Book review: Hitting the write note

Much has been written about love, fidelity and trust. Romance is the most fascinating genre when it coms to the first time writers. Hence, it is no surprise that Souvik Gupta, an MBA in International Business chose to write about love when he decided to debut as a writer.

But Gupta’s An Unequal Harmony is no ordinary read. The writer not only delves into the complexities of urban-hectic lifestyle and its repercussions, but also forces readers to think about the very foundations of a relationship – trust and faith.

An Unequal Harmony is a story of Reva, a celebrated socialite journalist, and Anshuman Mehra, creative director of India’s most popular advertising agency, who are a happily married couple till a car accident relegates Reva to the ICU and reveals to Anshuman the biggest secret of their lives – Siddharth Kashyap. A reputed fashion photographer, Siddharth had met Reva a year and a half after the Mehras got married. But what started off as a formal professional association soon morphed into a friendship that transformed into love. As Revas health swings between crisis and recovery, Anshuman and Siddharth retrospect their lives and associations with the woman who bound them together. It is through their reminiscence of the relationships and interaction with each other that we traverse through their meetings, their feelings, their heartbreaks, their dilemmas and their insecurities.

For Anshuman, the entire scenario is marked by the sense of betrayal and breach of marital vows.
Yet, somewhere in his heart, Anshuman is unsure whether he would really want to renounce his marriage or try to amend the incongruities. For Siddharth, there is a sense of marred honour and wounded ego, as he realizes that nobody will try to empathize with him as he is the third party. His biggest quandary is to convince people how much he loves Reva. As we turn back the clock and delve into Reva’s perspective, we realize that her conundrum is that of making a choice between the two men she loves. Her marriage with Anshuman had been in the doldrums but then they still loved each other. On the other hand, despite her reluctance, she found herself inexorably drawn towards Siddharth. As her life gets intricately entangled in this web, the bigger question that surfaces before the audience is — Can Reva love two people at the same time?

For a debut writer, the style of writing is commendable. Also, the situations where the protagonists indulge in altercations and introspection have been taken up aptly. The story could have been a bit more fast-paced and the narrative could have been written better. But overall it marks a good debut.