One Day, Life Will Change By Saranya Umakanthan | Book Review

On one side we see the rise of adult and abusive content in all media segments like books, magazines, movies, web series, etc; and at the same time, we can still find some interesting stories explored in all these media which are nicely written. They reaffirm our belief that “if you have genuine content, it is enough for the reader, no cheap sequences are needed”.

Well, today I am going to talk about One Day, Life Will Change, a book penned by Saranya Umakanthan. The book is published by “Fingerprint! publishers”. It was actually published around the beginning of March 2020, but this COVID-19 pandemic halted its marketing and availability across various online/offline stores for a few months. Eventually, the book reached us and we are thankful to the publishers for the review copy. The review is, needless to say, unbiased and uninfluenced by all means.

Let us take a look at the cover page of One Day, Life Will Change.

Of course, a book can (and should) not be judged by its cover. But, a well-designed cover page makes the positive impression of it.

As the title of the book is quite inspirational, you can expect some cheerful colors on the cover page. And you won’t be disappointed as you can see the shades of golden, red and white colors. The illustration is very thoughtful. While you can see a couple looking forward to the bright future in a cheerful manner, the golden rays glow their surrounding. You can find they have hand-in-hand representing support and affection for each other. This scene represents the theme of the book very effectively. The pinkish-red used for “Life” represents the union of love-support-hope quite well.

I found the cover page interesting and faithful to the story.

Book Plot:

Let us take a bird’s eye view of the story.

While you meet many characters in the flow like Samaira Ranjan, Ashish, Vivian Andhera, Ram, Pariti, Sharmi, Raghu, Kushi, and others; the story belongs to Samaira and Vivian.

Samaira is a beautiful, intelligent and talented girl who grew-up in a traditional middle-class family. When she got married to Ashish, she was very hopeful for her future. While the earlier days of their marriage were fantastic, the true colors of Ashish and his orthodox parents started being shown. It deteriorated Samaria’s soul, and once considered a talented singer, she stopped singing even in the Kitchen or Bathroom.

Well, enough is enough, and one day she called her marriage off.

She went to her home with a hope to get warmth in the laps of her parents. However, another tragedy was waiting for her there!

If it is not enough, her uncle told her about the debt her father had, and she had to sell-off her parents’ house at half of the price to her uncle! Now, she had no place to live, no source to earn money! And, her relatives started blaming her for her parent’s death and considered her as a “cursed” girl.

Even in this situation, she got a chance to help a lady and she assisted a doctor!

And, she met Vivian, a young, dynamic, energetic, bossy yet open-minded young fellow. Vivian has his own story, his determination, his attitude and his vision helped him taste success.

Will their paths crossed again? Will Samaira look forward to her life with hope or succumb to her sorrows? Will Vivian and Kushi’s relationship move forward? Will there be any complications in their relationships? Well, there are so many questions and you will get answers to all of them by reading this fictional tale of love and hope.

Views And Reviews:

The book is simple and explores the traditional Indian culture and its fusion with the modern world. What I like the most in the book is despite having sad/happy/tragic/joyous situations/marriage/divorce/break-up, there is no unnecessary melodrama. The book is a good example of how you can create modern and intelligent characters without having abusive language and stripping the cultural values.

Saranya, the author, has successfully created realistic characters. While they have their positives, they have their vulnerabilities too. And, that makes them believable.

I like the way, the chapters are arranged and mainly titled. The first chapter of the book is “The End”, and the last is “The Beginning”. It clearly reflects the flow of the story and how the author has visualized it.

At the beginning of each chapter, you will find some interesting lines conveying rather deep meaning. Here are a couple of examples.

When life tosses lemons at you, squeeze them!
God is fed up of hearing your whiny “Why me?”

A candle never fears being lit, nor does it say no to relighting. A beginning is always a new beginning even if it is the second or the third or the fourth.

See, they are quite philosophical and inspirational.

I found the author good at describing the characters and their appearances. For example:

Without thinking, she had chosen a black dress that day. Except for the small gold hoops on her ears and a wristwatch, she had left all her jewellery behind, as they were not hers. Beads of sweat dotted her forehead.

At the same time, she is good at writing interesting one-liners.

A wave of loneliness enveloped her as she walked in.

What really matters is what you think about you.

Here is an example of how beautifully the emotions are explored in the book.

Plop! Something fell on his right hand, and he raised it to examine it.
Droplets of tears!

What an amazing way to sensitively explore emotions in a poetic yet realistic way!

As far my opinion is concerned I found almost all the characters are given proper weightage and exploration. For example, the following line clearly explores Vivian’s vision and his company’s motto.

“Creative Tanks is not a place for losers; this is the place for fighters – either we swim or sink!” blasted Vivian.

We don’t want submissive people here. We want people to speak up even if their superior is wrong.

While he is hard-working, he is not arrogant. He also lands the hand of support to his team and the people he care for.

Above mentioned quotes must have given you a fair idea of the quality of writing you can expect in the book. If I had to quote only one block of lines from it, I will definitely choose the following:

“And why only me?”
Had God counted the number of times humans had asked him this question, it would have effortlessly surpassed the biggest number on Earth – googolplex!

I found it really interesting.

So, well-developed characters and storyline are the positives of the book. You may find it a little lengthy. Especially, if you are reading most of the modern love-stories. Some of the things look fantasy-stuff, but hope is the fuel of life, and we all believe in some kind of hopeful future, no matter how unrealistic it looks.

While the book misses the traditional index page and detailed author’s note, it contains footnotes, especially in the first half of the book.

Summary:

Definitely a good read if you have a traditional yet modern mindset. The absence of adulteries and cusswords makes it a worthy choice.

Around 7 to 7.5 out of 10.

Quick Purchase Links:

• Buy Book From Amazon India – Paperback
• Buy Book From Amazon US – Paperback

Over To You:

If you already have read the book do share your remarks and thoughts via comments below. Does this review help you in making your decision to buy or read the book? Do not forget to share this article with your friends over various social networks via Twitter, Facebook and others. And yes, you may like to subscribe to our RSS feeds and follow us on various Social networks to get latest updates for the site to land right in your mail box.