Life & Promises- #BookLysis of my all time favourite novel

1445^th Day

149^th Blog Post

24^th BookLysis

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Today I am going to share my BookLysis of Life & Promises by PulkitGuptaand Ila Garg. This is my fourth review of Gargi Publisher’s title after reviewingHidden Husband, Hey Dad! Meet My Mom… and Her Resurrection. I have read Anniversary Edition of Life & Promises which is published with ‘A National Bestseller’ tag.

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Read my first BookLysis of Gargi’s title:

Hidden Husband  by Shikha Kaul (Rating: 4.5/5* | 26 Comments Amazon |Kindle | Flipkart)

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COVER AND TITLE: 

Front Cover of Life and Promises

Life & Promises is an attractive title. The novel has a beautiful cover with a lovely color combination. Heart (<3) on the head of ‘i’ in Life & Promises is like a cherry on the cake. Anniversary Edition tag tells specialty of the third edition within a year. Yes, you read it right 3 editions within 12 months. That’s why the novel is ‘A National Bestseller’.

LANGUAGE AND WRITING STYLE: Language of ‘Life & Promises’ is lucid. Italic fonts are used in a proper way. English synonyms are mentioned in a bracket next to several Hindi words. The introduction of several terms from the medical field like Renal Angiography/Angioplasty, nephrologist, urologist,haematologists, clotting disorder and PT-INR (Prothrombin Time)  shows author’s knowledge and research for a perfect storyline. First person narrative conversation style and wonderful dialogues keep readers engaged with the storyline. Flashback technique is used gracefully. Some scenes are titled by place and date which make us feel like reading a diary.

UNIQUE FEATURES: - ‘Life & Promises’ contain beautiful poems by Rachna Sheth. Her poems perfectly suit in certain situations. I liked the poem ‘She said- I said’ in chapter 4. Hindi poem by Abhishek Atul comments on the irony of life in the epilogue.

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Also Read: Heart of Bullets by Nikhil Kushwaha (Rating: 3.8/5* | 4 comments | Buy on Amazon | Flipkart )

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SNEAK-A-PEEK INTO THE CHARACTERS:

‘Life & Promises’ is a beautiful piece of wonderful characterization. Sketches of all the three protagonists Rachit Aggarwal, Khushi Gupta and Radhika Banerjee are sketched beautifully. Sketches of major characters is another unique feature of this novel. I always see such kind of experiments in Gargi’s books.

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Read my other BookLysis of Gargi’s title:

Hey Dad! Meet my Mom… by Sandeep Sharma and Leepi Aggarwal(Rating: 4.4/5* | 6 Comments | Buy on Amazon | Kindle | Flipkart)

Her Resurrection by Soumyadeep Koley Rating: (4.15/5* | 5 Comments | Buy on Amazon | Kindle | Flipkart)

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SETTING: The plot of ‘Life & Promises’ is developed at Apollo Hospital, Delhi where Rachit narrates his story to Khushi. The storyline is developed into 3 major cities Delhi, Chennai (Tamilnadu), and Kolkata (West Bengal). Laxmi Nagar  and  Parathe wali gali   in Delhi is portrayed beautifully. I felt like visiting the location live while reading few scenes. Description of  IIT Madras  and  East Coast Road (ECR)  is amazing. The introduction of Kolkata and  Kalighat temple is described in brief, but helpful for those who haven’t heard or read about the temple.

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Also Read: Ensnared by Prashant Wase (Rating: 4.4/5* | 50 comments (Maximum) | Buy on Amazon)

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PLOT AND STORYLINE:  Life and Promises contain 16 chapters alongwithprologue and epilogue. I like a comparison between two different education systems in the second chapter. Rachit’s sarcastic comments are just brilliant. He comments on children’s fear or hesitation to talk about physical changes, sexual problems and symptoms of any decease with their parents. He beautifully demonstrates the beauty of Radhika in the fifth chapter. I loved the romantic scene between both of them. Rachit’s room in boy’s hostel represents a typical room of a college student and take readers back in those happy days of college life. Authors elegantly maintain the generation gap by referring the use of  Bluetooth and Infrared for data sharing in the current generation of advanced data sharing applications. They remark on college students’ variety of passion and hobbies from different states. Jay satirically compares booking railway ticket with a war. A scene in which Rachit’s friends from different states debate to claim  Rajinikanth ‘our’ superstar is just amazing. I got new information from Rachitthat “prepaid numbers don’t work in Kashmir.” Eighth chapter ‘Chak de! India’ take us into flashback and recollects memories of so many real incidents like Chak De! India  movie in 2007 and  T20 Cricket World Cup 2007.

