Vichar Vahak

On reading the first few pages you suspect it is one of those novels on campus cliques but as the story moves along, you realize it is much more. The plot starts in a college campus with stereotypical ragging but there are lots of twists and turns.

BUT AFTER lots of twists and turns, it ends up as the story of a successful man behind whose success is a woman. The book deals with the life of a teenager, Sunny, from a middle class background and how he transforms himself from an idle to an ideal individual. Idle Sunny luckily lands up in a reputed engineering college. He feels reaching DCE is the end of his struggles and the beginning of a successful life. But he soon realizes that life is much more than this when he is confronted with bureaucratic hurdles, as represented by the clerical staff and faculty. He also understands the loopholes in the Indian education system (wish some-one is listening!). So, in his quest to become successful and ideal, he acquires a fighting spirit gets a boost from the success of his lady love Vartika, a successful career woman.

Sunny is a desperate soul whose life revolves around the “S” word (sex), imagining the con-tours of the female body. But later on, he turns out to be an admirer of any kind of beauty which becomes evident when he explains the beauty of Paris with equal panache. He is a character of different shades – at times grateful to the maternal family for brining him up, at times irritated with his cousin; he is a love guru for his friends and a determined guy who is adamant to hold a cricket tournament in college, come what may. And this adamant nature lands him in trouble when he is suspended from college for a week for the same, but later turns out to be a blessing in disguise when it gives him time to engage with his lady love both physically and mentally .

The author goes a long way. He provides interesting titles to the chapters which give a deeper meaning once you read them. He has also meticulously penned down the emotions of the female lead Vartika. She is a strong woman with several achievements to her credit but sexy at times, seducing her lover and blissfully melting in his arms, at other times.

Also brought out are the different shades of Sunny with black, grey and white hues. For in-stance, readers (especially women) will like  Sunny when he tries to please his lady love with sweet nothings, while making it out with her and definitely he holds some theoretical lessons for the guys too! Sunny also comes out with shades of grey when he two-times his girlfriend. Why? His lady love offers him everything on a platter.

The novels lives up to its name – a sunny and shady life, where at times it shows the sunshine with rays of hope and suddenly the darker shades of life emerge where there is no light. But then, life is like a twenty-twenty match, where there is uncertainty until the last over. The novel offers humour and it is all sugar and spice with sugar-coated and erotic romance gar-nished with desperation and emotions. And there is spice with lots of drama in Paris, like a Bollywood movie, when there is a happy ending for one and a good lesson for the other.

At the end, the author forces one’s imagination to run wild or forces one to have a good laugh. If you are among those who don’t like reading or think spending money on novels is a waste of money, this novel will turn out to be an appealing starter, for just a hundred rupees. It has something to offer – be a sophomore lover trying to please lady love or an engineer who is bored sitting in front of the computer and keying in the software codes.