IF ITS NOT FOREVER… ITS NOT LOVE…

If it’s not forever... It’s not love! Is a different book, distinctive from its contemporaries.

A book which instils in you the fact that true love still exists! Durjoy Dutta with this story invigorates love. I personally never expected such sensitive and intriguing a book from him. The book starts with the Chandni Chowk blast. This gives you dreadful images of people screaming for help, children, women and men in awful condition, even their faces can’t be recognised. There are few people who have survived the blast and one of the lucky ones is Deb. He finds a diary amid the blast site and smouldered remains. The diary is burnt and few of the last pages can’t be recognized. The diary intrigues Deb and he is in a huge dilemma whether to read the diary or not! The diary could have the last words of the person who would have died in the blast! Maybe he wanted to say things which he can’t now. These thoughts engulf Deb and he is still thinking to read it or not! Finally he decides to read the diary and see to whom it belongs to! It sends a chill down your spine when the author describes the condition of the diary. It is torn and withered. I was shaken when it struck me what would have happened to those hands holding the diary! It was appalling.

Deb goes on reading the diary and he can’t stop himself from reading it 5 times! It is that engrossing! Although what really keeps him reading is also the fact that the book has no ending! A story without an end! The diary beautifully tells a tale of a guy RD who is in selflessly and madly in love with a girl named ’Ragini’. This girl and RD are very good friends but she never realized how much RD loves him! Such love that is only seen in movies and read in novels. RD was never able to muster courage to tell Ragini that how much he loved and treasured her. This is how the diary ends.  Deb then prepares him to find out who is the guy to whom does this diary belong to and where is Ragini, the love of his life. Deb finds out that this diary belongs to a guy named ‘Ritam Dey’. Deb and Avantika then begin their quest to find Ragini and the ‘dead guy’ Ritam.

The struggle a lot and finally find the address of Ragini. When they reach there they find out that Ritam lives there and not Ragini. Ritam is astonished to see them and doesn’t know them asks if he knows them. They tell him that how they found about his diary and their whole journey till there. The next thing that comes is horrifying and stupefy. Ritam then gives a shock which made me awestruck as he tells that he had sent his copy of diary to Ragini! There is deep silence. It leaves the reader hopeless and mourning! How can Ragini die! She had to know how much Ritam loved her! Such pious and pure love which doesn’t exists now days. She had to know how lucky she was to have someone who loved her beyond limits! How can she die? Life is so unfair!

They leave Ritam’s house and after three months they finally settle into their lives. Then one fine day Avantika receives a letter from Ritam saying he is committing suicide as nothing is left for him to live. Avantika and Deb are perturbed and astounded! It was devastating to see such a beautiful and angelic love story end like this! At that very instant Ritam calls Deb and asks him to come to a place. Ritam tells Deb he decided to quit his life then he decided to continue his life and move on in life. But Ritam found someone who made him change his decision. Who could it possibly be except Ragini! Yes yes yes!!! Ragini is alive! Then suddenly he tells Deb that Ragini is alive and survived from the blasts!  She is critical and has 70% burns. This filled me with joy that now finally Ragini knows how much Ritam loves her. She is so lucky to have Ritam by her side. Such true love is hard to find and it is unbelievable how the Author has portrayed the emotions so well.  The book is rollercoaster which has its highs and lows. You feel ecstatic when you Deb is about to meet Ragini but when Ritam meets them instead of Ragini you feel “no this can’t be!”

The book made me realize one thing for sure. Life is really short. You never know what happens to you! Where does your destiny take you? So never ever leave even a single opportunity to tell your family, friends and close ones how much you love them. How much they mean to you!