Love @ Air Force - Review

The violent romance of the Fighter planes with the clouds in sky… the pulchritudinous Officers walking around arrogantly… the runway with the logo constituted by the concentric tricolored circles in the background… is the spectacle meets our eyes at the feeble mention of the Air Force but there is more about the Air Force besides these…

About the Author

A mathematics teacher, Gaurav Sharma has been writing poems since he was eight. He trisects the age of his passion into cricket, mathematics and writing. As a school boy, he was madly in love with cricket, then, mathematics became his passion and lately the writer in him grew restless. Lunacy for his dreams, he claims, has helped him being a published writer. As a writer, he doesn't want to be just a storyteller but yearns to create a stir.

Sweet romance finds a new destination in the most unlikeliest of places – Air Force Station, Agra, where dwell the Air Force personnel, who fight and battle it out for the country and countrymen, displaying courage and bravado, and soaring high in elegant uniform. However, in the midst of all this also resides love, warm and subtle, sometimes fulfilled, and at other times, resonating with memories of the past. It is this beautiful feeling that comes out in the fore in Gaurav Sharma’s ‘Love @ Air Force.’

‘A heart is a more sophisticated device than a Sukhoi’ – goes the tagline, and quite apt it is. No machinery can ever be compared with the complexities and undecipherable motions that make the heart run, especially when it is in love. Gaurav Sharma’s novel, based on this premise, certainly provides a refreshing view of this perspective.

The story is narrated by Sushil Awasthi, a Sergeant in the Air Force who is unhappy, both in his personal as well as in professional life. He feels burdened with his ambitions that he had to sacrifice, and often blames his family, and the Air Force for it. He feels that his wife too doesn't understand him, and considers himself lonely. However, when his best friend from school, Wing Commander Shabd Mishra arrives as the Medical Officer in the Air Force Station, his days brighten. The two friends catch up on lost times. Sushil is delighted to be back with his closest buddy, but what takes him by surprise is that Shabd, now in his mid-thirties, is still unmarried, the reason being Soumya.

Soumya had studied with Shabd and Sushil, and Shabd was always fond of her. The teenage infatuation had gradually turned to love, but sadly, it proved to be one-sided. Shabd never confessed his feelings, and after school, they never met.

And then, as played by fate, Soumya too comes to the Air Force Station, owing to her husband’s transfer at the same site where Shabd and Sushil are, promising a whole lot of crazy antics that only a man, too smitten in love, can perform.

This is where the story picks up, and quite thankfully, keeps up the good pace.

To be blatantly honest, the storyline is simple. There have been love stories before, and there would be love stories in future, where lovers don’t meet and one suffers in pain. However, what differentiates this book from the rest is the way this subject has been dealt. Slight nuances of brilliance and out-of-the-box thinking here and there elevate the novel as a whole to the next level.

For instance, the narrator isn't the one around whom the love story revolves. However, at the same time, Shabd’s love and affection towards Soumya makes Sushil realize the meaning of true love, which in turn helps him bridge the mental and emotional gaps that he often faces with his wife. The status symbol of the personnel, and the differences that ranks create among them is also highlighted. Bitter truth, but true for sure. Also, there are several interesting moments in the book that amuse you, one of them being when Shabd recites a poem that he had written for Soumya, right in the presence of her husband.

‘Love @ Air Force’ is a light read, and will keep you glued for a few hours. This is a perfect recipe for a lazy Sunday, and you wouldn't regret picking it up. If not anything else, at-least this book will manage to leave a smile on your face, the satisfaction of having savored a sweet tale, once you are done with it.

Title: Love @ Air Force

Author: Gaurav Sharma

Publisher: Blackbuck Publication

Publication Year: 2014

Language: English

Binding: Paperback

Genre: Fiction

No. of Pages: 287

Price: Rs 150

My Rating: 4/5

This book review is a part of The Readers Cosmos Book Review Program. To get free books visit thereaderscosmos.blogspot.com.