Book Review: The Helpline by Uday Mane: Failure Is A Part Of Life: Embrace It

You read the solo paragraph on page 45 and you will get a strong touch of Ayn Rand in this book The Helpline written by Uday Mane But rest of the book has original touch of writing, conceptualization and story telling. There is strong emphasis on lead characters and story in this book.

The Helpline by Uday Mane, published by Leadstart, is a story about Samir who has met with a serious tragedy of his life and has reached a desperate and diffused stage of his life where he always thinks of taking his life. Because of the tragedy in his life that took away everything that he had in his life, the love of his life, he keeps thinking himself as the cause of that tragedy and hence has driven himself towards only one destination - Suicide. The book has a philosophical touch somewhere when Samir talks with Riya, interacts with his Nana and remembers him post his death, and when Samir meets Siddhartha at the later stage of his life.

The story of The Helpline by Uday Mane has a big landscape frame where you can find various interesting and touching paintings on that landscape in various forms - some bringing smile on your face, some bringing tears in your eyes and at points taking you deep dive inside your heart for an introspection. The story is touching and so is the way things have been expressed by means of words. For instance read the following:

We looked at each other for a moment. Everybody in the room had left. A part of me wanted to know so much about her, and a part of me did not know where to begin. 

The story has a depth and gravity. Strong characterization makes major characters like Nana, Siddharth, Riya, and Samir have been given their own space that is well specified and driven perfectly. Story takes us to see growing Samir under the love of his Nana (Grandfather) and learning all good basic things of life from him as his father is a quite busy politician and has almost no time for his family to spare. While spending his life with his Nana, Samir meets Riya for the first time and there is some hidden relationship established between the two - a relationship of love and hatred, a relationship of enviousness, a relationship of spirituality. Riya's brother Siddharth is totally handicapped and hence requires all of Riya's attention to sustain in life and Riya happily does that.

It takes a long time for Samir to understand the real feeling in his heart for Riya and by the time he comes to know about it, God had something else scribbled in his notebook to happen in due course of time. Overall The Helpline by Uday Mane is quite interesting, heart touching, engrossing and has a serious story line.