Book Review #32: The Path Is The Way

Name: The Path Is The Way
Author: Mohit Badoni
No. of Pages: 180
Genre: Fiction-General
Publisher: BecomeShakespeare.Com
Price: Rs. 199/-
Published in: 2015

The blurb of the book says:
Vijay Amrit Raj Sharma, a young Indian Army Officer is critically injured in a cordon and search operation, Struggling between life and death, he recalls the lessons that life and his grandfather have taught him. The young officer survives his gunshot wound only to find out that he has survived to pay back for his sins.

Embarking on a journey to find a way to wash away his sins, Vijay discovers love, friendship, passion, greed, despair and finally, hope.

Like a flowing river, The path itself becomes the way with an invisible world manifesting itself in the visible world to grasp the mysteries of human morality and the quest of redemption.

About the author:
Lt. Col. Mohit Badoni was commissioned into the 12th batallion of the Rajputana Rifles in 1999. An alumni of the Indian Military Academy, the author had three field tenures in Jammu & Kashmir, where he had been actively deployed in counter terrorist operations including a tenure with The Rashtriya Rifles. Currently, the officer is serving in High Altitude in Arunachal Pradesh. The officer has also been actively deployed in the desert sector during Operation Parakram and served in line of control Operation Vijay. The author has vast experience in Ammunition, Counter IED and is qualified in CBRN warfare. The author already has a published novel to his credit, 'CROSSROADS', which was published in the year 2010, when he was serving the Rashtriya Rifles. The author is a vivid writer, and has been contributing to professional articles in military journals. Writing fiction is his passion and he wants to reach out to the world through his writing, with a message behind every story that he intends to tell.

MY THOUGHTS:
Cover: The cover shows a man looking at a flowing river.

Writing: The writing is simple.

Story: The protagonist, Vijay, grows up in the hill-station of Mussoorie with his grandfather. He loses his mother at birth and his father a few years later. In college he meets Philip and Radha who become his best friends. Amidst unrest and desires, he loses them both in different ways. He joins the Indian Army but after surviving a gun-shot he decides to quit. When he is finally comes face to face with the darkness inside him, he decides that it's time for redemption. He finally dedicates his life for a better cause and hopes to be forgiven.

The plot and the storyline had potential but it was told in a very plain manner. As a reader, I could not connect with the characters. The plot has woven well into real incidents like the struggle for formation of the Indian state of Uttaranchal, Kargil War and the devastating Uttaranchal floods. It is an average book which had the potential to become a good one.

I give "The Path Is The Way" 3 stars on a scale of 5.


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