Prabhat Ranjan’s debut work, With You; Without You is the work which has been in the buzz even before its formal launch (which is scheduled to happen in September). A perfect love triangle, written in a language so close to the hearts of millions of people in India, With You; Without You is the novel, which I am sure, is going to the next big thing when we will talk about the emerging Hindi novelists in our country. This book is deemed to revive the affinity once again for the novels written in Hindi and it has the potential to attract a wide readership. Prabhat Ranjan, an engineer by profession, has tried his best to get into the psyche of people exploring their emotions when they are between love and friendship and weighing their thoughts whether they are on this side of the line or that side…

“आप जब दिल से जुड़े किसी रिश्ते को जी रहे होते हो, जब दिल से जुड़े किसी रिश्ते में होते हो तो चाहे वह रिश्ता किसी भी नाम से बंधा हो, या फिर अनाम ही क्यों न हो, आप उस वक्त चाहकर भी उस रिश्ते का आपके जीवन में वास्तविक अहमियत और असर का निश्चित आकलन नहीं कर पाते। आपको बस ऐसा लगता है कि आप उस रिश्ते की गहराई से अवगत हो पर वास्तव में आप अवगत होते नहीं हो।”

The language used in the novel will surely touch the hearts of the readers because it is but natural that Hindi is the closest language which can make us feel emotions way better and even faster than any other language could do! And Prabhat Ranjan has used the same thing very in a very matured way in his novel.

The major highlight of the novel is a complicated yet very sweet love triangle – Nishind, Rami, and Aditya. When the book is launched and you will get your copies to read, you will find that there are two parts in the book – in the first part, two people love each other and one is still confused between love and friendship and in the second part, only the girl loves a person and the other two are confused about it. Who are the lovers and who is confused is something you will find out when you read the novel because I don’t want to spoil your readers fun!

Author Prabhat Ranjan has also dealt with other serious matters in his debut novel With You; Without You. He has tried his best to tell about the importance of people around us, family, the tradition and also the modernism. He has tried to bridge the gap that our younger generation generally feels has been made between them and the past.

Not only these issues, but the novel also explores the issues related to women and everything around them. For example, when the author writes:

“एक लड़की के पूरे अस्तित्व को, जीवन के किसी एक घटना या दुर्घटना पर आधारित कैसे किया जा सकता है? सेक्सुअल व्यवहार या घटना किसी भी लड़की के पूरे व्यक्तित्व के मूल्यांकन का आधार भला कैसे हो सकता है? और फिर यदि यह आधार बन सकता है तो सिर्फ स्त्री के लिए क्यों, पुरुष के लिए क्यों नहीं? सेक्सुअल हिंसा की शिकार स्त्री घृणा की पात्र कैसे हो सकती है? जबकि इस तरह की घृणा तो सिर्फ इस तरह की घिनौनी हरकत करने वाले पुरुषों के हिस्से आनी चाहिए। क्या आदम युग से मानव सभ्यता के इस सबसे विकसित दौर में पहुँचने के लिए हजारों साल की दूरी सिर्फ पुरुषों को सम्मान प्रदान करने के लिए तय की गई है, इसमें स्त्री का कतई कोई हिस्सा नहीं?”

You will find a strong feministic appeal from the Rami’s character as you read the novel. She is modern in every way one can imagine, yet, she has not forgotten what she is. For Rami, her identity and her dignity are also important. You will surely like her character!

So, guys, are you ready to read the book? Are you ready to explore the new dimension in Hindi novel writing with all the modern inclusions that you might have wanted? Be ready for the launch of With You; Without You and make sure that you get the first of the copies…

feature by a BooksToRead staff