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Book Review - First Love Matters, So Does the Second


Writing is really a very demanding profession or I rather say, a hobby and that's why any person who comes up with a book of any type gets due praise and respect unconditionally from me. In this way, I congratulate the author of 'First Love Matters, So Does the Second', Mr. Vishal Sah for coming up with his debut work. Vishal is all of 20 years old and one among those 'new-wave' writers who are joining the profession of writing at such a young, enterprising age. Talking about all these 'new-wave' writers, one thing a reader almost always comes across is the identical genre that they are favoring the most and that must be the writing a 'romantic', 'teenage' novel where a character (read the author only) falls in love with a girl, almost always with characteristic and charismatic ease. He might not be the most popular or even very bad looking but he almost always gets by with the most popular and beautiful girl in his college/school. Damn lucky, I must say and in this way, these writers give complex to all their readers (males preferably) who are certainly better looking, academically qualified and pretty good earners but still doesn't have a fairy-like girlfriend by their side. These observations aside, plots of all these books are always paper thin and almost non-existent with one dimensional linear storytelling technique marring their work hazardously. Let's understand all these factors keeping Vishal's work in mind.

There are two central male characters (although author might argue there was only one who goes by the name of Vishal only) and they both have two girls to choose from their love or best girlfriend. Yes, THE BEST girlfriend. Vishal first falls in love with Vedika who dumps him for her senior, Arnav. Shaurya, Vishal's best mate, falls in love with Myra who dumps him later for her career and doesn't even care for his feelings. It's like, 'he will get soon, doesn't matter'. Really? Myra leaves Shaurya well before Vishal again falls in love with a girl named Shreya. Meanwhile, scenarios change in such a way that all of them after passing their 12th Board Exam go about planning their own careers and there only Shreya and Vishal get separated physically and enter in the so-called long distance relationship. It so happens that Vishal gets to meet her former love Vedika in his medical college who returns as her senior. Again messages, phone calls and everything else start happening between them and Shreya finds herself at disadvantage. The girl who used to be everything in our hero's life is 'nothing' now and left on standby mode. Shreya decides to leave Vishal and at the same time, Vedika proposes (She has already dumped her first love, Arnav) to Vishal and this time, Vishal dumps her. Very soon, readers come across the news that Vishal has got cancer and thus we near the end of the book. My question is: if everyone is dumping their first love for second and doesn't even care about the feelings of first, how does love here even matter? I shall call it best an 'infatuation' for love certainly lasts longer and can be heartbreaking, shattering all type of hopes and even lives. Yes, it can happen twice or even many times but it's far more sincere and serious than what's shown in this book and like many others that are available in the markets. I shall certainly comply with Vishal''s reasoning if he tells me that his debut work is representative of present-day 'progressive mind set-up' of youth who definitely cares more about their careers than their love lives but does that really comprehend that 'love' can even be subsided or discouraged for Indians at least believe very strongly about their love lives, marriages and kids? We haven't still become THAT progressive.

However, in such a young age, it's possible to get swayed and wooed by the popular-trend and I wouldn't blame all these writers for writing these novels in garb of their love-stories but what's really disappointing is the lack of variety. Almost every novel comes up with the same narrative and even a second time reader could speculate what's going to come up next. That sense of astonishment is simply gone. As far as other qualities of this book is concerned, I found the dialogues very witty. Writing is undoubtedly sharp and climax is certainly charming even though the reader knows by then what's about to happen but then again, 'epilogue' kills all the good things that the 'more than good' climax brings. Proofreading is in dire need for an experienced eye can detect many obvious grammatical mistakes and I have detected at lest three such spots. That being said, I shall again offer my congratulations to Vishal for a good start to his writing career and definitely expect 'better' works from him in future.

Rating: 2.5/5

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