Few days ago, I have read the book 3 @ A Time by Diptendu Shekhar Chakraborty . It is the author’s debut book.
I will try to give an overall opinion/experience with the book.
To start with, I must say that the author’s language is simple and fluidic but not good enough to be called a great prose style. So clearly, the book is focused on the young readers of India. Our protagonist is Deepankar (and also is the narrator of the story) is a cool dude, and is so handsome/cute that most of the girls fall for him. In the whole book, a commendable number of girls have fallen for him. Before going into further details of the story, I like to praise the author for something I personally use a lot. While introducing the protagonist, he doesn’t use the conventional way to saying “My name is this, and I am of height this and blah blah”; but rather he introduces him via some other character’s mouth. This is good way of introducing main characters.
Now, let’s go deeper in the story. So, our hero Deepankar is a cool and overconfident stud who falls first for a girl Deepannita (strangely, many characters have the prefix Dip or Deep, e.g. Deepankar, Deepannita, Deepika and more), and then he discovers she is a lesbian. Yeah, that’s right. This is something new I recently read in any Indian writing. That’s something of good twist. Then he climbs the stairs of success, and more girls come near him. Not to mention, he himself is somewhat pervert, always trying to find a girl to get into her pants. Despite having a girlfriend Naina before joining the MBA college (our main venue where things happen), he indulges himself in more-than-a-kiss-and-less-than-sex with three girls(Ritika, Sonali, Priya and almost Pooja). Utterly confused, who actually he is in love, he plays along with three of them. The girls are also too desperate to be with him and also in all the case they themselves go to Deepankar for a relationship. So, we can’t put all the blame on him. But that doesn’t mean he has a likable character.
The book also gives us few good lessons like, not being overconfident but be confident enough and dealing complicated situation with calm mind. Out protagonist also has shown bravery by facing his problems on his own. There is an important scene of facing three girls together being caught. In that case, he’s acted smartly, by replying confidently and avoiding a public insult; though his reasoning is not much logical. Still, I like the way he’s handled the situation.
He became The Cutest Smile, member of placement cell and very popular. He also has faced some downfalls like being sacked from placement cell, and being denied of appearing campus interviews. He’s fought in those moments and become successful. There is also a good message for religious harmony.
To give an overall view, I can say that this book is not awesome but good enough to be an entertainer. The authors has to improve a lot and I believe he has the capability to become a great writer. I wish him all the best for all his future endeavors.
You can get the book from here.
ALPHABET SPEAKS 