Book Review: I'm not twenty four by Sachin Garg

A lot of people tell a lot of stories. But I believe that there are basically two types of stories. The first is when you read a story, and you stand up and say, this is so me. You see yourself in the character, you get lost in their conversations and you fall in love with them. And then, there is the second type, when you read a story which you could have never imagined and is from a world, you didn’t know existed. This is a story of the second type,  says Sachin Garg, the author of the book, ‘I’m not twenty four….. I’ve been nineteen for five years.’ And one has to accept those words for once you finish reading the story, you realise how different and unbelievable the life of eth protagonist is.

The story revolves around an MBA graduate Soumya Kapoor who like many other girls of her age enjoys her shopping and long hours in the coffee shops. However, a confusion arising due to the unisexual nature of her name throws her in the remote village, Torangallu in North Karnataka. From then on, unexpected events take place in her life. She is assigned work in the reaction team of the safety department. The task is challenging and she has to turn up at all odd times of the day. She, for the first time in her life had to see scary images like a man falling into an acid container and another man’s hand getting struck in a machine.

She meets Mallapa and Shubhro, both of whom are important in their own way. However, an unfortunate incident leads to the death of Mallapa even before he could express his love to her, which Soumya comes to know of later on when Mallapa's brother comes to collect his belongings. The greater part of the story deals with the experiences of Soumya with Shubhro. Both of them fall in love with each other but neither expresses it to the other. Shubhro also has an interesting ambition in life of helping the poor by arranging small loans for them. Soumya on getting to know it likes him even more than what she loved before. The rest of the story deals with how they come to know about one another’s feeling and if their love has succeeded.

Soumya has been successful in proving that she is a girl of twenty fours years. It was her infatuation that had made her fall in love with Shubhro but as time passed by, the love had become more meaningful.

Sachin was successful in capturing every detail and every emotion of Soumya. The language used was simple enabling one to move along with the life of Soumya with ease. A few sentences in the story have a deeply hidden meaning which would keep moving around in your brain for months together. And here are a few excerpts of such lines:

Every day spent raises a fear in her that she might have to, at the end of those ninety days, spend her life in loneliness. In her words, I felt as if I would have to pay back for every bit of fun that I was having right now. I would have to shed a tear corresponding to every smile that I have now. The more I would get involved, the more pain I will experience...

I am twenty four and not eighteen. At twenty four, you tend to lose the right to like a guy for a great face. You need to look beyond and find better reasons to like someone.

The story would definitely find a place in your favourite list and I strongly recommend that you read this book.