Reviews, Vol. I, Issue III
Why do we read/write
fiction?
The purpose of fiction has
always been to entertain, but entertainment is not the only motive in totality. It carries much greater
responsibility of enveloping and dealing with the aspects of social, cultural,
personal, and impersonal narratives including numerous facts and several facets
of lives we live in.
Rupa Publications’ Ananya – a bittersweet journey written
by Shilpa Gupta is such a work of fiction, which deals with one of the most
sensitive and complicated phase of a complete generation, (the teenagers) – who
are usually caught between the webs of their demanding career as well as the dilemmas
and surges of their age, growing up in today’s troubled times and society,
wherein people keep nagging around the ubiquitous nets of modernity and most often ‘mistaken
modernity’. It also raises a tremendous question towards the attitude which is
carried on by the parents of recent times, those who keep busy in making their career and money;
however, in the meantime, they lose their children.
The novel essentially focusses
on a young and talented girl – Ananya Sharma, whose aspirations are bigger than
any other regular teenage-girl-next-door. Being a regular topper of her class,
she enjoys competing with boys, rather than getting with them into the romantic
spheres.
Instead of her passion
towards math and science, and complete focus on cracking the IIT entrance
exams, she could not run away from her growing age, of course. Ananya’s best
friend Mohini’s handsome and charming brother Rohit enters as the distraction
in her life and she witnesses the streaming change within herself, later claiming
to be in love.
I found myself thinking about Rohit
often. I would catch myself daydreaming and with some effort force my thoughts
back to my studies. I wanted to ace my exams and make Papa proud. I admired him
so much and so desperately wanted to be an engineer like him. I wanted to be a
civil engineer so that I could build bridges, roads, and huge buildings. I always
envisioned myself with a helmet, on a construction site, looking very important
and commanding my team on various operations.
But what she receives by the other end is not trust and affection, rather the dosage of longing and betrayal. She is left pregnant at the tender age of seventeen to
face the atrocious world.
‘Rohit, you have put me in the most
impossible situation and instead of standing by me, you are washing your hands
off this. I just don’t know what to do, please understand that I cannot ask
anyone else for help. This is not America. My life is totally messed up – I feel
like there is no point in living anymore!’
People start looking
down at same the girl, who once used to be looked upon as a pride. She suddenly
discovers herself on the wrong side of the world, which may not allow her comeback
towards the normal life. She further witnesses the fault lines in her parents’
relationship as well, which threatens her from within.
But the story is not
all about the pains. After falling many times in order to make a return and
purpose to her life, she goes through many difficult phases, all alone, from
inside. She keeps failing. But with the support of her family and friends, Ananya
fights back with greater strength this time in order to stroll back to her
life, finding new reasons to live, after discovering the larger than life
picture of humanity.
This novel deals with an
incredibly striking and candid representation of the changing world of a
teenager’s life. Mainak Dhar, bestselling author of the Alice in Deadline series quotes about this book quite effectively,
saying – “Through Ananaya’s story, we get not only the story of self-discovery
and triumph of a young girl, but also the hypocrisy and prejudices of modern
Indian society when it comes to women.”
About the Author-
A
chemical engineer from IIT Roorkee, Shilpa Gupta holds a postgraduate degree in
management from IIM Ahmedabad. While she has many published financial research
papers to her credit, Ananya marks
her debut into the world of fiction.
Reviewed by Varsha Singh
No comments:
Post a Comment