‘I too had a love story..’: Ravinder Singh; Srishti Publishers & Distributors: Rs. 100; pp213

It is true that romantic stories always carry some legendary charm with them. Most of the popular romances in the literature have only tragic ends. However, we do have many novels and novellas ending on a happy note that ‘they lived happily thereafter’.

The modern day romances are mostly comedy. They hardly believe in tragic ends. With the advent of a new generation of Indian writers in English, we have all types of novels appearing in the book stores covering several contemporary topics.

‘I too had love story’ by Ravinder Singh claims on the cover ‘A heartbreaking true love tale’ and the blurb says that it is his debut novel. Ravinder Singh is very young (just 26 years) and an IT professional who earns and lives well as per present day standards. The first person narrative indicates that it has to be perhaps ‘his’ own incomplete love story.

The story is in fact a very simple one. The new world wide web provides innumerable opportunities to contact and get to know people via chats or email exchanges whose faces are not even known but bring them in the friends circle. Sometimes such friendships come and go as fast as they came. But, Ravinder’s case is different. He falls in love with a girl even without seeing her and they get proposed to each other without the usual hassles of love marriages. The parents are very positive and the boy and the girl are full of charm and beauty. They have hardly anything to complain.

The slow set of the romance, its development, the meeting and the closeness are narrated with deliberate languidness. One can meet many of the supporting characters who are lovable, friendly and supportive to the love tale. There are no villains for them. But, sometimes, is it not the invisible fate that could become a treacherous villain?

So just before the engagement, Khushi the fiancée of Ravinder meets with a road accident with multiple complications. The long drawn hospital episodes move with excruciating slowness and pain. The end....let me not tell other wise the little suspense the story carry with it will collapse.

Real or fictional, Ravinder’s narrative is amply emotional. He romances, feels ecstatic, laughs, sobs and weeps through the pages. The end is definitely somewhat different because it will not be the case with the easy going and gung ho nature of the new gen.

Are you a romantic person who loves to read love tales with graphic descriptions without eroticism but highly dignified?

You may definitely fall for ‘I too had a Love Story’ and will definitely shed a few tears in the end. Probably that is the success of this young writer Ravinder Singh.