Book Review: Autumn In My Heart by Saptarshi Basu

Autumn in my Heart


Format: Paperback
Language: English
ISBN: 9789380828541
Pages: 162
Price: 150.00








The only place where there is no change is our life. It is the same old routine..No matter what you do, you can't satisfy people, you say how much they mean to you and they think you are a flirt..or even better, a liar..or even much better.. an insensitive person.
Closing his eyes, he felt the raindrops on his face....He silently thanked someone, somewhere up above. Love never dies.As a sapling,it again rises silently from a secret corner of the heart. Deb opened his hand and tried to feel the drops.
Rain..Rain
In the wine of lovers..
Rain..Rain..
It's a lovers' pain..


This is how entwined Love becomes, in the lives of Deb, Ayantika, Sagarika and Sujoy. Saptarshi Basu in his second novel, Autumn in my Heart, manages to encapsulate the varied tones and hues of Love. Based in the City of endless hope and forever love, Kolkata, Deb is entwined into his journey of experiencing Love, beginning with his first love, Priyanka (yes, sadly enough we share the same name! Just the name though! I would always be the main protagonist, you know! :D ) who leaves him for her senior at work. Struck by the heartbreak, Deb immerses himself into the Life of an Office-goer and Love juggle where love for him is merely flirting with girls and having frivolous hangouts with them only. Love becomes a matter of the body and not the soul, to keep it short. At work, he has a good friend in Saurav, who manages to complete all of Deb's work while Deb is busy with multi-tasking his girls and sneaking from his boss, Vinod.
The playboy finds a girl, Sagarika to play around with, until he finds his soul mate, i.e. Ayantika.


Life is moving endlessly, until he meets Ayantika on an online portal. She is a girl right from the pages of a modern flick.Wants to be independent, likes romance and expresses her interests and tastes. She is looking for a job so that she can be economically independent and then, can choose a guy on her own self. Which she knew she can't unless she is financially stable on her own feet. They get into a relationship soon, unsure about where it would lead them to. Sagarika's parents were looking for suitable grooms for her while Deb was in no state to commit for marriage.


Deb is confused about his relationship with Ayantika. It is in this phase that Deb and his office team plan a trip. The story unfolds beautifully from here. All the characters fit into the story here as if in a jigsaw puzzle. Deb realizes his love for Ayantika. We are also shown how Vinod reveals his sexual interests in men, during the trip. Thus when they return back, each character had had a storyline and a clear future with regards to the story. 
The story ends with Deb and Ayantika marrying and the other characters, namely : Saurav, Vinod, Tina, Sagarika settling down in the future.


About the story, I noted the following things:


First, there is very little about Deb and Ayantika. Somehow there is a lack of luster and chemistry in their romance. I mean, we meet hundreds of people on social networking sites, but there is a sense of attraction, comfort and chemistry that defines the  complexities between the different people we meet.


Second, this book deals with the notion of homosexuality, but in a vague sense. One is to be sexually oriented. And the other is to have a sense of sexual abuse in the childhood that leads to a mental instability about our sexual preference. I somehow could not understand the psyche of Vinod, who had been sexually abused that had led him to seduce Saurav in the trip. But later we get to know how he decides to marry Tina. Which infers that Vinod is not a homosexual. Confusions are also seen in the other characters too as they are not clearly sketched out.


Third, though I really like the story, the glaring spelling errors take away the glory from the script.  I have already pointed it out and I am sure it would be edited and done away with in the second edition!


Overall I give it a 3 out of 5 for its narrative, and the complexities of Deb's and Ayantika's characters.
Thanks for the great read Saptarshi Basu! All the very best for Autumn in my Heart! Looking forward to the next one!
In case any of you wish to buy this book , here is the Flipkart Link!
Cheers!

About the Author
A Gold Medallist in Mechanical Engineering, Saptarshi Basu has worked with the top 3 IT MNCs in India. He had subsequently lived in London, Toronto, Dubai and San Francisco before moving back to his native place, Kolkata. A prolific blogger and an avid traveller, he has been into writing for long having published his poems and stories in different magazines of his earlier organizations.
Currently he works as a Project Manager in one of the leading IT MNC in Kolkata. His first novel, ‘LOVE {LOGIC} & THE GOD’S ALGORITHM’ is now a best-seller in Infibeam,a popular online store. His second novel, ‘AUTUMN IN MY HEART’, marketed and distributed by TIMES GROUP which talks about broken love and homosexuality is now creating lot of stir.