I too had a Love Story by Ravinder Singh – Book Review

About the Book

Written by: Ravinder Singh
Genre: Love, Auto-Biography
Originally Published: 2008
No. of Chapters:  9
No. of Pages: 256
Price: Nepali Rupees 320

I too had a love story. It is a story about love and loss, it is a story about finding and losing one of the most precious things that one can gain – Love. This book follows the heartbreaking autobiography of the Author, Ravindra Singh himself, and tugs the heartstrings of those who read his words. The language is simple and there is not much reading between the lines and that is one of the reasons why this piece of art is such a beautiful one. First published in 2008, it was the debut book of Ravindra Singh and it became an instant bestseller and remained a best-seller till 2014. He retells and remembers the time of his first love and how it all happened, the sweet times as well as the bitter times. This book makes the reader smile and cry in one go and is something that not every book can do.
The author has described the instances of his personal life in the story.

Being a love story, the genre seems very interesting and appealing to many youngsters who have experienced the essence of love and relationships in their lives and those who have sacrificed something for other’s happiness.
-Sabrina Kapoor (The viewspaper)
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Plot Summary

Ravin is our usual happy go lucky guy who has not yet tasted the flavor of the first love. He is in his mid 20’s and is just focusing on his career for the time being and is nothing extraordinary in any way besides the fact that he gets along with everyone a bit too well. Our story starts with the reunion of four college friends, Ravin, Manpreet (MP), Amardeep (Swamiji), and Happy who used to study in the same college and used to be the besties of the hostel, a bit rowdy and studious as well.

During the reunion, they talk about the future plans, and in that plan comes the talk of marriage which none of them had thought about till that point. Happy then suggests Ravin join shaadi.com and basically be the scapegoat for all of them to test the site out and Ravin seeing that there were no issues in trying to agree.

Now Ravin comes back to the Bhubaneshwar where his office is located and while going through his days, he thinks might as well apply for the site. He does not have any expectations at this point in time so it was just to kill boredom maybe? Well to his surprise, he finds someone who catches his attention, a girl named Khushi and they start talking to each other. Soon they find out that both of them have a lot in common with each other than they had initially thought and during this process of talking, both of them exchange their contacts with each other and talk a lot as well. This is where the love begins for both of them, the start of the story “I too had a love story”

After a few months of chatting and talking, both of them realize what was already there and admit to themselves as well but one thing remains to confirm that feeling of love, that is to meet in person. So far due to the distance between them of both time and place, they had not gotten a chance to meet in person and neither knew that a person could have two personas, one for online and one for reality so both of them had to verify that. They meet rather soon after the realization, as well as the chance, allows them to spend some time with each other. Ravin is asked to travel to the USA for the office but to reach there, one has to get on an international flight- Delhi, where Khushi lives.

There Ravin meets Khushi and her family for the first time and soon the talk of their engagement begins after Ravin leaves for the USA. Both of them stay in contact with each other and even have some minor fights but in the end, both of their love wins over those small fights, or rather those small fights make their love stronger as time passes.

Their families, knowing that it was inevitable that both of them will have to get married one time or another, soon fixes the engagement. The engagement date is set in Feb 14-2007 and this was sort of Khushi’s wish as well for she wanted to become his girlfriend and fiance both on the day of love. While both knew their love for one another and the families agreed to them as well, none of them had confessed so this would be an official confession as well.

Then the tragedy strikes. Khushi meets with an accident and is sent to the hospital with a critical emergency. Ravin rushes to the hospital in shock and he does what any guy whose love has been critically hospitalized would do; pray. This part is the most heartbreaking as the lines were written here are truly sad and simple. She dies in the end and the story ends with Ravin saying how mentally destroyed he is. There is a syndrome called “survivor’s guilt syndrome” and that eats away at Ravin each day for the rest of the days.

Lessons Learned from the Book

This book deals with the tragedy of loss and how one small thing can affect someone so much that it destroys them.
The main lesson is that “enjoy everything while it lasts as there is no guarantee that it will last forever and if you can, save the ones precious to you”.
One of the side lessons is that “you cannot prepare for every situation but you can at least try”.This message in itself is cynical and cold but the last few words in the story say this a bit clearer and in a good way as well with those words being
“She died. I survived. Because I survived, I die every day.” which also shows how the “survivor’s guilt syndrome affects a person

Best Part of the Book

The best part of the book is the use of language and the words which make every chapter enjoyable.
The expressions that the author uses are simple and practical without the use of vulgarity that is used in everyday life.
The way the emotions are presented both bright ones and the dark ones seem like the author is speaking to the reader, making it feel like he is breaking the fourth wall without doing it in the first place.

Worst Part of the book

There are not many bad things to say about this book besides that the ending seems a bit rushed. Now it is understandable that the author may not be in the state to express his suffering and the way it felt to lose his love as it would mean he would have to relive that painful moment again and again till he finished the book so there are not many complaints.

Conclusion

In my personal opinion, this book is great in every way. Be it the purity of the emotions expressed or the simplicity of the language or the way it connects us with the author, it just feels great and the passing of time will quicken. When I first read the book, I cried near the ending and after the book, each time I remembered those words, I felt that lump again so I advise the ones who haven’t read this book to grab a few tissues before you begin. I would recommend anyone and everyone to give this book a read.