Twists and Turns (#BookReview of ‘Without You', Author- Preethi Venugopala)

Day: 1241

Blog post: 131

Book Review: 12

First Blog Post after 4 Lakh visits

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I am not praising myself but I know that author Preethi Venugopala ma’am is damn excited to read my review of her book ‘Without You'. Don't ask why but I am sure that she would be surprised after reading this detailed review. I don't introduce any book in my review like this but I am doing this time with a purpose, I guess she is smiling while reading this introduction of Without You's book review. Thank God, I don't live in her city J!! Ok jokes a part!! Hehe!!  I am not a master in making jokes like the character of Tom in Without You but I like to laugh on my own PJs.. hehe!! Now let me come to the-

Detail analysis of Without You by Preethi Venugopala.

(©Cover of  Without You | Source: blogspost.com)

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About Author:

(©Preethi Venugopala | Source: facebook.com)

Preethi Venugopala is a Civil Engineer by education and an avid blogger, artist by passion. After working in many prestigious civil engineering projects for more than a decade, she quit her job to become a full-time mother. Meanwhile, she took a Masters Degree in English literature to complete her dream of studying English literature. She tried her hand successfully at crafts, crocheting, portraiture and painting before venturing into writing.

She has been published in two anthologies, ‘The Second Life' and‘Blank Space'. Another anthology ‘A Little Chorus of Love' is to be published soon. She is a regular contributor to many online magazines and websites.

She strongly believes that storytellers are healers in the present world as they can change the outlook of people through the stories they tell. She would love to hear from her readers.

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Book Cover: 

(©Front Cover of  Without You | Source: blogspost.com)

There is a portrait of a girl printed on the front cover. Pink colour of portrait suits to the genre of romance and love as Pink is being considered as the colour of love and care. Background in sky blue, yellow, and indigo colour is like cherry on the cake. Book title Without you is printed in italic fonts with black and red colours so font of the title itself catches an attraction. Publisher Write India's logo also perfectly fits in a right corner above. Back cover is also catchy. The blurb of the book is printed on a pink balloon in a heart shape. Love, betrayal, friendship and miracle are highlighted in Red colour so these words give readers an idea about the theme of the book. Buildings can be noticed in a background on the back cover. When I asked my younger brother Vivek to choose his favourite book from the favourite cover, he chose Without You as his favourite from the front cover. So, overall Abinash Panda has designed a beautiful cover.

Setting: The story of Without You is narrated in 30 chapters and epilogue in 198 pages.

Theme: The plot of  Without You is based upon so many themes like romance, love, betrayal, friendship, miracles, humour, devotion and art.

Language & Writing Style: First twelve chapters (except fifth one) and epilogue is written in a style of diary writing. Author Preethi Venugopala narrates the story through Ananya as a first person. She uses hyphen sign between words to indicate inner feelings and emotions. Preethi's knowledge of English literature can be sensed from her writing style. She uses grammar fantastically. Literary language is a bit complicated but it's not much difficult so the language of the book is entertaining. Influence of Southern background appears in Preethi's writing style in words like Prasadam (for Prasad). It seems that authoress has researched about Arabian language when she introduces the meaning of an Arabian phrase ‘Maafi Mushkil Habibi'- means ‘'No problem, sweetheart.'

Locations: The story in Without You runs around India and UAE. The half story is based on mainly Sreepuram and Bangalore (Bengaluru) in Karnataka, and Kerala. Other half story runs around Al Nahda in Sharjah, Terminal 3 Airport in Dubai, Canadian specialist Hospital, Al Garhoud, Dubai and BurjKhalifa in UAE. The author beautifully describes a city ‘Dubai'.

Characters: Authoress Preethi Venugopala beautifully describes each character's unique accent of pronunciation.

