Book Review - Did She Love Me? by Jyotirmoy Mazumdar

'DID SHE LOVE ME?' is strictly for chic-lit lovers, but offers nothing new.

Genre: Romance Fiction

Publisher: Diamond Books

‘DID SHE LOVE ME?’ is the first novel by Mr. Jyotirmoy Mazumdar. It is the story of Jayrish (Jay), who has a dream to crack the IIT exam, and to eventually join ISRO one day.  His father is a rich businessman, and thus, his family believes he has no need to study this much, as he can easily mint money by joining his father’s business. But, against his family’s wishes, Jay leaves Guwahati, his native place, and comes to Delhi to continue his class 12^th, and most importantly, to prepare for his dream – IIT. Personally, Jay has very limited friends. He is focused, and is not keen to get into relationships.  He joins one of the best coaching institutes in Delhi, and makes two new friends – Ritwik and Anisha. One fine day, in his coaching class, he sees a beautiful, young, charming girl – Shweta, and instantly falls in love with her. With the help of his best friend, Anisha, he befriends Shweta. Though Anisha warns Jay that Shweta is not the perfect girl for him, Jay nonchalantly ignores her warnings. The friendship between Shweta and Jay strengthens, and she tells him about her ex-boyfriend – Ritesh, with whom she recently had a breakup. Soon, Shweta realises Jay’s true love, and agrees to be his girlfriend. Their love blossoms, as they go on multiple dates and share some intensely romantic moments. But Jay’s happiness and his love life are rocked when Shweta confesses that she is still in love with Ritesh. Jay is heartbroken. He pleads; he cries and eventually tries to kill himself. His friends, Ritwik and Anisha warn him again that Shweta is just using him for her own happiness. But Jay is adamant, because he truly loves Shweta. He again tries to convince Shweta, who eventually agrees. But their relationship suffers repeatedly due to Shweta’s undying love for Ritesh. And, every time, Jay pleads and convinces her to be with him, and every time she agrees. Finally they all give their IIT exams. Jay, Ritwik and Anisha score good ranks, and Shweta fail to crack even a single entrance exam. She takes admission in some college in Jalandhar and leaves Jay with an option to choose between her or his dream to join IIT. What will Jay do now? It is up to the reader to find out.

Now, the REVIEW...  

As a first time writer, Jyotirmoy Mazumdar has done a decent job. I appreciate the way he has penned Jay’s character. It looks real, and most people (I should say, most stupid people who are blind in love) can easily relate to him. The book is fast paced, though sometimes I felt it is a bit too fast, especially the second half. A few scenes are really well expressed, especially the sacrifices which Jay makes in Jaipur to be with Shweta, or their date to Agra, or the scenes in which he shows his frustration. All these scenes connect with the readers, and they really feel Jay’s pain when Shweta ditches him again and again.  The language of the book is very simple, though far from any sort of literature. The friendship and care between Jay, Anisha and Ritwik is also very well scripted. The romantic scenes between Jay and Shweta are good, if not best. The poems are well written.

Now the negatives... The story is submerged in the pool of predictability right from the word go. The reader knows what will happen, and how it will happen. The book, I am sorry to say, offers nothing new to its readers. It is a well narrated story, but it is the same old story of any other love-breakup-heartache-school-college-IIT chic-lit. It is my humble appeal to all new authors/writers, kindly stop writing school/college based love-breakup chic-lits. As an avid reader, I felt bored a lot many times while reading this book. Another point, which I want to highlight is, writing in first form has its own negatives (apart from the positives). It is very difficult to express the emotions of every character. In this book, though the central character is very well written, the remaining characters are not fully sketched, especially the character of Shweta. As a reader, you don’t know what’s going on in her mind, or why she takes certain decisions, and it baffles the reader. Lastly, I am not against love making scenes. I support them, if the script demands it. But showing too many love scenes between the characters who study in class 12^th, sends a wrong message to the society. Sorry, I do not want to sound orthodox here.    

A note to the publisher.... Most of the young authors depend heavily on you for good editing. This book is badly edited. Secondly, kindly do not fool the readers by releasing the first release of the book with a National Bestseller Tag. This diminishes the achievement of the books, which are genuinely best sellers. I do hope, and wish, that this book becomes the real bestseller. It has potential.

On the whole, Jyotirmoy Mazumdar’s ‘Did She Love Me?’ is a decent read. As this is Jyotirmoy’s first book, he has done a good job. He has potential, and is here to stay. I am going with a motivating 3 out of 5 stars for Jyotirmoy Mazumdar’s ‘Did She Love Me?’

Verdict: A good book, but offers nothing new... Strictly for Chic-Lit Lovers.