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I, Romantic
First-time author and an ex-serviceman, Rajeev Jhaveri has all the makings of a great storyteller. I, Romantic is his maiden foray into writing and tells the story of Avinash Rai. He takes you through the trying and turbulent times that he faces and the journey of self-realisation that he undertakes. Jhaveri was born in Bombay in 1967 and he still lives there. He served in the Indian Army for six years before retiring in 1997. After shifting to Bombay, he has been directing and writing independent short films and features. Avinash Rai is like every other young person who has only a vague idea of what he wants in life. Like a piece of driftwood he just floats along with the wave. Settling for the life of an Army man, it had seemed the right choice to make. The glory, the power and the charisma attached with it all seemed to make it the perfect choice. But for him, it was so only till he is shook out of his reverie by a fiery film student who commands his respect for being very clear headed and harbouring visionary ideals about how one should live their life. How this seemingly small incident turns his life upside down is what forms the crux of the story. The narrator is shown as a ladies’ man who doesn’t give much thought to his relationship with various women until a girl literally sweeps him off his feet. He could be the poster boy for what love could do to a man who is quite well settled in life and content with it. All it takes is a bit of romance to make him see facets of his personality he never knew existed. His unapologetic rendering of his escapades makes his character real and endearing. He doesn’t glorify sex and equate it with love but portrays it as an important human need. Although not many pages are dedicated to the girl he falls for, she is a potent presence throughout. She is charming and has a subtle sensuality about her that makes the reader want to know more about her. She does not come across as a pretty bimbo but has a level head on her shoulders which unnerves the narrator as it would any other man. She not only ushers in beauty in his drab environs but also unleashes an era of symphonies, films and books which Avinash had never know to exist hitherto. She turns this simple man into an aggressive idealistic man who knows his mind and will go to any length to achieve his objective. The author uses quotes at the beginning of every chapter which are both thought-provoking and apt but at the same time a bit audacious and not always politically correct. This political incorrectness is fun to read and an important characteristic of the story. Be it the depiction of Gandhiji’s death scene, the big daddy attitude of the US or the wars that our country has fought; he has his take on it. But that is what makes this book unique and very readable, the lack of airbrushing and euphemisms.
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MORE often than not, the
telling of a story, more than the story itself, makes or breaks it.
And when the storytelling is intense and fearless, and at the same
time heartfelt, it achieves what it set out to; engrossing the reader
in its own world. This love story of a soldier of dissent draws you in
from the word go. It slowly but surely pulls you into the narrator’s
world but at the same time keeps the mystery going till the end.