1. Ananya Shankar (Anu): Authoress portrays Ananya's character as a central character in the story. She is a main protagonist in the story.
2. Dr. Arjun Rajashekhar: Authoress portrays Arjun's character as a second protagonist in the story. He is a best friend of Vishal.
3. Arundhati Mukundan (Ammamma): Ananya's grandmother.
4. Sukanya: Ananya's mother
5. Colonel R. S. Nair: Formerly colonel at BSF.
6. Vishal: Ananya's cousin and a good friend.
7. Uma: Vishal's mother and Ananya's aunty.
8. Kishore: Ananya's eldest cousin living in Dubai.
9. Aditya: Authoress portrays her character as a toddler boy who is the 3 years old son of Kishore and his wife Shreya. He represents kids of his age.
10. Lily Alonzo Reyes: Ananya colleague in Dubai.
11. Mr. Thomas Smith (Tom): Lily and Ananya's colleague and a good friend. I am sure that he will be remembered in readers heart for his jokes! Oops, PJs.
12. Sophia Fernandeze: Ananya's companion in Dubai. Her mastery on zodiac signs is enough to know authoress' knowledge, study and research.
13. Mr. Ahmed: A Senior Construction manager in Ananya's office.
14. Mr. Ravi Bhatia: The HR manager in Al Bayed Group, Dubai.
15. Rajashekhar: Authoress portrays Rajashekhar as Arjun's dad.
16. Shakuntala Devi: Arjun's mother.
17. Maria: Arjun's housekeeper and cook in Dubai.
18. Madhavan: Father of Rajashekhar
19. Anamika (Ammu): 9 years old chatterbox in Ananya's vacation gang
20. Khushi Sharma and Poornima: Ananya's best friends
21. Arijit Singh: Don't misunderstand him with the real one, Arijit Singh is the student of S8 Civil in the story.

Plot: Story of Ananya starts with a humour but this kind of humour can be understood by only those having knowledge of literature; this humour is scribbled in a writing style of the great Marathi author Late Mr. P. L. Deshpande who is also known as ‘Pu. La.'. No! I am not comparing authoress Preethi with him, but if I do so, this will be the biggest compliment than even the Nobel Prize for literature. Yes!

My mouth was watering while reading about the delicious dishes in Karnataka. Chapter five is based on love and I count it as my favourite one.  I would like to mention Ananya's grandma's quote "Never marry someone whom you can't love and respect. Such marriages are the worst form of torture, especially in our country, where divorces are still a taboo. I have seen many girls suffer in such hell holes."Sixth chapter touches to my heart. Ananya describes the feeling of love in words "It is a nice feeling to fall in love, nicer if the person loved you equally. But, the nicest thing is when you know that you have made the right choice and you have the blessings of your loved ones as well." Entry of villains happens between Anu and Arjun's love story in chapter ten. The scene where Vishal asks Anu to forget her love relates to my own life. Arjun and Ananya's reactions seem realistic. Authoress gives the realistic picture of society when Anu slashes her vein of the left wrist after a breakup with Arjun. Authoress gives a message to coward couples who attempt suicide after rejection in love in an Anu's quote "I know how hard it is, to forget our first love. Been there, done that. But it doesn't mean you have any right to throw away your life. You have to show them that you care nothing about what happened and carry on strongly." Arijit Singh's dedication to Khushi reminds me my own dedicated song to someone in my college. 13th Aug. 2010- It's a memorable date in my life, so even a date of the scene touches to my heart. I don't know whether I should or should not! But yes! I didn't know writing diary is prescribed by psychologists to express feelings; but being a diarist for more than consecutive 6 years, I agree that diary writing is an effective way to express feelings in someone's memory. The authoress gives us examples of some interview questions. Did you ever travel in an aeroplane? If you didn't, you must read fourteenth chapter of ‘Without You'. This chapter will give you a live and realistic experience of travelling on a plane. Ananya wonderfully describes Kishore and Shreya's 3 years old son Aditya's behavior and odd reactions on his face after looking at new guests. The authoress comments on the busy professional life of working women like Ananya who works as a civil engineer in Al Bayed Group, Dubai. I think every civil engineer must go through chapter seventeen of Without You. I was always amazing to think about south Indian surnames as I didn't know that they add their second name next to the first name and hide their surname, maybe I would still unaware of the fact if I wouldn't have read Without You! So this book gives you knowledge.

The authoress comments on Hindu devotees' bath into the sacred water of river near temples. She comments in a humorous way on fat people with a big belly. She gives glimpses of extra-marital affairs in society. When authoress tries to connect Indians and Pakistanis in one bond I commemorate the same attempt of author Amisha Sethi in her novel It Doesn't Hurt To Be Nice. Though there is no relation between both book, I think this kind of attempt shall be done from the literature; so I appreciate authoress’ efforts. Ananya sarcastically comments on the difference between an Engineering course and practical work on the field/ office. Authoress comments on realistic issues like love marriages, arrange marriages and Breakups. She comments on society's contrasting opinion about virginity of women and men.

