By Akash Verma
Review By Ila Garg
A Broken Man, a novel by Akash Verma, is published by Srishti Publishers. The cover shows a psychedelic man who seem depressed as his head lies low. The cover has a very simple feel to it which makes it highly attractive as it is clutter-free.
Akash Verma is a management graduate and the co-founder of an Advertising Venture. He has worked across the leading companies in the FMCG and media sector. He has a deep interest in music, history and travel. His work has taken him across the country and he finds this experience very relevant while giving shape to his stories. He has published two bestsellers till now, namely It Happened That Night and Three Times Loser. Akash is currently based out of Gurgaon, India. He is fascinated by Cinema, Literature, History and Travel.
A Broken Man is his third book.
The blurb reads as, “Take a deep breath before you are born here, my child!
You take birth in a land where I struggled; gave it my sweat and blood. A land that I thought belonged to me… unbridled, uncompromising.
Krishna is a Dalit boy from Bihar who struggles to overthrow the chains that hold him back. Chhavi is a high caste Brahman girl fighting for the rights of others, propagating equality in a politically charged Lucknow University campus. After Krishna saves Chhavi from getting torched during a protest against reservation, love slowly blossoms, only to be ruthlessly crushed by a society that thrives on divisions of caste and religion. From student politics in Lucknow to the interiors of Bihar, from the corridors of power to the glitz of media and the film industry in Mumbai.
A Broken Man is the quest of a deprived Krishna to redeem hope from despair, love from separation and success out of repeated failures. From the bestselling author of It Happened That Night and Three Times Loser, this is a story that reinforces our faith in what love can accomplish as it pushes us to achieve the impossible, making us tap our true inner potential.”
A story is about a Dalit boy, Krishna and fairly exposes the challenges faced by him in the course of his life. Krishna, the protagonist of the story falls in love with a Brahmin girl, Chhavi. She is an activist in college and daughter of a local politician. Thus, trouble brews up as anticipated.
The story moves smoothly and deals with matters of love and faith. Because of his low caste, Krishna often gets insulted and lives under undue pressure of getting selected for a government job. It could have helped him and his family come out of the poverty.
The author has sketched both the characters—Krishna and Chhavi—beautifully. The poems in the book seem quite realistic and successfully portray deep and intricate emotions. The language is simple and easy to comprehend. Nowhere will a reader feel any disconnect. It’s so well-written that once you pick up, you cannot keep it down without finishing it off. I found it quite engaging. The subject is tackled beautifully by the skillful author.
How Krishna tackled with the problems of poverty and how he bore the innumerable insults, how He met Chhavi and fell in love with her, will he be able to get the reciprocation of his love for her, will Krishna and Chhavi be able to have a ‘together forever’ are some of the many reasons why you will keep turning the pages to find out what happens in A Broken Man.
Further, this 240 page book is good enough to expose the double standards of society we live in, the caste differences that still continue to exist in our mind sets. It’s a light read and overall a compelling book.
Ratings: 4/5
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