By Alok Joshi‘Three and a half Sweethearts’ is a short novel that narrates the story of an ordinary young Indian IT engineer, whose quest for true love takes him to different countries for work. In this journey, he goes through a trail of complicated relationships and romantic entanglements, until it dawns on him that one should not depend on others for happiness. The key to happiness lies within us. It’s a realization that people and situations come and go. If we succeed in finding our true self, we are the real winners.
In the roads of real life, people do change lanes without giving any signal. Many young people in today’s world silently go through these romantic upheavals. Some plunge into depression, some keep trying, some fail, some come out stronger. Like other changes, modern love has also changed over time. Many young people do not understand what true love is. Far from some imaginary idyllic world, it is more about how two people nurture common goals, how they stand by each other, how they accept each other the way they are and how together they fix problems and face the bitter realities of life. It is about two imperfect people refusing to give up on each other.
The author has tried to explore the complexities of finding love through the young, inexperienced protagonist who refuses to learn any lesson from his mistakes or the wrong-doings of the other side. Sadly, he is emotional, sensitive, easy to trust and perhaps mentally weak. Love is not easy, be it any part of the world. He goes through the process, meeting right girls at the wrong time or wrong girls at the right time. In everyday real life, many girls also meet wrong people in real life or sometimes the timing is just bad.
This happens to be his second book. The first one published in 2020 December was a memoir called “Twelve Sweet and Sour Years in China”-True stories of an Indian, which is very popular and thankfully received great reviews on Amazon and elsewhere.
In this new book published this month, Alok has tried to challenge himself as a writer and attempted a new genre of writing, which was in no way easy. Three and a half Sweethearts is available on paperback/Kindle on Amazon.
(Alok Joshi is a management professional,poet/ writer/editor from Garhwal with a multicultural background,having worked in India (ONGC), Sudan,Middle-East and China. He can be reached at alok_joshi33@yahoo.com)
