Title –
The Girl in The Black Framed Spectacles
Author –
Nitesh Sinha
Genre –Fiction
Publisher –
Currently E-book
No of pages –
181
Main Characters: Karan,
Kavya, Mohit & Amaya
Other Characters: Sahil
The Review
It’s a typical love story where a college-going boy falls in love with a girl who wears black-framed spectacles. Kavya and Mohit are his college mates and these three loves to play pranks. Kavya and Mohit throw a challenge to Karan that he has to cause a rift between a couple for a day but has to reunite the next day. But then prank goes wrong and the couple parts their ways. Karan meets a girl named Amaya at the Metro station. He starts falling in love with her but one day she disappears from his life.
Later on, he and his friends realize that Amaya has
dumped him for money. However, it was a ploy played by Sahil whose girlfriend
left him forever because of Karan’s stupid prank. Amaya (Sister of Sahil) and
Sahil both decide to teach him a lesson. She becomes a friend of Karan but then
falls in love with him. After Amaya’s disappearance, the protagonist becomes
Kabir Singh as he starts smoking and drinking. In the end, Amaya and Sahil tell
everything to Karan. He takes the responsibility of reuniting Sahil and his
girlfriend. Overall, the plot did not interest me at all. It did not have any
unexpected events or twists and it did not have any wow moments.
The language is
very casual and plain. I guess the protagonist’s heart is quite weak as ‘my
heart was pounding; my heart thumped; heart beat so loudly, my heart skipped a
beat were used very often. Then the protagonist must be worried about people as
many incidents show where nurses are looking at this trio, then people in the
train, students in the class, and even CCD manager have his attention
especially on them. Like seriously? Why people are so intrigued in Karan’s
life? Don’t they have their share of troubles?
Although this
college-going boy’s heart is weak, he suddenly becomes gutsy and very filmy as
he enters the class and starts kicking Sahil. Again, Mr. Karan (Kabir Singh)
aka college-going boy goes to an ice-cream vendor who conveniently stocks
Blenders Pride for him. One of the incidents is – “The shopkeeper growled at us
for buying that much (Doublemint gums) as if we were buying them for free”. Why
the shopkeeper would get irritated if somebody is buying his stuff in a copious
amount? In fact, for him the more, the merrier, isn’t it?
Then, the
college-going boy and girl can hire a doctor and an actress to set up Mr.
Karan. Since when college-going students started hiring people for acting?
Where did they get so much money and from whom? Again, when Karan goes to
Amaya’s house to confront her, she is alone at home just like movies. She has
tricked him with her brother, Sahil but Kavya is more worried about food. The
scene is described so casually and there is no seriousness while Karan
confronting her. The whole plot is very much inspired by Bollywood movies but
unfortunately, there is no Bollywood chataka or spice in the story.
Generally, cancer is treated with chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and other similar treatments. The author should have been more specific about it.
Profanities like asshole, bancho, chu, bastard were
not needed. Throughout the novel, the author has used ‘as if’ and ‘just like’
examples multiple times that don’t add any value to the story at all. Every
page and after every second or third paragraph has examples like: (I've not mentioned all sentences as it be a long list)
As if
the whole world drifted away
As if crawling on my knees
As if I couldn’t hear it
As if there was
still hope
As if he were some
strange beast we needed to subdue
As if they were my
partners in crime
As if he didn’t
know what Amaya and he had done.
As though she were
a director instructing Mohit to beat Sahil
As if I had cut his
one month’s salary
As if Kavya had
proposed to him.
As if it wanted to
burst out of my body
As if the driver
had thought of himself as an F! Racer.
As if hadn’t combed
it for months
He started pulling
my collar as if he wanted to tear it
As if they thought
that was blabbering in anticipation
Just Like
Just like how one would pull the soft cheeks of
one’s dog.
I pulled her in,
just like mothers drag their kids on their first day at school
Like an Olympic
weightlifter
Just like a nursery
kid feels proud when he/she recites the multiplication table
Just the same way a
chubby mam stares with her big eyes when someone passes a witty comment from
the last bench
Just like the PT
teacher shouts in the school’s ground, Savdhan!
Just like two
minion waving big wooden fans over their king
Just like a bay
showing my atonement
Like how we feel on
results day
Just like we were a
referee
The only thing that
I can appreciate about this novel is the author’s attempt to use vocabulary
like sauntered, plopped down, gobbled, stumbled, squirted, etc. The author also
tried to describe the personality of the characters and gave timelines as the
plot progressed. Another thing that the first few chapters made me feel
nostalgic about my college days.
I also appreciate the author's efforts to try his best to bring out the story. However, it did not come out as expected.
The writing style
Very simple & plain!
The Title & the
Book Cover
The title doesn’t justify the story. The book cover
is just an illustration and not an attractive one but it suggests that it’s a love
story.
Rating
