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I got introduced to PRIYA KUMAR the author in one of the bookstores in the airport, while we both were waiting for a delayed flight. That was many year back. Later I enjoyed reading her book ‘I AM JUST ANOTHER YOU’, so when I saw ‘I WILL GO WITH YOU’ at the CROSSWORD in Oberoi mall, Mumbai, it was natural for me to pick it as my next book to read. I am happy I did that.
The beauty of this particular book is a well-paced story that is really contemporary fiction and dramatic use of life of various characters to deliver the messages. This is definitely a book that I will recommend you must read.
On the backdrop of the Malaysian commercial plane that went missing, Priya Kumar’s ‘I WILL GO WITH YOU- The flight of a lifetime’ ( IWGWY) is the episode of the ill-fated flight SL-502 from Dubai to NY, commanded by a Captain who has decided to commit suicide mid-air. There are 300 passenger and crew in the flight and among them are Paul the multi Billionaire, Muttu- the clairvoyant from India, Jim – a technology obsessed young student going to join his football club, Sarah- a writer who believes her boyfriend Mike is cheating and she is going to make a surprise check and the Crew. The story revolves around them. There is enough drama happening up in the air and the vacillating human mind enhancing the effect.
Muttu through his calculation has seen that he is destined to die much before the flight is completed. When he checks with the birthdate of the other four passenger in Row 26, it is clear that something nasty is going to happen in next four hours. In between the drama of flight path- going through the lightening clouds and the sudden change of events brings the drama alive.
In between the fiction and between the lines quite cleverly placed are the passages filled with philosophy and thinking on life, its aim and passage.
So who are you, the body or something more? What happens when you die? What will happen if you knew you were going to die soon? Who remains and who leaves. What makes the soul come back?
At the end of the book- suddenly when the conversation shifts to recently released souls their thinking and collective wisdom and act- is the only place where I thought the book lost some pace and ease of reading. But this small part does not take away the credit from Priya of really weaving a story with so much insightful thoughts and directions within.
‘I WILL GO WITH YOU’ by PRIYA KUMAR. COGNITE Publishers. RS 250. PAGES 236
