"WHEN ONLY LOVE REMAINS” is the book written by Durjoy Datta.
Mainly, from my childhood, I couldn’t get chances to read any novels. And since I’m from an Odia medium school, it’s really a dream to read something in English. There we read English and other literature subjects to pass in the exam only. Like English, I also ignored Odia, Sanskrit, and Hindi. Since my mother-tongue is Odia, I’ve some knowledge of that language. In my childhood days, I couldn’t write an essay. Mainly I used to remind them to write in the exam. It’s because we people ignore those subjects from childhood. We focus on Mathematics, Science. And read other literature subjects just for a formality. The knowledge in literature would improve by reading more and more books in that language.
In my childhood, I couldn’t get storybooks to read. As I think, a child should attract to storybooks in his childhood, which must improve his reading skills as well as the knowledge in many fields like that literature and plot of that story based on. That time is the most important time. At that time, one learned from observing. That observing power improves various skills within him. At that time, what he learned or observed must remember for a long period of time. That is the best time to improve the skills of a child. Since those days, I couldn’t get storybooks in my own mother-tongue, till now I couldn’t manage to read anything continuously, whether it’s a storybook or some journal or some books for my study. Yes, I read something, but couldn’t manage to read constantly or to finish those in a proper time limit. I got some chances to read some stories from my Odia literature book, English book, News Paper, a few monthly storybooks from my relatives. But those were not sufficient to improve my skill. And after completion of class 3, I used to focus on Mathematics only to get mastery on that and totally ignored other subjects. As a result, I used to remember things to write an essay. And one more important thing is needed to improve skills is interaction with good people or students of that kind. But, I didn’t get that also in those days.
In my high-school days, I got the English tuition, but unfortunately, I couldn’t get that much of the basic ideas in English. Since I used to talk and write in Odia, I can write correctly in that language only. But, for English, there is no such basic skill to improve in that. And that time, I just used to read everything to get a good score not to utilize them at the time of requirement. And the reading of stories from different newspapers also stopped due to some reason, as well as the reading capability and the imported knowledge from those reduced gradually. Due to the family pressure, I used to read some grammars in Odia and Sanskrit, but couldn’t remember them for a period of time. After the exam, those grammars fade away from my brain. And we love those, which we like or which are easy for us. So those literature subjects, especially English became an enemy to me.
Till my engineering day, I never read a novel in my own Odia language also. In my 2nd year, I read the 1st novel, which was written in Odia, named “Badhu Nirupama”. There was a movie in Odia based on that story, but I read that, though I found that interesting. That was my first ever experience to read something constantly. After engineering, when I moved to Bangalore, there I get tips from my friends to read novels or journals which contain some interesting things, those I like. So, after that, I got this book form one of my friends and start reading.
Since it was my second novel and 1st in English, at the beginning of my reading, I face some difficulties, but using a dictionary I got those meanings and gradually read more and more from the book. At first, I just loved the title of this book as “When Only Love Remains”. When I start reading this book, I used to read only one chapter, but the interesting facts of the storyline increase my willpower to read more and more. When you enjoy the taste, you want more to eat. Like that, I started reading more and more from this book and that made me read something constantly.
The story of the book started about a young girl, Avantika, who went to live with her father in Delhi. She used to stay with granny after the death of her mother. As she thought her mother died due to the irresponsibility of her father. That’s why she didn’t like her father, but due to the pressure from her granny, she came to stay with him. Her relationship with her father was not so good. Even they didn’t speak to each other directly but using phones to communicate a little bit. In the dining table, they even faced each other, but don’t have any conversation. In Delhi, She joined an airline as an air-hostage. Along with that, she joined a college for further studies. That’s why she left Derahdun and used to live with her father. She misses her granny but managed to adjust by calling her several times a day. From her school days, music was her best friend. She used to listen to music when she got upset. She loves the songs of a boy who was not an established singer but made his own compositions and uploaded them to the internet. She downloads those songs to her mobile and she felt amazing by listening to them repeatedly.
