Title : Thank you, Richa
Author : Rima Sen
Genre : Love ; Romance ; Unrequited love ; Fiction
Page : 260
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BLURB
Richa is a beautiful mirage, and yet Kadhir can’t help falling for her magic as it’s her heart that he desires most.
The waves of life whimsically throw them together and pull them apart with the heartache of unrequited young love.
Now happily married, Kadhir Perumal is a successful cricketer and has come a long way from the carefree days when he was smitten by the bug of first love.
Kadhir has never been able to fully forget Richa, and her spirit still pervades his life like a talisman.
One innocuous message from Richa after eighteen years upsets many equations and dynamics overnight. Will he be able to extricate himself from the grip of Richa’s effervescent memories? Will there be absolution to this chapter in Kadhir’s life? Will he be able to confess to Richa that she was the muse who led his dreams to soar and find realisation through cricket?
Thank you, Richa runs like parallel lines which never meet. Kadhir and Richa’s lives run parallel, forever close yet always apart.
REVIEW
Thank you, Richa is the story of an unrequited love of Cricketer Kadhir Perumal. The plot covers the teenage, youth and adult life of Kadhir and his love for Richa, his childhood sweetheart during this period of time. Through all these stages, Kadhir’s love for Richa had been tested beyond limits but he has never succumbed to it ever. He always carried her in his heart, despite both of them going on a different path with their respective life.
This book has been written so beautifully that it will acquire the attention of the readers from the very beginning of the book. The author had taken good number of pages to explain different stage of Kadhir’s love for Richa at a greater depth. The best phase among the three would be Kadhir teenage days. The schools days has been so meticulously written that it will bring back the reader’s school memories in a fraction of seconds. The whole mandatory teasing episodes that goes on in school when a guy or a girl likes someone was supremely nostalgic and of course the daily assembly gathering, annual day preparations, farewell and all was written down immaculately. The weird commerce and science group friendship and how science students are always treated like they are supreme to others and inferiority complex that comes with commerce students, damn, Rima Sen indeed knows what she is writing about.
The author had brought about a good level of southern touch to the book which was ultimately refreshing. The Tamil words the author had infiltrated into the book to make it look culturally authentic was really nice. The masala dosa and Venpongal and the way it has been describe was god, so appetizing and will make the South or Tamil readers feel happy and nostalgic. The reason for this book being so refreshing would be, most of the English Language novel by Indian authors has been based on northern states and cities. While reading a plot from south and about a character from south and especially from Tamil Nadu was absolutely new and it was a welcome change.
Ms Sen had portrayed Mahabalipuram, Kalpakkam township, the Ambedkar statue near their bus stop, canteen and all was written so perfectly that it almost felt like all these places said in the book was a character themselves in the book. The way Kadhir talk with Ambedkar statue whenever they have to depart was something really unique, funny and adorable to read. These places will stay with the readers forever. The description given about these places were done very beautifully that the image you see in your mind’s eyes will be spectacular and it is never going to leave your mind anytime soon.
It is very normal and valid to expect a bit of detailed cricketing sequences from this book after looking at the cover page and reading the blurb of the book which says Kadhir is a cricketer who plays for Team India. But to the disappointment of the cricket fans, there was absolutely no such sequence which revolves around Kadhir’s cricketing skill. The readers almost doesn’t know what he is best at, whether he is a batsman or a bowler or an all-rounder or wicket-keeper or what is his batting order or nothing. And that was quite disappointing. And also, throughout the book, people around Kadhir used say he has a heart of gold but that felt really abnormal and pointless because at no point of the journey the readers has encountered Kadhir’s big heart. The main reason for this was the author was so engrossed in letting the readers know how deep and true Kadhir’s love was, she has forgotten to pay more attention on showing Kadhir’s characters, his characteristic trait and other nuances of him. Despite traveling with Kadhir for 250 plus pages the readers didn’t know much about Kadhir other he loved Richa deeply and he is crazy about her. This made it difficult for the readers to connect with Kadhir at a greater depth. There was no much appreciable character arc to the characters.
On the other hand, Richa was a mystery which Kadhir was dying to solve and so was the audience. This girl’s character has been beautifully written. The air of mystery circling around her makes her all the more interesting. Trying to figure out what is going on the girl’s mind has encouraged the audience to move ahead with every single page.
Kadhir relationship with his sisters, family and two friends had been established excellently. It was very different and heart-warming to read. The continuous perusal of Kadhir to get Richa’s love at some point felt overtly tiring. And it even felt like his love for her was becoming kind of more toxic, exhausting and an obsession. The reason why Kadhir was very thankful for Richa could have been told a bit more strongly. If the author had paid a bit more attention Kadhir’s present, that is, his wife and daughter, it would have been bit more interesting. They both were neglected on the pages of this book.
On the whole, this book has so much to offer about unrequited love, one side love and heart breaks. This book will swiftly takes away the readers to the land of nostalgia with every single page. And definitely keep you occupied throughout the read. How the book marched towards the end was so satisfying and brilliantly written.
MY VIEWS
I liked this book, it kept me occupied throughout the reading journey. This gave me so many nostalgic experiences especially with school parts because even I had studied in a school which has been located in an industrial township and I have to literally travel for one hour on school bus to reach my school. All of my friends lived inside the township whereas I was an outsider but they never made feel like one. The place Kadhir’s school was located, their assembly area, bus stop, canteen, cornetto ice creams, Ambedkar statue everything took me back in times and it is one of the best times of my life.
Fortunately or unfortunately I haven’t encounter any love experience back in school like Kadhir but I had enough of experience from third person’s perspective from all my friends around me 😛 Maybe that was the reason, even while reading this book I was only able to experience this book from third person’s perspective and I think it has to completely do with me and not the author’s fault.
The Tamilian girl inside me was so excited everytime, they spoke about a place I know or a food I love or spoke a word or two in Tamil. It was such a good feeling to read them. Richa being a Bengali girl brought about the memories of my Bengali School mate.
This book gave me the vibes of most celebrated Tamil movies which talks about love in greater detail. Those movies are Vinnaithaandi Varuvaiya and 96. If you haven’t watched these films check them out, a whole army of people loved these films. This book was very similar to it. But I even did not understand the point of these movies, I’m sorry I cannot understand this kind of in-depth love so please pardon me. I guess, these kinds of books or movies are not for me but I can assuredly say most of people out there would love it. Despite not being able to connect with the character and plot as much as others were able to, the climax of the book completely blew me off and I was very emotional towards the end. And of course I feel like that is the author’s success, to melt a heart of reader who was not even able assimilate the full emotions of the book. I wish I could understand this kind of painful love, at least in the near future.
I would like to recommend this book to all the people who feel deeply for love and who believes in depths of love. And if you’re someone who is fascinated by one-sided love and unrequited love, then you would love this.
It was a very nice book but unfortunately I’m not the kind of reader it was written for but none the less I liked it.
My rating for this book for would be 3.4 out of 5 stars
Here is the link to buy this book!!
Happy reading folks!!
~ Meenu
