I am sure that is what the author thought when he christened his book. When I first read the title , I was absolutely sure I did not want to read it. Indian authors have failed to stimulate my grey cells more than once. Lets face it, not all can write like Shashi Tharoor! But then I read the author's profile. MBA from MDI Gurgaon [although I find MBAs nothing more than glib talkers] , publishing house of his own and another book to his credit. I had read Amish's Shiva saga some months back and this MBA from IIM -Calcutta had surely impressed me with his story telling, if not more. So I thought I will put my prejudices aside and give Sachin Garg a chance. I clicked buy on flipkart.com and so started my tryst with "Its first love ... just like the last time"
The title says a lot about not only the book , but the author. And if Sachin Garg was listening , please do not give titles which might make us think you are out being sarcastic and funny . Your first reaction when you read the title was the book will be somewhat like a guy meets a girl , then another , then another mistaking his infatuation for love every single time. But you will be wrong , every single time. The last page refers to too many characters adding paint to your illusion.
Describing yourself as the simple boy next door who gets the scarred/broken/blemished princess is as cliched as it could ever get. But never mind. You keep telling yourself, you are giving the writer a chance here. So you swallow the criticism with a burning heart and a twitched face. Also the story involves many who come and go with the passing pages whereas the young lad and the princess stick to every page of the book. My friend Sachin, you might love them a lot but you are not helping the story in anyway by doing so.
As the book progresses , you realise that the guy was not going to fall for any more girls than the one princess who was a progeny of a bad marriage , not making you happy at all . Here I would like to point out that in the foreword I remember the author saying that we pass through different stages in life and our definition of love changes in every single stage and so on. Dear author , you just fell in so-called love for a year , saw your princess through some heartbreaks and personal losses in one year. That my friend does not qualify for different stages of life.
Also, if you use college as your backdrop, please make sure it makes its existence felt. For people who have enjoyed their colleges more than stretching on their single bed with their dates in a room outside campus, COLLEGE means a lot to us. Just putting random sex and porn talk in the book does not keep the readers glued. Unlike me who finishes each book she picks, many of you would have surely abandoned the book midway.
Finally the last page ends with an afterword from the author [which I felt was not absolutely unnecessary ] The author claims to have laid bare his life in front of the audience. My last advice to you, bare yourself when you think it might excite the onlooker, the reader in this case . Be a Khushwant Singh , be a Shobha De , be a Amitabh Bachchan before you think you should. For now, noone's interested ;)
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