• You might also like: My Mom is #MyFirstExpert

In the second half, Rachit introduces a course of CA. His reference to Coaching classes in Kota reminds my recent trip to Kota. He describes coaching life of CA aspirant in detailed. I would like to quote his words which relate to me and every unemployed friend of to be an engineer- “The worst part is to see your engineer friends getting a job in the 7th semester, getting a promotion, increments, making foreign trips and finally getting married.” :lol:!! Rachit’s speech delivered to CA aspirants is truly motivational and inspires me a lot. Four examples of his inspiration show Rachit’spassion and authors’ knowledge about cricket.

• You might also like: My Ideal Yatra to Kota and Ajmer

Radhika’s letter sent to hospitalized Rachit is very emotional with Radhika’s sentiments and touches to reader’s heart. Her notes written in her personal diary literally brought tears to my eyes. Her diary relates my own diary and remembers memories of my someone closed which I am going to rewrite soon, if I found some traditional publisher of Marathi novels then you shall read my debut novel soon in coming years. Khushi indirectly appeals not to compare our failure with other’s success. She appeals sensitive people- “Don’t let your emotions overrule your decisions. Just give yourself some time, talk to yourself and relax your mind. Do what you like. Something that you love to do and it will act like a stress-buster.” She tells Rachit that what does inner happiness mean!

QUOTATIONS FROM LIFE & PROMISES:

1. “A mother can understand the pain of her child just by looking at her son’s face; he doesn’t even need to tell her what had happened to him or what adverse circumstances he had been through. A mother- son relation is an unsaid bond; it’s not dependent on vocalexchange of some words.” - Page 23
2. “There is nothing wrong with the valleys of sorrow. They are just like the phases of relaxation to regain the strength to move on.” – Page 48
3. “Absence sometimes makes you realize the importance of people but then it was too late for anything to be done that could possibly bring them back together.” –Page 48
4. “Intimacy is not only about being physical. It plays a major role in bringing you emotionally close to your partner. This also helps you understand him/her better. Trust plays a major role in intimacy. It is built up over a period of time with the strong foundation of love and relationship. Emotional intimacy is an important ingredient for a long, ever lasting relationship. Such things cannot be planned. They happen spontaneously.” – Page 73
5. “Learn from yesterday, live for today and hope for tomorrow.” – Page 159
6. “Life is too short. Fulfill all your promises” – Page 172
7. “Life is not a game of chess where you can plan your next move. You should always expect the unexpected. Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” – Page 50
8. “Distance can’t separate love. If emotions are true then it should not matter to you, whether you are near or far. And as days go by, the memories remain. And these memories then add on to the beauty of the relationship.” – Page 109
9. “Love is not about being in a relationship, but living the relationship.” – Page 153 
10. “The difference between people who succeed in life and who don’t is their ability to face challenges correctly and not the absence of challenges.” – Page 154
11. “Life is not designed for people to succeed in the first attempt itself. There are two kinds of people – one that expects easy successes and a smooth life that has relatively few bumps and the other, who understands that they need to try more than just once in order to get what they want.” – Page 154
12. “If a life brings challenges then it brings several promises. It dependon us whether to see the glass as Half Full or Half Empty.” – Page 158
13. “Dreams and imagination are the ingredients of a dish called ‘future’.” – Page 161

A MINOR TYPING ERROR:  This is the second novel in last 20 books I have read as a book reviewer where I didn’t find major drawbacks. (Now you don’t start counting my mistakes in this review, you will be tired by counting :lol:!) This novel is almost error-free but the only exception is a minor typing error on page 64 (which I am highlighting with strikethrough effect in next sentence)- “Arrey,you will the get the answers to all of our questions there.” Of course, we can ignore this minor print error but I have pointed out here for the correction in the next edition of ‘Life & Promises’.

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Also Read: Without You by Preethi Venugopala (Rating: 4.25/5* | 15 Comments | Buy on Amazon | Kindle | Flipkart )

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REVIEWER’S COMMENT:

“Life & Promises by Pulkit Gupta and Ila Garg keep readers engaged with so many twists and turns in the story. Second half of the novel gives you goose bumps. The love story of Rachit and Radhika make readers laugh and cry at the same time. Rachit’s deep observation and sarcastic comments make us think on crisis in our surround. Khushi’s positive attitude towards life motivates me a lot. I already have mucked every page of the novel as my favourite. ‘Life & Promises’ is added into my alltimefavourite list of the romance genre. I am glad to share that ‘Life and Promises’ is recently published in Hindi by Petals Publishers. I wish author and publisher a huge success for LNP’s Hindi edition ‘Khwaeshein’.”

RATING on BookLysis:

This novel deserves one of the highest ratings in my BookLysis and I would rate Life & Promises 4.75 on the scale of 5 stars. This is the second highest rated book on BookLysis.

