A Thing Beyond Forever

Finally, after the tiresome weeks of exams and practical records I took a break to read this novel, with the recommendation of a dear friend of mine, Geetu the owner of the book which I borrowed. “A Thing Beyond Forever” by Novoneel Chakraborty, a wonderful book which was powerful enough to shatter the long silence in my blog by urging me to write a review despite the busy schedule with exams. So, here I’m starting, keeping the book aside after reading but my heart heavy with the mixed emotions of sorrow and bliss.

The protagonist, Dr. Radhika Sharma is 29 years old with brownish complexion, cute nose, glistening lips and the sharp curves adorning her body which is always clad in cotton shirts, pants or jeans. She is indeed one of the best among the young doctors and is labeled as an arrogant feminist, because she prefers reading in her free time instead of gossiping, never gave a chance to any male even to propose a date or she is a presumed virgin who spoke her mind. Her prized possession, the diary of Raen Verma, thirteen long years back when he was a teenager. Raen, born as the second son in the family, has always been an obedient child to his parents. To his utter bewilderment, his father gets a transfer which makes them shift to Guwahati in mid June. Changing schools, making new friends and missing Kolkata and the old buddies in an unexpected time is too much for Raen to bear. He starts sharing all his thoughts and memorable moments with his diary friend. As Radhika starts reading the diary, readers are taken back to the past by Raen’s words along with Radhika whose memories mingle with those moments in the diary.

The plot is unique in its own way. The three main characters of the story belong to three age groups, Radhika who is 29 years old, Raen who is then a teenager and small Laye of 9 years. The author has skillfully narrated the story entwining the three age groups at correct phases. Sometimes the story is by the words of a teenager and at times focused on Radhika and her present life. The blend of these two stages, past and the present is simply superb!

It speaks about love, life and commitment and urges us to think beyond the usual frame where our mindsets are trapped in. As humans we are tend to do the things even if we know that it will be painful to go through. The following lines were a wonderful self realization for all.

“Is there any woman in this world who doesn’t know how much pain she needs to absorb in order to develop and later push a life out of her? And is there any woman in this world who, knowing the fact, doesn’t want to give birth, at least once?”

Leave aside the unique plot; it’s the writing style which should be praised more. The language was so poetic and melodious which was soothing the senses. It was quite advanced compared to many 100rs Indian fiction which come out into the stores nowadays. The writer is blessed with the talent to manage a rich vocabulary so smoothly and each incident was vibrant, enriched with beautiful phrases, metaphors and personification. From the very first page I was lost in a beautiful dream and I fell in love with the book by each passing sentence. And it was truly the writing style which made me continue reading other than the plot or the suspense which the story contained. Be it an emotional outbreak or just a daily chores, every incident was described into minute detail in an intense and picturesque manner. The way the author compares the nature with the situations is blissful.

“Every night the moon admires the sky or is it the other way around? It has to be, the other way round. Why else would the darkness increase in the absence of it muse?”

In an era which the authors force the raw sex scenes to their stories in order to get sold, A Thing Beyond Forever is adorned by few intimate scenes which solely depict the true ecstasy and a pure form of love rather than savage or animal lust. In the beginning I was little uncomfortable and disappointed with the swearing words which were constantly repeating at short intervals as I felt it’s a scar to the beautiful and serene language which flows throughout the story. But later when I think back I believe that the swearing words were appearing in the parts of story written by the teenagers words and was doing nothing but making the incidents more realistic and natural.

All in all, I have no enough words to praise the book. It truly is an artistic piece of literature among the modern fiction. I would highly recommend the book to all the readers out there. It’s a book worth sparing your precious time to read.

 “The quality of a song is judged by the number of souls it stirs.” The author once mentioned as such in the novel. I believe it’s same with a book too, his story indeed stirred my soul and I’m sure it’s same with the rest of his readers as well.

Ending the note with few lines from the story, so true yet so bitter. Salute to those beautiful hearts which cherish love even when they know that the reward for every true love is not love!

“But once in love who ever died an emotional virgin? Those who are lucky are simply lucky and those who have been chosen to experience the schizophrenic side of love know their reward, in the end, will only be a shrug from the sacrifices they once made in order to hold on to what was never theirs.”