BOOK REVIEW OF- One Last Time BY Anubhav Shrivastava and ShreeHari H

BOOK REVIEW OF- One Last Time
  BY Anubhav Shrivastava and ShreeHari H

 Paperback: 176 pages

 Publisher: Write India Publishers (15 February 2017)

 Language: English

 ISBN-10: 819329887X

 ISBN-13: 978-8193298879

THE PLOT IN BRIEF-

Nakul, a fifteen-year- old boy from Delhi, who has been raised with a silver spoon, visits a quaint little village in Madhya Pradesh. The crudeness and modesty of the village changes how he perceives different aspects of life. There he comes across Prakash, the son of a paddy farmer, who is the yin to his yang – their contrasting ideas on life fail to stunt the growth of their nascent friendship as ultimately it is their exuberance and a taste for adventure that bring them together.   In the midst of their tale is the charming and talented Aakanksha who lives in the shadow of a spotlight.   She goes through the motions of life according to the perceived ideals of society, consistently feeling a void, for she lacks a genuine friend.   One Last Time is an eclectic and delectable fusion of Nakul’s superficial urbane sensibilities, Aakanksha’s confounded solitude and Prakash’s rustic but sagely naiveties – one that will change their destinies forever.

THE TITLE-

The title is very much appropriate and very beautifully crafted with the story. What do mean by one last time? It’s like “all day long, it was hard not to walk around, thinking about the lastness of it all. The last time I stand in a circle outside the band room in the shade of this oak tree that has protected generations of band geeks. The last time I eat pizza in the cafeteria with my best friend. The last time I sit in this school scrawling an essay with a cramped hand into a blue boo. The last time I glance up at the clock. The last time I see someone prowling the halls, his smile half a sneer.  I was becoming nostalgic for them. Something sick was happening inside of me.” The title itself has a sense of emotional touch in it along with the tinge of love, friendship and the feeling of ‘A LAST TIME’

REVIEW OF THE BOOK-
Let’s begin with a question. How many times you felt that “You can’t force love. It’s there or it isn’t. If it’s not there, you’ve got to be able to admit it. If it is there, you’ve got to do whatever it takes to protect the ones you love.”?

All the characters in the plot were very properly and sequentially placed. At one hand we have the contrast between Nakul and Prakash and at anther lies the magical love story revolving around Aakanksha. Contrast is important in life. We understand what light is because we can compare it with what we know is dark. Sweet is made sweeter after we eat something bitter. It’s the very same with sadness. And it’s important to experience sadness, to embrace it in order to truly know happiness. Yes, contrast teaches us a great many things and there is purpose for it. Yet it is time to transcend your everyday dramas that are but drops in an ocean. Cease focusing on your droplets of water and look around you. Everything you say and touch and do sets into motion ripples that either heal and create or curse and destroy. Let me repeat: Everything.

The plot also has a taste of philosophical perspective in it too. For instance there was a point when Nakul’s father says a very interesting thing about life to Nakul.  I loved the entire concept of life which had been portrayed there. We all hope that everywhere, even in the blackest abyss, we believe one might witness the divine. The shadows and contrast―absence itself―as important as the light and marble, for one cannot exist without the other.  Though the basic genre of the plot is romance we get to feel various emotions in the story. Love, hope, defeat, ego, fight, humiliation and what not? When someone cries so hard that it hurts their throat, it is out of frustration or knowing that no matter what you can do or attempt to do can change the situation. When you feel like you need to cry, when you want to just get it out, relieve some of the pressure from the inside – that is true pain. Because no matter how hard you try or how bad you want to, you can’t. That pain just stays in place. Then, if you are lucky, one small tear may escape from those eyes that water constantly. That one tear, that tiny, salty, droplet of moisture is a means of escape. Although it’s just a small tear, it is the heaviest thing in the world. The story will make you realise that how to feel victory in the midst of defeats. This one little story as i said, like a tear drop, will be something you will remember forever. Nobody sees anybody truly but all through the flaws of their own egos. That is the way we all see …each other in life. Vanity, fear, desire, and competition– all such distortions within our own egos– condition our vision of those in relation to us. Add to those distortions to our own egos the corresponding distortions in the egos of others, and you see how cloudy the glass must become through which we look at each other. That’s how it is in all living relationships except when there is that rare case of two people who love intensely enough to burn through all those layers of opacity and see each other’s naked hearts.

YOU SHOULD READ THIS BECAUSE-

THE GEN-Y IRIDESCENT PLOT.
THE LAST TIME FACTOR.

THE CHARECTARISATION OF ALL THE THREE CHARECTERS.

RATINGS-

Overall I would like to rate the book 42 on a scale of 50.

4 stars out of 5

Originality of the plot and sub plots- 9/10

Net emotions in the story- 8/10

Usage of words and phrases-8/10

The title, cover and the illustration-8/10

The net impact on the readers- 9/10

Overall, it’s worth reading. After all…

This journey will definitely relate to our life because i believe 

Most misunderstandings in the world could be avoided if people would simply take the time to ask, “What else could this mean?
Without waiting further, order your copies at 

KUDOS TO both the authors- It was really a beautiful plot.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS-

Anubhav Shrivastava graduated with a B.Tech in Electrical and Electronics from Manipal Institute of Institute of Technology in the year 2015. He is extremely passionate about cricket and movies.He has previously worked as a Consultant in Fractal Analytics and currently works in OLA.   Shreehari H loves to blog about films on his website shreeharih.wordpress.com. He graduated with a B.E. in Instrumentation Technology from RV College of Engineering in 2014.

Reviewed by-

Sayan Basak

Kolkata