Prabhat Ranjan, as an author, has just made his debut with the release of his novel With You; Without You. The novel, though the title is surely English, is a Hindi fiction which revolves around a love triangle comprising of the three important characters in his book, Nishind, Rami and Aditya. With You; Without You is written in a first-person narrative and Prabhat Ranjan has used Nishind as his mouthpiece in the fiction. Nishind narrates the story for the readers and also puts forward the important ‘verdicts’ on society and modern human life. For the readers, the novel won’t bore them but at times, the pace of the fiction becomes slaggy and slow. It just drags towards the development but it happens only at rare occasions and so, the fiction is remarkably safe and sound to be consumed!

The novel opens with a flashback into the past as Nishind takes us into the past of his life and also of his friends Aditya and Rami. He reminds how they grew up together and studied together only to be parted because of a mistake that was made by the moral protagonist of the novel With You; Without You – Nishind. He thought that separating Rami from Aditya would do enough to make Rami fall in love with her because he loved Rami so much. However, it had adverse effect and exactly contrary to what Nishind was thinking and all the three friends say goodbye to each other.

Prabhat Ranjan has done his best (and it seems nice reading it) in describing the situation when someone falls in love. His elaboration and his description are remarkable coupled with his witty choice of words and a narrative which directly makes an impact upon the readers’ minds. He has tried to differentiate the feelings which are not at all closer to each other. Is loving someone entitles us to expect the love back from him or her? Is a friend the best person to fall in love with? These are the questions which make way for the answers by the author through the fictional representation of the events in the life of Nishind.

Later on, when the narrative falls back to the present day, the events move a little faster. Nishind finds Rami once again in his life but in the form of a well-settled working woman Rashmi Desai. He also finds Aditya and he thinks that for the mistake he has made in the past of separating two lovers he has to repent. And he tries his best to make Rashmi and Aditya fall in love once again. The sequence of the events is presented wonderfully in the handsome language usage of the author Prabhat Ranjan who loves to play with his words. Many discussions involving Rashmi are based on feminism, love, sex, conjugal life and many other aspects of life which an author generally does not write. However, Prabhat, as if to make the book relevant and useful too, for the youngsters, has done everything! Nevertheless, it is worthy to be mentioned that With You; Without You does not compromise on the front of ‘sexual intervention’ in the fiction! You will not find any unnecessary physically intimate scenes in the book which has almost become a fashion for authors these days and it struck me wonderfully! There is nothing less in the novel which you find in a perfect love thriller – there is deceit, there is love, there is suspense and there you get a wonderful piece of Hindi literature!

Except for a little slow movement of the plot at times, you will find the novel really pleasant and enchanting. All the lovers of good fiction with some seriousness and witty use of narrative should read With You; Without You by Prabhat Ranjan. And note the name of the author because he is surely going to be a key person in the upcoming days of Hindi fiction! Get your copy from the link below:

With You; Without You on Amazon

review by an Intellectual Reader