Ananya – A journey towards light

Ananya
–Urmila Deshpande
Leadstart Publishing

Ananya is a well written short story, well maybe a lengthy one but not as big to be considered as a novel. And this is the first book of Ms. Urmila Deshpande. Reading through the book I wish to appreciate three things. First, I appreciate the way the story unfolds. Though the story is told from the perspective of various characters and may hint a non-linear flow, it is quite linear and easy to grasp. Generally, this way of storytelling is a little tricky and generally ends up confusing the reader. Urmila has handled this quite well and makes it easy for the reader to follow all along the book. Second thing I appreciate is the series of spiritual and emotional discussions held between various characters, all along the story. These discussions are quite mature and the thought process is well clear. This would have been only possible when the author is very clear on what she is presenting to her reader. Urmila does have a great clarity in her thoughts. Third and what I consider very important is that the author treats the reader as a mature audience. She does not spoon-feed every detail of the story. Most incidents are left to the reader to think and not explicitly told. Any good reader would easily grasp the incidents that the author wishes to convey. The reader certainly would not be left blank with untold part of the story. This format would take the reader to the author’s plane and her level of thinking. Great style.

Ananya starts emotional, moving to thriller and ends up spiritual. It is about a girl who loses her parents at her kinder age and branded as ‘cursed’ by her grandfather. The little five year old girl does not understand the reason for the hatred and shrinks to her own world. The incidents that happens to her adopted parents in due course of the story, reinforces her thought as being cursed. As she grows and tries to explore her world, mysterious things unfold. She start to see and hear things. Her search to find the source or atleast the way out, leads her to various people. Her part of story, told by other characters in their own views keeps this part of story more of a thriller. We look forward to know what happened to Ananya and wonder what the other characters (be is Paullomi, Anand, Shobhana or Sidharth) reveal about her. As things move forward slowly the story moves towards spirituality. Last few chapters are a series of spiritual discussions between Ananya and Shobanna. These discussions are mature and quite heavy, however told in a simple way. They discuss the meaning and purpose of life. The Epilogue summarises our life as four types. It is for us to choose between those different types. The book ends leaving the reader to introspect his/her own life – who we are and what we could become.

Meanwhile, I have also got a couple of points to mention with regards to editing. Chapter Two should have been ‘Paullomi’ and not Paulomi. Wonder how this was missed. Also, in Chapter Eight, Sidharth talks of aura and the color of the divine energy. I am not sure of what is the aura color pertaining to divine energy but it certainly is not ‘Violate’. These minor typos no way hamper the reading, but these minors could have been noted during editing and would have been avoided.

Get your copy and go for a read. Read through the chapters to find out if Ananya’s fears are abated. Did she find answers to all her queries? Does she feel still cursed or blessed? Did she reach her destination? Did she find peace in her life?

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