Truly Madly Deeply by Faraaz Kazi: A Review

So finally I'm here with my second review and this time I’m reviewing ‘Truly, Madly, Deeply’ by Faraaz Kazi. Released in Dec '10, TMD (The short form for ‘Truly, Madly, Deeply’, which I’ll be using from here on) may appear like yet another love story like the many already in market by first time authors but it's not. The book is about love, no doubt about that, but it's also about the other emotions like jealousy, loyalty, hatred, friendship, grief and longing.

The prologue starts on an interesting note introducing to us the main protagonist called Rahul sitting in a park, late in night longing for Seema, the girl he loves. The literary apt with which the author described the park and Rahul’s emotions through actions as simple as plucking the grass or unconsciously tracing Seema’s name had me hooked. I had not expected this level of literature from a first time author just in his twenties and this was just the starting.

Faraaz begins the first chapter by quoting from ‘The Secret Delights of Love’ by Pundit Bilhana and he does not stop there. Throughout the book he has used lines by famous poets and stalwarts of literature like Browning, Wordsworth, Drayton, Yeats, Shakespeare and Khayyam, most of the times when Rahul is going into flashback.

The ease with which Faraaz shuffled between the past and present amazed me. Even experienced authors find it a difficult task and he did it without creating confusion in the reader’s mind. Rahul lives in two worlds simultaneously. One in which he is reminiscing the time he spent with Seema, the events that led to his downfall from the most promising, multitalented student and the topper of his batch to a failed prodigy and the other in a new college, in a new country, thousands of miles away from the place he called home.

In the starting pages the author has used numerous analogies and is highly descriptive, bit too much descriptive at times but then everyone has his own style of writing and that is Faraaz’s style. On the whole these descriptions help the reader as he is able to visualize the place and connect with the protagonist but I’m one of those who prefer leaving some things to the reader’s imagination, something that Faraaz has not done in the initial chapters. But then again, this is how I prefer things and everyone has a different thought process.

Throughout the book one can feel Rahul’s love and longing for Seema and at the same time also connect with the mistakes he commits because most of us have done almost same things in our teenage. Then there’s Rahul relation with Sahil, a friend he makes in his new school. A friend who is more like the brother he never had. The relation between Rahul and Sahil will make you smile and remember your best friend for once at least, a friend who doesn’t leave your side whatever may come.

And then there’s Jay. Once he was Rahul’s friend, rather best friend but out of jealousy he makes a mess out of Rahul’s life, forgetting that Rahul was the one who motivated and coached him during the days of his failure. He is the prime reason behind all the excitement in the story and would at times remind you of the backstabbing and ever conspiring character from a bollywood movie.

Seema is not the only heroine in this story though. We have Grazil playing second fiddle, trying to convince Rahul of her love for him. The character of Grazil is sweet and carefully handled. Her introduction into Rahul’s life was one of the points in the story which made me think that may be this book would also tread the beaten path but thankfully it didn’t.

The ending of TMD is something that I especially liked. I am not going to disclose what the ending is, but all I can say is that it is different and would bowl you over. Hope that Faraaz continues with this good work and we get to read more books from him.

To all those love birds out there, this is one book you would love to gift to your beloved. The editor of this book also deserves a note of thanks for giving us a book free from common grammatical errors of the type that plague books of debutant Indian authors these days.