver lining.
My rating: 3.5/5
I would
recommend this book to borrow inspiration despite some of the flaws.
About the author
Born on
5th April, 1989, Arjun Hemmady completed his schooling from St. Mary’s ICSE
(Mazgaon) and College from RA Podar College of Commerce and Economics. He is
pursuing his Chartered Accountancy from the Institute of Chartered Accountants
of India (ICAI). It is his first novel published in association with Leadstart
Publishing Pvt Ltd.
For more information about the book,
you can visit its Facebook page.
This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!
No comments:
Post a Comment