Blurb View:

‘Seven Days Without You’ is a story of two childhood friends that finds its destiny only when they live seven days away from each other. What the joyous life of years together couldn’t unearth, was dug out by the heart breaking realities of seven days that were no less than a new life for him– one where his childhood friend was not with him.The protagonist, Vishwas is all set for his first job. Enthralled with excitement the small town ‘mummy-papa’ boy leaves for Delhi and would return after seven days. His seven days without Shailja do not happen as he thought they would. His dreams ruined, expectations shattered and fantasies turned into nightmares, he realizes that life isn’t as simple as it looked from the balcony of his room. Fun, joy, excitement, sorrow, disgust, embarrassment, deception and then LOVE… Seven days teach him the perfect definition of every sentiment. The battle of emotions and confessions that lasts for seven days transmutes his years old relationship into something else, and his heart overflows with the love he thought Shailja would never kindle inside him. What happened in those seven days that gouged his love out of friendship? Will Shailja still be waiting for him after these seven days? And will she reciprocate his love…?

Review: 

I was attracted to this book only for the plot mentioned in the blurb, the concept of seven days of separation and conjugation. After reading the entire book, I found the core idea to be the only interesting ingredient. Rest – gone all wrong again. I’ll give you an example. Would would like to read a book which has the following lines…

The unsullied moist breeze of the jungle and the magnificent expanse of verdure, for a while I forgot the scene beside me. (p. 30)

…coupled with the ones below?

“You told me that you have got a bike. Where it is?” (p. 77)

As I kept reading, I had a very strong feeling that either the author had a split personality while writing or there was a ghost writer involved. There is a distinctive switch from pedestrian ‘Indian English’ to a better choice of words – at irregular intervals. I don’t know if it is humble enough to suggest that the author had MPD while writing, so I’d rather assume that the editors decided to garnish the chapters with their own choice of trail mix.

That seemed pretty unusual to me, because the book is another recent example of editorial disaster otherwise. There are typographical errors on pages 75, 95, 108, 167, 218 and there are innumerable grammatical errors which I wouldn’t care to point out for free. The word ‘chachaji‘ was the most inconsistent one, being switched from normal and italics modes between a lot of pages. And – it seems that the author has it for the word ‘ass’. If I were to read an electronic version of this book, I could have tried to give you the number of times he wrote ‘ass’, but it is impossible to count them manually. Adding choice American curse words does not make the book hot or cool, dear author.

The plot is simple – Boy and Girl are childhood friends, Boy thinks Girl is his best friend, Girl is in love with Boy, they drift after graduation for seven days, Boy goes to big city for job, Boy meets other Girls and likes them, Boy faces big city tantrums for six days, Girl faces an accident, Boy comes home on the seventh day..and the climax. That is easy enough for a movie. In fact, this book would make a good entertaining musical masala Bollywood movie. For a novel in English, its drab. I had picked it up to go through the occurrence of events for seven days as the idea was appealing to me. Barring a few incidents at the beginning, the rest were pretty predictable and boring. The first two chapters were easier to read than the rest, which dragged me to a naive and ill-crafted climax.

Well, what more can I say. The author has put up a lot of effort in crafting the story but the result is not satisfactory at all.

My Rating: 2/5

About the Author: 

Anmol Rana, 35, was born in Dehradun, and completed his education from Mussoorie and Dehradun. A Postgraduate in science, he is currently working as a scientist in Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), in Dehradun. His native place is also Dehradun and he is settled there with his wife, parents, and two kids. He belongs to an orthodox Indian middle class family where dreams are only restricted to sleep. He dared and turned his dream into a reality. ‘Think Different’ – is the rule of his life, even if it is thinking alone. A son, a husband and a father now, he lives one portion of his life for himself as well. The portion where he listens to only one voice – the voice of his heart. Right and Wrong have no count there.Writing was like a hidden treasure he discovered only recently. But when discovered he invented himself into a completely new person in the form of a writer. The English  language scares him, but call it an irony of the education system that he can write only in English.Slightly introvert by nature, he believes in understanding rather than saying. A scientist by mind and a writer by heart, he loves playing soccer and chess. Music comes naturally to him, and if you were to believe his friends, they say that he is a far better singer than a writer. This is his first book, but not the last.

Book Details:

Language: English, Author(s): Anmol Rana, Genre: Fiction/Romance

Publisher: Leadstart/Frog Books, Year Published: 2013

Binding: Paperback, Edition: First, Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 9789382473282 , ISBN-10: 9382473282

The book was received as part of Reviewers Programme on The Tales Pensieve. 

This review is also shared with the Indian Quills Reading Challenge at The Tales Pensieve.