Chapter twenty-two comes with so many twists and turns in the story. Two quotes from the chapter touches to my heart and those are "If a man cries over a girl, then he loved her truly and no one else could make her happier than him." Ananya comments on peoples' interference in other persons' life'- "It is ridiculous how people often meddled in the life of others, played with their emotions, took decisions on their behalf, and gave them the utmost pain possible. When they had tangled the threads of relationships into a complex knot, they often cried off and heaped the blame on fate." Bittersweet interaction with twists and turns between Arjun and his beloved Anu in chapter twenty-three seems like an instance of true love. There is a glance of a very short intimacy scene which is described in a nice manner so it doesn't feel vulgar. Chapter twenty-seven brings a big twist about Arjun's dad but don't expect me to reveal the twist. A philosophy of authoress' imaginary life after death is just amazing in Ananya's conversation with harmless soul. Story comes to the climax in chapter 30 and epilogue, and now please do not expect me to reveal climax and epilogue also!! (Waise bhi lagbhag puri story to batadi hai ab kam se kam climax to secret rehne do!!!) Okay! So, does Ananya marry to Arjun? What happens in their love story? If you want answers to these questions you have to grab your own copy and read the novel ‘Without You'.

Quotes: Each chapter of the novel Without You begins with a quote by a great person. I would like to mention few of them 30 quotes among all 30 chapters:

1. "The earth has music for those who listen." – George Santayana
2. "I know what I have given; I do not know what you have received." – Antonia Porchia
3. "Speak low, if you speak love." – William Shakespeare
4. "If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus oneday, so I never have to live without you." – A. A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh)
5. "I always knew looking back on the tears would make me laugh, but I never knew looking back on the laughs would make me cry." – Cat Stevens
6. "The beginning is the most important part of the work." – Plato
7. "You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance…" – Franklin P. Jones
8. "We don't see things as they are. We see them as we are." – Anais Nin
9. "Pure love is a willingness to give without a thought of receiving anything in return." –Peace Pilgrim
10. "Three things cannot be hidden for long; the sun, the moon, and the truth." – Buddha
11. "It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves." – William Shakespeare
12. "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." – Maya Angelou

Drawbacks: There are not major drawbacks in the novel, however, I found 2 minor print mistakes in it.

Reviewer's Notes:

(©Rajesh D. Hajare (RDH))

“Without You by Preethi Venugopala is the perfect tale of friendship, love, betrayal, breakup, miracles, romance and humour; which entertain readers with so many interesting twists. This novel not only makes readers aware about social issues but motivates them with positive messages.”

I would recommend Without You to lovers, believers in astrology/zodiac (especially Cancerians and Scorpions), and engineers (especially civil engineers). If you belong to any one of the above categories, then you shouldn't miss the twists and turns in this novel.

I would rate 4.25 out of 5 Stars to Without You by Preethi Venugopala.

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Without You in a glance:

Title: Without You

Author: Preethi Venugopala

Published by: WRITE INDIA PUBLISHERS

Copyright: ©Preethi Venugopala 2015

First Edition: May 2015

Typeset by Atul Purohit 11.5 pts Garamond

Branding & Designs: ABINASH PANDA

Binding: Paperback

Language: English

Genre: FICTION / ROMANCE

ISBN 978-93-84180-19-5

Pages: 212 (including cover)

MRP: Rs 150/- (inclusive all taxes)

Rating:  4.25/5 (Good)

Reviewer: Rajesh D. Hajare (RDH)

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Blurb:

(Watch book trailer of  Without You on Youtube)

When Ananya, a bubbly twenty-year-old engineering student, reaches her Grandmother's house in Sreepuram on a month long vacation, romance is the last thing on her mind. However, she meets Dr. Arjun there and falls head over heels in love.

As it often happens, the path of true love never runs smooth..Circumstances force them apart even though they were madly in love. She becomes a victim of depression. When everything fails to return her to normalcy, help arrives from an unexpected source. Will she ever find happiness again? Will time allow her heart to heal and forget Arjun? What indeed is true love?

Travel with Ananya to the picturesque Sreepuram, face the chaos of Bengaluru, and relish the warmth of magical Dubai in this heartwarming tale of love, betrayal, friendship and miracles.

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Buy Without You on:

   

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Thanks for reading this review. We would love to hear from you…

Without You: Goodreads (4.14/5)|Facebook

Preethi Venugopala: FB Profile | FB Page | @preethivenu |Goodreads | Amazon | Blog

Write India Publishers: Facebook | @Write_India | Website

RDH Sir: FB Profile | FB Page | @RDHSir | Goodreads | Amazon (#49326) | Whatsapp (+91-7588887401)

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Disclaimer: 

1. This is my personal opinion about the novel Without You and your views about the same book may be vary.
2. This is not a paid review.
3. Author signed Review copy of Without You was sent to me by the authoress of the book Preethi Venugopala.
4. Few quotes are used in this review as it is or with slight changes from the novel Without You with the permission of the authoress Preethi Venugopala and the reviewer does not claim to be the writer of those quotations.
5. Reviewer of this blog works as the President at Gondia branch of Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Sahitya Parishad

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