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Tuesday, November 24, 2015

You Are The Best Wife by Ajay K Pandey : A Review


BOOK TITLE: You Are The Best Wife

ISBN/ASIN: 978-9382665540

AUTHOR: Ajay K Pandey

GENRE: Non Fiction

NUMBER OF PAGES: 248

FORMAT: Paperback

SERIES / STANDALONE: Standalone

HOW I GOT THIS BOOK:

I thank Sandeep Sharma and Tushti Bhatia of Author Paradise for this review copy. 

SUMMARY:

Ajay believes in living for himself; Bhavna teaches him to live for others. Ajay is a planner for life; Bhavna makes him live in every moment. You are the Best Wife is a story of two people with contradictory ideologies who fall in love. It changes them for good. It changes the way they look at the world and the way the world looks at them. Until destiny reveals its plans. This is a true inspiring story of the author and his struggle with life, after his beloved wife left him halfway through their journey. But her last words, ‘you are the best husband’ gave him the strength to live on, and fulfil his promise of love. Told with frankness and doses of humor, this heart-warming tale of a boy and a girl who never gave up on their love in face of adversities, ends on a bittersweet and poignant note as Ajay comes to terms with the biggest lesson life has to offer. 

FIRST IMPRESSION:

You are the Best Wife - a title that can sound both moving and cheeky. I took one look at the cover and loved the symbolic nature of that. The cover has been beautifully split into three parts - the top most part having the image of a couple and an overimposed graph of a heart beat. I aptly assumed that this part signified the author's life and his memories with his loving wife. The middle part, the title, is written in a simple, straightforward font and as I would later know, just like the tone of the book. The third part, the image of writing and a pen, symbolised, at least to me, that the author had wanted to show via this cover that he decided to write down his life experiences with his loving wife and the story in the middle is the connection. 

Maybe I am reading too much into the cover image, but this is one of the most relevant cover images I have known in recent times, and the reader in me couldn't help but rejoice at it. The book was printed on normal inexpensive paper in usual font. But that is not a deterrant in reading this amazing story. 

REVIEW:

You are the Best Wife - a heartfelt, true story of a couple in love. True stories cannot be reviewed and rated like normal ones - this is why I shy away from the Non Fiction genre. Truth sometimes can be stranger and much more beautiful can whatever fiction our imagination might come up with. Truth can be fascinating and also liberating. And this is a book by a husband who love(d) his wife and continues to fondly recollect the time he spent with his loving wife. Every one has different ways to express pain, loss and grief. Some do it by moping, some do it by moving on with difficulty. And then there are others who show it by writing them down as books and forever immortalising the person and the love. Ajay K Pandey has poured out his heart, no doubt. But since he has written it as a book and published it, and I am obliged to review the book, not the story. So the following review is for the book, not the content. 

The writing style was simple, straightforward and lacked all the extra elements required in fiction. While this was not a deal breaker for me, there are a few points I would have to mention. The story is heartfelt. The author speaks of his love, his struggles to get married to the love of his life and the subsequent happy married life. He speaks of the shock, the pain and the loss, too, of losing a loved one. It is wrong to call this a 'story'. It is his life experiences and he has done justice to it yet kept it decent. 

The story will strike a chord with you if you enjoy those tales that speak of love, loss and family in a raw manner. While I am not concentrating on the 'plot' or 'story' as such, I still have a few comments to give about the book. The writing has a few errors - most probably they would be forgotten in the emotional pull of the narrative. The language is simple but not very memorable. The characters are well formed, and the author has tried to bring those real life incidents into a colorful canvas. But the reviewer in me could not deny that the fictitious elements that would make it a racy read are absent. The story is from the heart, uncooked and raw. A tale of love and living after loss. 

WHAT I LIKED:
  • The heartfelt emotions
  • Thankful absence of butterfly college romance
  • The fact that proceeds from this book would go to a foundation
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER:
  • Lacks the flavour required from fiction
  • Is basically a tale of love - so fans of other genre would probably not find it alluring
  • The language could have been a bit more better. There are places where the author has clearly struggled to form sentences. Maybe because of the emotional turmoil in penning down life events, but still, as a book, taht point would be noted
VERDICT:

If you love romances, love stories from the heart, this is the book for you. Fans of other genres will find little to interest them in here. Good attempt by a husband to immortalise his wife's memories

RATING: 3.6/5

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Ajay K Pandey grew up in the modest NTPC township of Rihand Nagar with big dreams. He studied Engineering in Electronics at the IERT (Allahabad) and MBA at IIMM (Pune) before taking up a job in corporate firm. He is currently working with Cognizant, Pune. He grew up with a dream of becoming a teacher, but destiny landed him in the IT field. Travelling, trekking and reading novels are his hobbies. Travelling to different places has taught him about different cultures and people, and makes him wonder how despite all the differences, there is a bond that unites them. Trekking always inspires him to deal with challenges like a sport. Reading is perhaps what makes him feel alive. You are the Best Wife is his debut book based on his life events and lessons. 

EDITIONS AVAILABLE: Paperback, Kindle

PRICE Rs. 140 for paperback, Free on Kindle Unlimited

BOOK LINKS: Amazon

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