In Dehradun, she had a boyfriend, whom she liked most at the beginning of their relationship. But his feelings and behavior towards her gradually changed. That’s why she started to hate that boy. She was mistreated by that guy in many times and he also slapped her several times within that one year of their relationship. Actually, she wished to leave that guy, but it’s not an easy thing to give a break to any life routine. That guy also reached Delhi by following her. Every time he used to scare her and she couldn’t run away from that condition also. That guy was a child of some powerful government officer, so she also scared due to that reason. He found another girl but didn’t leave her in her own way.
In those days, she managed to complete her course as an air-hostage and got ready for the first flight. In her first flight, she got some new friends. She has a character to speak more than 10,000 words per day. But in Delhi, she couldn’t get that chance to talk more. She used to call her granny, but couldn’t talk to others. On her first flight, she was very happy and she talked almost with all the passengers on that flight. On the first flight, she also got some lessons from her seniors and managed to land safely. She loved to go places, for that reason she joined as an air-hostage. After landing there, she wished to roam that city, and with her new friend, she had some fun. That day, she enjoyed her life as she wished to live. When she returned home, she had her first conversation with her dad. She didn’t receive the calls form that guy, so he came to her home and made some disturbances. Her dad asked about that guy, but she lied to him. But her dad is not a small child who could easily believe her words. He was a mathematics genius, who was a lecture at a university there. He used to live in his own world. But, when something happens to his daughter, he couldn’t sit silently. After that, he used to keep an eye on his daughter to keep her safe. Even during her way to the airport, he lied to her and gives a company to the airport to protect her and that was his chance to become a hero in the eyes of his daughter, which he didn’t wish to lose. Since she was living with her grandma, he doesn’t have any personal attachment to her. But as a father, he tried to come closer to his daughter and be with her as a family.
That boy, whom Avantika used to listen to repeatedly a singer, Debart, who left his engineering and trying to establish in the entertainment line. He wrote his songs and composed them and also records them with his own voice and uploads them to the internet. There was an organizer who managed to organize some consorts for him and that guy gets some money to live. In the near past, his girlfriend left him and got engaged with someone else. But, he couldn’t forget her and has started a bad habit like smoking. He used to some more and more cigarettes, but his parents had no idea about that. They allowed him to choose his life by himself and agreed with his decision to leave college. Every time they support him, but they couldn’t allow their only child to hug death by this type of bad habits. After the breakup, he become like a mad person and left his food, depending only on cigarettes. His manager and one friend of him managed to control him and he got a chance to sing a song for some YouTube channel. That song gets more popularity and within two days, he got more offers to sing.
Avantika loved his new song. After 6 months, he sang a song and she loved that song the most. She was the die-hard fan of that guy. She used to contact him through social media. She got a chance to fly to Kolkatta and she gets to know about the consort of him at some bar on that night. So, she went to that bar with one of her friends, who knew everything about her and her feelings towards that guy.
At the time of singing, he noticed a girl who was singing all his songs and he got surprised when he saw that girl was also singing his old songs which may not listen to anyone else. After singing, he met her and got to know about her and she was so pleased after meeting him. They left the bar and he joined her because her friend was already left. They both had a walk-in that night and when they reached their hotel, she invited him to her room. At that time, her ex came to that room and they had a fight with him. At that time, Avantika got the courage to shout over her ex, and for the first time, she feels more relaxed. On the next day she left for the airport and on the flight, she saw him. He followed her and took the flight for Delhi. She was just surprised by seeing him. After landing in Delhi airport, he went with Avantika’s home, when she forced him. When they reached home, her dad was not there. When her dad came home, he saw them and for the first time, he shared his loved comic books with them. He also loved Debart.
Gradually, they fall in love and on their first anniversary, she was waiting for him, but he didn’t reach her. He met a road accident on his way to Avantika and got admitted to the hospital. He was in comma and time passed away for up to several months. In those days Avantika didn’t step her feet outside of that hospital, she forgets everything about her and took care of her life. That love, that care, that affection everything she has for Debart are just amazing.
That book brings out all your tears and laughter. That emotion must thrill the reader and at last, the story also ends with that amount of love. Everyone should read it and should care about their love. After knowledge, “Love” is the only remaining thing in our life which increases by sharing.
