Walking in the Streets of Love and Destiny by Purba Chakraborty

Today, I’m sharing my views on the book Walking in the Streets of Love and Destiny written by Purba Chakraborty. I’m highly impressed with this extremely talented young author.

It is said that excess of anything is bad. What about excess of love? Is excess of love also bad? Well, to find out the answer, you’ll have to read the novel.

Blurb of Book

Plot of Novel

The novel starts with a Prologue in which the author met a girl in bridal sort of dress at Howrah Junction all alone, around 3:30 AM, with a diary in her hand. In fact, it’s the story of that girl who was waiting for train, trembling & crying, at that odd hour of night all alone. Looking at her, author was confused whether she was planning to jump in front of train or get into it.

This style of prologue writing in which author meets a random person and narrates the person’s story in main section of novel, reminds me of Chetan Bhagat.  

The novel narrates the story of a girl, Prachi, who was unconditionally loved by two persons, Arvind and Sahil. Arvind was her childhood friend and Sahil, her colleague at work.

Profoundness of Dialogues

The author took care of every minute thing beautifully. Some casual dialogues are very profound & meaningful. They show the clear understanding of the author on the subject. Let me mention one. There was a scene in which Prachi and Sahil were roaming and suddenly Prachi felt an urge to visit the temple. Sahil said her to go inside and he would wait outside. A discussion broke out between them on the necessity of temple, if God resides within. She said, “God is within every human-being. But sometimes in our busy life, we forget to listen to that inner voice of us; we forget to find the goodness within us. Temple, mosque or church provides us that serenity and divinity to search our inner God.”

On a cursory glance, it appears to be a very common & generic statement but it isn’t. Very few people know ‘why they are doing what they are doing.’

Let me tell you an incidence to get some idea. It is said that when the second Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab came to kiss the Kaaba Stone, he said in front of all assembled, “No doubt, I know that you are a stone and can neither harm anyone nor benefit anyone. Had I not seen Allah’s Messenger [Mohammad] kissing you, I would not have kissed you.”

Islam prohibits idol-worship but Muslims circumvent Kaaba Stone and kiss it. Prophet Mohammed, himself, kissed it. There must be a reason but most of the people do it because Mohammed did it.

Author’s Understanding of Basics

The formula for success is the alignment of why, what and how. The author showed this alignment throughout the book. She had a clear idea of why she was doing what she was doing through taking care of small things. It is said that small things make perfection but perfection isn’t a small thing.

There are many other spontaneous profound dialogues, like I mentioned above, on the subject of dream accomplishment, inspiration, encouragement, love and relationship.

Some Quotes from the Book

• Organize your life around your dreams and watch them come true because somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.
• Anyone can encourage but without inspiration, no dream can ever be accomplished.
• When we need the maximum support during grief, a pillow is not enough to absorb all our tears. A human touch, a caring hug is essential to make us feel better.
• When you smile, you look cute with that cheesy smile! Without smiling, carrying that attitude with a smirk, you look definitely hot.
• I wonder which loser has added a good before a bye!

Regarding Book Editing

The novel is very simple. Don’t take it otherwise. Simplicity is the highest sophistication.

Og Mandino, author of The Greatest Salesman in the World, revealed the secret of his easy to read books. He used to rewrite each book thirteen to fifteen times. He said, “My books are easy to read because they are so hard to write.”

The hard work of the author must be appreciated because the book is an effortless reading. The editing of the book is superb. Its pace is neither fast nor slow but right. You won’t get bored at any instance. It’s a great page turner. Karan Bajaj, author of Keep Off the Grass which movie rights are recently sold in Hollywood, said “I think editing is what makes a successful writer.”

Author as Poet

The title Walking in the Streets of Love and Destiny reflects that the book revolves around the concepts of Love and Destiny. According to author, Love doesn’t mean to achieve the person you love, love also means sacrifice, and love means to see your loved one happy. A very profound statement indeed!

It shows her maturity. Recently, I landed on her blog. A poem, The gurgling river, was exhibited there. In fact, this poem inspired me to read her more. The poem reminded me of Hermann Hesse, a Nobel Laureate in Literature. In his worldwide renowned book on spiritualism, Siddhartha, he explained life & enlightenment through the example of River.

Purba is also a great poet. She displayed her poetry skills in the book through poems of protagonist. She utilized her hobby of singing and wish of playing guitar pretty well in weaving this lovely love story. By reading the book, an aspiring author could learn how to use personal experiences to write a bestseller.

Excerpt to Show Style of Writing

It was raining heavily outside and I stood on the road like a stone with moist eyes. The rain shielded my tears and I without caring about the people on the road cried like the falling rain. It seemed the skies cried with me too. The drops of my eye mingled with the raindrops and my heart screamed in pain like the thunders.

Extent of Explanation

Could a person fall in real love with two different persons simultaneously? Author calls one Life-partner and other Soul-mate. What is the difference between life-partner and soul-mate? The author didn’t delve deep into psychological & philosophical aspects of the terms but give a rough idea about the difference.

In fact, Walking in the Streets of Love and Destiny is a light romantic novel with all its naughtiness and playfulness. The game of Truth & Dare and Telephone Conversations remind me of Ravinder Singh’s Can Love Happen Twice and I too had a Love Story. If you love Ravinder, you are surely gonna love Purba too.

Ingredients of Novel

When Chetan describes an erotic encounter, it’s mostly physical. When Ravinder plays truth & dare, it’s about vital statistics & ‘what you are wearing’ things. But when Purba describes the same, it’s erotic but not physical. It’s of a different level. I guess, it’s the advantage of being female. Females could easily go beyond…..

I must say that Purba didn’t miss a single thing which could lag her behind in Bestseller Race. It’s a complete entertainment.  

Conclusion

It’s an established Success Formula that find a few people who are already successful in the field you want to succeed and do what they do. The author exactly did the same. She didn’t reinvent the wheel. She used popular ingredients to spice up the story. I too believe that a special dish doesn’t require special things but all the normal ingredients in right proportion.  And without any doubt, it could be said that the author did her job brilliantly in cooking an interesting story which would bind the readers throughout.