I picked up the book Losing my Religion by Vishwas Mudagal after reading the sample pages at one of the bookstore near my home. I relished reading the novel. In fact it is one of the best fiction novel I have read in couple of months. While reading the novel it was hard for me to believe that it’s Vishwas’s first novel. He writes very elegantly and effortlessly with the great word choices and a great style of writing.
The plot of the book is very solid and fresh though at times it seems to be inspired from bollywood movies. But the plot kept taking interesting turns which has kept me hooked to the book till the end. There are few books which I read word to word and Losing my Religion is one of them.
The title of the book Losing my Religion could be little confusing. It has nothing to do with divine or worship. It simply means here as belief in oneself and way of life. In the book protagonist Rishi Rai becomes a broke after his business adventure fails. He is completely crestfallen and blames his over obsession for work and fanatic about success landed him where he is now bankrupt.
He completely changes his life style once he meets Alex and together they get on to a road trip with no fix destination in mind. Their voyage leads them to many adventure and also provide a meaning to their life and changed attitude towards life. Alex and Rishi becomes indispensable and inseparable.
All the characters in the book especially lead one Rishi, Alex and Kyra are adorable and to some extend believable and relatable. All the three characters are nicely laid out and characterized. In fact I wished to have a friend like Alex. He is the anchor in Rishi’s life and infuses a fresh energy and hope in his life whenever needed. Their thrilling roller coaster journey from Bangalore – Malana – Kumbh Mela – New York were all chalked out quite well.
Kyra character has been portrayed as a modern woman who is brave, pragmatic and independent. Loves to take challenges and also believes in value.
I loved reading the various adventures that Rishi and Alex goes through. Malana episode was the best part of the book. There was also a lot of emotions in the love story of Rishi and Kyra. The way they meet, fall in love, parts away and again meet seems to be like a bollyowood movie story line but it the way author depicts their love story make it riveting. Though I found the parts in the book where Rishi and Alex undertakes many business ventures as a bit exaggerated yet they were also part of their adventure which pervade freshness in the plot.
The book has a right balance of narration and dialogues which makes it an excellent read. Dialogues were some times snappy and chirpy and at other times lengthy depending on the situations. Narration was always to the point giving enough strength to the plot to carve out the situations.
The Verdict:
I can keep writing about the book. More I write, more plot is revealed which is sort of unfair for the readers who are planning to read the book.
Pankaj Advani has rightly said he is an author to watch out for. He has a great potential. It may be his first book but he writes like a seasoned writer.
Losing My Religion is Highly Recommended. A must read.
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