One Precious Moment by Ritu Kakar | Book Review

Regular readers of ThinkerViews know that we love reding books. We sincerely believe in the importance of books in one’s life. Apart from some specific genres we mostly read almost all kinds of book. However, you may have noticed that the frequency of Romantic books is quite low in our reviews. Because we rarely come across a genuinely written love story. Maybe because we have a large number of books to read in mythology, historical fiction, thrillers, mystery, and other such genres. But, when we find a book in the romance genre and we feel that it is worth a real we surely share our unbiased views and reviews for the same.

A while ago, we were approached by Ritu Kakar (aka Jaspree Kaur) for her book One Precious Moment and we’ve added it to our “books to be read and reviewed” queue. Upon reading the book we found it a genuinely written love story. From our team, I got a chance to read the book and I liked it. The story has the flair or Rajshri production movies mixed with contemporary times and is definitely worth reading if you like the genre.

Let us take a look at the book cover.

Book Cover:

The book cover plays a significant role in purchase and/or reading decisions. Of course, if the book content is not worth going for, even a fantastic cover page cannot compensate a disappointment of the readers. Let us take a look at the cover page of “One Precious Moment”.

As you can see, the large part of the book covers shows a young girl’s illustration masked on a picture of a boy standing in the backdrop of monumental buildings of a metro city. The illustration seems inspired by the title sequence we see in the James Bond movies. The cover is not super attractive and at the same time, it is not disappointing. I will give it around 3.5 stars out of 5.

Mira Kapur is a college going girl who just turned to 18. She lives with her parents Mr. Rajiv Kapur and Mrs. Nandini Kapur and younger sister Aashi in Mumbai.

Rahul Singh Kalra, son of Mr. Gurmeet Singh Kalra and Kavita Lokhande is a young and dynamic yet calm and composed professional who lives in Mumbai while his parents live in Pune.

As it is rightly said, local trains are life-line for people living in Mumbai. It helps them reach their destinations be it a job place or educational institution or even a place to just wander and coming back to their respective homes at the end of the day.

Destined to meet each other Rahul and Mira have a strange connection, they are only a few stations apart. Like many other Mumbaikars (as they say) they met with each other on the train. Well, “met” could not be a proper word, as they simply recognized each other and their conversation happened through eyes only. It was one fateful day when some strangers being hooligans at a station and trying to harras the gang of girls, Mira being a part of the group tried to retaliate. The help came at the right moment in the form of authorities and police, tipped by Rahul! In real life, you have to use your brains more than your muscles!

They have connected with each other the point forward and eventually fall in love.

Will they be able to get married? Is there any unpredictable incident(s) destiny has hidden within for them? It is better to explore the rest of the story by reading the book rather than talking about it.

Views And Reviews:

What I like about the book is the simplicity in the narration. It is a pure love story with old fashioned love(!) – as you may like to call it. Of course, it has its own dose of adult stuff and meant to be read by adult readers only (like most of the love stories).

The fantasy world of growing up youth, finding their counterparts to fall in love and being blessed with one of the most pious and rare feelings is explored quite effectively with the strong base set in the real world.

The author herself has spent a large time of her life in Mumbai and Delhi and the story is explored into these two cities. The author is able to explore the lives in both these metro-cities in an authentic manner and is able to compare them as well.

While a few incidents may look filmy, the major part of the story stood firm on the ground of reality. The middle-class characters, the real-life struggle and genuine people who are having their own strengths and weaknesses, their efforts to achieve their goals in life and at the same time keeping the traditional Indian values and culture intact; all these attributes are quite rare to be seen in Movies, TV Shows and Books. This book, in that sense, is a pleasant exception.

It is tough to explore feelings and love. The author is able to do convincingly and beautifully in the book, which I consider the USP of the book. The author seems to be staying here for long and will come up with many more books. Reading this book reminded me of some of the similar books I got a chance in the recent past.

• A Turbulent Tale of Love by Shalu Thakur Dhillon
• Yours Forever by Nimmu

Some people really don’t understand the idea of gender unbiasedness and feminism. They often confuse it with the length of the cloths, living undisciplined life and using foul language, which is absolutely wrong. The author, being a female, without any prejudices and misconceptions, created really strong characters in this book, regardless of their age and gender.

In addition, to explore the emotions in an effective way, the author is good at elaborating scenes and linking incidents as well. You may not like the twist in the tale, but, actually it is an important part of the story, and the message the author is trying to convey. And yes, in the prologue itself, the author discloses the twist. So there is no mystery element anywhere! The beauty is to see how it unfolds.

I want to keep spoilers at the bay and that’s why not sharing important parts of the story. I will quote some interesting stuff from the book though, just to give you an idea of the quality of writing you can expect.

The entire story is told by the female protagonist in the first person. She introduces the male protagonist as:

I noticed Rahul on my very first day to college. He was standing with a group of some very loud, obnoxious guys but was strangely the most different among them all. He had a very silent, shy personality and even though he was standing near them…

The way the author explored the enthusiasm of Mira to see Rahul is interesting.

I think I have never prayed so hard ever not even for my results, like I did that day just to see him again.

And, the bond between both of them…

We travelled together, looking, dreaming because we both were attracted to each other but neither of us were bold enough to make the first move…

And, the progress of the relation is shown through the following lines:

Now instead of the covert looks we had started staring at each other directly. So much so that our eyes would talk without needing any words at all. It is amazing ___ how much one can talk with the eyes and simple movements like the twitch of the eyebrows, and the quivering of the lips can express emotions without words…

While you miss a few words or adjectives at the marked place in above mentioned block, you will get an idea about the way the author has explored emotions and forwarded the story ahead. Moving ahead the author says:

Our silent communications became so clear it could beat verbal conversations any day

And, then there comes some comments by the characters, sometimes even pun is there. Here are the next lines in the abov mentioned block.

(trust me, you should give it a try it with someone you feel really close to, winkie wink)

Sometimes it helps the author to take a jibe or adding sarcasm or even funny moments in the story.

… Only some of the street lights were working (typical Mumbai), and most of the shops were shut …

The way the parents worrying for a child upon his/her being late at home in quite an authentic manner.

On returning home I had both my parents walking a hole into the carpet with worry…

Actually, the entire communication followed this point is very realistic.

… “Ms. Mira Kapur” (shit shit shit)… “you have been given a phone for a reason. If you won’t make a good use of the technology, then why keep it?… We have imagined a million horrifying scenarios in the past hour and a half.”

There are some good arguments in the book which are logical.

… just because a woman wears a short dress she is not inviting attention, men should be able to control their libidos and appreciate her beauty…

Actually, you should read this entire conversation.

The book focuses on all the relationships the protagonists have, and each of them is given enough footage. The way one could be caring yet liberal to not to suffocate the other person in the relationship, understanding situations and keep a check on expectations, how some unexpected incidents (eg. demonetization) can hit you,… there are many things explored in the book effectively.

And yes, there are differences and arguments, fights and patch-ups, which you can see in almost all the healthy relations; explored in this story as well.

There are some places where you can find a space is missing after the closing punctuation marks (Eg. full stop – .). Some lines are abruptly formatted to end in the middle (some hard newline characters could have been taken care of).

Summary:

An adorable traditional love story setup in contemporary times, written in everyday communication language. Some parts are for adult readers only.

Around 7.5 stars out of 10.

Quick Purchase Links:

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

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.