Emotional
Fool
By Selva
Ganapathy
Review
By Ila Garg
Emotional
Fool
is a book by the debutant writer Selva Ganpathy is published by Notion Press which
is a self-publishing firm. The cover of the book is designed by Preeta Suresh. The
cover and title are appealing. The cover is an image and a mirror image of a
joker, which in combination with the title indicates at the emotional aspect of
the novel. It signifies sadness and mockery of love, maybe!
The
blurb reads as, ‘The protagonist, Selva narrates his life story - His
childhood, his upbringing, friends, travels, college life, career and Priya.
The story revolves around Priya, his best friend and confidante who he
eventually falls in love with & attempts to court. His sensitive nature
leads him to take actions that are a typical & abnormal for people around
him. What happens when he continues to let his heart rule his head?’
It is short,
precise, to the point and gives the readers a glimpse into the story of the
book Emotional Fool. The book is a
reflection of the author’s own experiences of life. He has penned down his own
good, bad, and indifferent experiences that he went through. The long lasting
effect of them can be felt in his words.
The protagonist of the story
is Selva himself, and he narrates a tale of his journey of finding his first
job from IIT Delhi, his friends, his active work for AID New Delhi and then his
own drastic family problems. It also gives a deeper insight into the love and
support he got from people around him which helped him to form a certain outlook
towards the future. It further moves to his attempts to woo a girl he got
attracted to on social networking medium which fails and then finally he comes
across Priya.
The 132 page book
comprises of 8 chapters, and a prologue. The reason that made this book
readable for me is perhaps the innocence with which the author has written
about his own life. He has made no attempt to hide anything and spoken about
the incidents which occurred with honesty.
He has boldly
claimed in his book that the story is not fictional; it is his own story which
is a less treaded step too. The straight forward and simple narration makes it
reader friendly but the grammatical flaws become an eyesore. Few spelling mistakes further made me despise
the book towards the end. It took me around an hour to finish it off. It ends
of a hopeful note.
The too many dilemmas
of Selva’s life is just one of the reasons
you want to keep turning the pages to find out what happens in Emotional Fool. To find out whether Selva
gets a decent reply from the girl he tries to woo through social networking or
not, whether Priya and he get along well or not, their friendship blossoms or
shatters; you will have to read the book which Selva Ganpathy claims to be a
blook (where a personal blog is reformatted into a book), Emotional Fool.
Ratings: 2.5/5
Emotional Fool. A must read book for all the "Soup boys". Well, "Soup Boys" can connect well with the book. :-)
ReplyDeleteA book that anyone who has experienced love should read.
The author Selva Ganapathy, who is a full time volunteer with Aid India, a person who spends a lot of time with Archery practice
and a person who works in IIT,
time management would be a big task. But Selva has been a time management guru and I admire him for how he could manage so many things within the same 24 hours
that everyone of us have.
The author Selva talks about his childhood, friends, Delhi, IIT, AID India and how life goes on after meeting Priya. Managing With his busy daily routine is
when love comes in and plays its part in making him very happy and sad as well. Selva talks about the kind of person he is, not interested in love or having a
girl friend even if he could have one and then gets attracted to a girl on orkut. He just wanted to be friends with her and did manage to get a reply from her
and how happy he was to talk to her. We can understand why the author names him an Emotional Fool right from here when her talks about this incident. No one
would wait for a girl's response, that too just to be friends with, for more than a couple of years.
So what happens for a person like him when he finds love. He talks about how close he was with Priya and how much regards
he had for her. He liked her for her involvement in volunteering, got to know her better and eventually falls in love with her.
The response that he got from her and the way things changed for the regular Selva, how no one but for his mother understood that giving an expensive
gift to a girl, a friend is not to get any attention or to impress her but just his way of expressing his respect for her but all of it just had a withering
effect on their friendship.
With emotions tearing Selva, and people's claim that he should not have gifted something very expensive, "Emotional Fool", an apt title and no other title can be
better. The design of the book cover was equally good. Selva more than being emotional, very bold I should say, to have opened up his story.
Did Priya ever get back to Selva, a question and an expectation that will make you read all the pages and finish this 130 odd pages within a couple of hours.
If you knew Selva before, you will know him better with this book and for me, I have very high regards for him now, much more than just a friend before.
"Emotional Fool" an experience that most of us would have experienced and would love the book for that.