With You; Without You by Prabhat Ranjan – review

How good a debut novel can be? The speculations often end within the perimeter of English literature because seldom we have the time to think about literature in other regional languages because we don’t even think about the works of Hindi literature. The prejudiced English elites would certainly not love the challenge that the Hindi authors and the widening reading audience of the Hindi language works are putting to them. And one of those is certainly going to be Prabhat Ranjan – the author of With You; Without You, a novel or a romance of a different level, which has been rendered into words in the Hindi language.

The novel begins with the central protagonist and narrator taking us back to the past of three major characters in the novel – Nishind, Aditya and Rami. It all begins in Lucknow where the early part of the narrative is set. Nishind walks us through the episodes in detail and he is aided by the remarks of the author Prabhat Ranjan who is very keen to comment on the events that transpire. Nishind confuses himself with a delusion that Rami, his good friend, loves her and he falls in love with her passionately! But Rami secretly loves Aditya and he also loves her. However, neither of the three could say anything to each other and one mistake by Nishind leaves all three in remorse!

The second part of the novel is all about how Nishind tries to get the redemption from his ‘cardinal sin’. Suspense is introduced in the novel by the introduction of Rashmi Desai, an independent woman with strong notions about her identity and a woman of free-will. She resembles Rami but out of fear or hesitation Aditya or Nishind can never ask that to her. Rashmi, on the other hand, gets to know about Aditya and Nishind more and more. Their conversations are the strength of the second part of With You; Without You. The suspense unveils from the identity conflict only at the end of the novel but until that time, much is changed in the life of Rashmi. Aditya’s true face comes out and so is the face of Nishind. Rami has to make her decision and she makes one.

The readers will surely enjoy the way the novel unfolds and the way it develops and the way it ends. Everything about it, including some of the drawbacks as well, is generally good and the readers are surely going to enjoy Prabhat Ranjan’s debut in the writing field. The best part of the novel, according to me, is the narrative which does never lose the grip. It always keeps the readers’ mind engaged and they are bound to be curious about what happens the next moment. And this is certainly the win of the author’s craft! You can get a copy of With You; Without You from Amazon India. Click the link below:

With You; Without You by Prabhat: Buy Online