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Book Details
Title – The Temple Bar Woman
Author – Sujata Parashar
Genre – Fiction
Publisher – Vishwakarma Publications
No of pages – 220
Main characters – Radhika Kumari Choudhary, Rakshit
Singh, Habiba Khan, and Vikram Pratap Singh
Other characters – Jhumki (A Sex worker at Temple
Bar) Mala (Habiba’s maidservant) Neer (Rakshit Singh’s daughter), Pramod
Chauhan (Head of People’s Party)
The Book Blurb
Rakshit
Singh, a young and upcoming politician, encounters a rebellious Rani aka Radhika
in an upscale brothel, Temple Bar. Intrigued by Rani’s personality, he wants to
know more about her. Radha tells him that she was found by the brothel owner in
a semi-conscious state and that she has lost her memory.
Distressed
by her plight, Rakshit asks her to be the governess of his motherless daughter,
Neer. What Rakshit does not know is that Radha is using him to avenge herself
against the man who destroyed her life.
Fraught
with danger, daring, and deceit, this racy novel recounts a tale of love, loss
and loyalty in lives that are curiously entwined with one another.
My review
Radha aka
Radhika Kumari Choudhary is a school teacher who is enthusiastic about life and
lives with her father in a small village called Anhoni. All is normal with her
life until that unfortunate night where she gets gang-raped by Vikram Pratap
Singh. If that wasn’t miserable enough, she gets dumped by Vikram and his
friends at a brothel where Habiba Khan takes care of her.
However,
Rakshit Singh, an upcoming politician get intrigued by her plight, asks her to
be his daughter’s governess. Radhika aka Rani after the tragedy turns out to
become a stronger than ever woman whose life’s motive is only to take revenge
from Vikram who has destroyed her life. Luckily, she gets a second chance
through Rakshit Singh to avenge but not all rape survivors are as lucky as her.
How she takes her revenge? How Habiba and her son help her to take her revenge
is worth-knowing. For that, you should buy this novel and know whether Radhika
becomes successful in her plans.
The story
is completely written in a filmy style and is inspired by Nirbhaya case. I was
quite intrigued by the title and the cover of this novel. However, I got
disappointed as the moment I started reading first 1-2 pages of the novel and I
realized the story is extremely predictable.
While I
appreciate the author’s efforts that she wanted to shed a focus on lives of
those unfortunate rape survivors but not all are lucky as the lead character in
this novel. At the beginning of this novel, the author has dropped so many
hints that one could figure out what the story is all about. For an instance,
the novel has been attributed to those who have suffered from sexual assault
and rape and secondly, the cast revealed by the author gives you an idea about
the plot.
The end of
the story is quite a Bollywood style that the female lead finally gets justice.
The
character of Habiba Khan is beautifully depicted that one can actually imagine
her. However, other characters lack juicy details. Radhika has been portrayed as fierce and fearless in order to accomplish the story. The characters do not
have a solid base where I could not make out whether they are 15 years old or
adult enough. For example, Radhika works as a school teacher at her father’s
school but needs to take permission from her father to visit the village fair.
Another
fact that disappoints me that Rakshit Singh who loses his wife due to some
ailment, visits a brothel.
Overall,
the story fell to impress me or grab my attention. The story has a lot of loose
ends. The author could have written in a much better manner in order to make
this story a gripping one as the theme was strong enough.
The Best Part
I liked the
way the author has described the plight of women who forcefully get into flesh
trade and how their lives become miserable and choice-less. Characters like
Habiba, her son Arif and Radhika have been portrayed nicely.
The Not-So-Good Part
The story
has countless loose ends. The characters fell to have a grip on a reader’s mind
and the usage of words is very limited. The story could have been spiced and
peppered with the rich vocabulary.
Writing style
Very simple
writing style and does not have a rich English vocabulary.
The book cover and the title
The book
title is extremely intriguing and justifies the story theme. The book cover is
okay. The sunrise indicates that the sooner or later the female lead overcome
her obstacles to become as fierce as the sun itself.
My rating – 3/5
It’s a
one-time read and I would recommend this novel just for a change.
About the author
Sujata
Parashar is an Indian novelist, short-story writer, and a poet. She has written
seven books so far including a poetry series and a short story
compilation.