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Also Read: You are the Best Wife  by Ajay K Pandey (Rating: 4.25/5* | 15 Comments | Buy on Amazon | Kindle | Flipkart)

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Watch official song of Life and Promises Book Trailer on Youtube

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Life & Promises  is  available on major online stores…

   

    

Khwaeshein - Kuchh Puri To Kuchh Adhuri si... is available at Amazon.in

Download Life and Promises for FREE in PDF

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PULKIT GUPTA - AUTHOR

Author Pulkit Gupta (Image Courtesy: ©Blogspot.com)

CA, CS and Law student by profession and a writer by passion, Pulkit is someone who believes in living life to fullest. Born in Sonepat and brought up in Bijnor(land of Dushyant Kumar), writing came naturally to him due to his genes and current location. He did his schooling from St. Mary’s Convent School,Bijnorand graduated from MJPRU, Bareilly.

He started his journey with writing by penning some random poems in a diary but CA gave a professional touch to his writing skills. He got associated withCAclubIndia and was voted ‘Favourite of the club’ in 2011. His debut novel titled, ‘Life and Promises’ was a big hit and he is back with its bestselling edition. He is also part of a short story anthology, ‘You, Me, ‘N’ Zindagi’. He was also the compiler and contributor at ‘Moonlit Matinee’. He is the owner of publishinghouse, ‘Gargi Publishers’. In ‘Crumpled Voices – Shades of suffering’ he has performed an additional responsibility of compilation along with publishing.

• Buy You, Me, ‘N’ Zindagi on Amazon
• Buy Moonlit Matinee on Amazon / Flipkart
• Buy Crumpled Voices on Amazon / Flipkart

Apart from reading and writing, the author loves listening to Hindi music, watching all kinds of Hindi movies and sports.

He can be contacted at:

Facebook | FB (Pulkit) | FB Page | Goodreads

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ILA GARG - AUTHOR

Author Ila Garg (Image Courtesy: ©ilagarg.com)

Ila loves writing. She has a flair for words. It is a passion, a compulsion; something that gives her an avenue to express herself. She writes when she is happy; when she is angry or when an issue touches her heart. She resorts to writing when she is restless or when she is on the verge of breaking down.

Creativity and writing have always attracted her. She has a huge collection of poems on different genre. Besides that, she loves to sketch and click pictures! Apart from being an avid reader, writer, reviewer, and editor, she is an active blogger too. She blogs at ilashininggem.blogspot.in . ‘Life and Promises’ is her literary debut that created a lot of hype, and it was followed by ‘Cheer Up – The worst is yet to come’. She is also a part of several short story anthologies, ‘A Night in Paradise’, ‘Moonlit Matinee’ and ‘You, Me, ‘N’ Zindagi’. Besides that she has contributed in a poetry anthology, ‘Minds at Work 2’, in form of five poems and was the editor for a short story anthology titled ‘Crumped Voices - Shades of Sufferings’.

• Buy Cheer Up on Amazon / Flipkart
• Buy A Night in Paradise on Amazon
• Buy Minds @ Work 2 on Amazon

In her leisure time, she loves to read, watch movies, listen to sufi music, and travel to new places.

She can be contacted at:

Facebook | @ilagarg_smile | Goodreads | ilagarg.com

LIFE & PROMISES

“Story of an IITian turned CA Aspirant”

THIS NOVEL TRAVELS ACROSS THE REALMS OF HIS LIFE AND UNFOLDS HIS JOURNEY OF BEING A CA ASPIRANT FROM AN IITIAN, AND ALSO REFLECTS ON THE SNAGS IT BRINGS TO HIS RELATIONSHIPS.

Rachit, a young, ambitious boy, hailing from a small town of western UP, has big dreams. Destiny takes a turn when he attempts to commit suicide and lands up in a hospital bed. There, he bumps into Khushi, a chubby girl with a carefree attitude. She insists that Rachit uncover the pages of his life and tell her what compelled him to take such a drastic step. Rachit starts narrating his story, seeing no other option. He tells her that he dreamt to be an IITian and even achieved it. Things went well for some days, till that fateful day when Rachit was diagnosed with severe health issues.

After a while, already heartbroken, Rachit takes a tough decision. He drops IIT dream and follows the path of becoming a CA. in this very process, he overlooks Radhika, a gorgeous Bengali girl, his batch mate as well his girlfriend. What will happen to the love story of Rachit and Radhika? Will Rachit become a successful professional, and if yes, then at what cost? Does Khushi have a story of her own?

Gargi Publishers can be contacted at:

Facebook | @GargiPublishers | Blog | Website

Reviewer can be contacted at:

FB Profile | FB Page (RDH Sir) | @RDHSir| Goodreads

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Anniversary Edition LIFE AND PROMISES

Title	Life and Promises (Life & Promises)
Authors	Pulkit Gupta and Ila Garg
Published by	Gargi Publishers
ISBN	9789384382001
ASIN	B016YPTY9C
Copyright	© Pulkit Gupta
Third Edition	An Anniversary Edition (December 2014)
First Published by	Moments Publishers in December 2013
Review Typesetting	Ankit Kumar & Rajesh Hajare
Reviewed by	Rajesh D. Hajare (RDH)
My Amazon Ranking	#6855
Latest Visitor counter	486636