Summer Love by Subin Bhattarai

My Review: 3/5

Every time I have someone coming from Nepal, I ask for some Nepali books. When my sister-in-law came to Germany, she brought me 'Saaya' (Part 2 of Summer Love'). So, I read part 2 before part 1. 

After reading Saaya, I needed to read part 1. I really wanted to know what happened in part one that made the story turn out like this in part 2. So, next time, I ordered 'Summer Love' with my grand parents. 

I must say the writer did great job in putting two books together. Once you read both books, you can really see all the pieces falling into place but there were some things that didn't really make sense to me somehow. 

Synopsis: 

After being accepted into a Masters degree in the Tribhuvan University, Atit Sharma falls in love with Saaya Shakya through her name. He sees her name in the list of entrance topper and immediately gets smitten by it. It was kind of cute and reminded me of the love story of a popular Nepali singer Sugam Pokharel and his wife. They have a similar story. His wife found his name so unique that she called him to talk on phone. That's how their story started. 

So, going back to 'Summer Love', Atit is already in love with Saaya even before he saw her. Once they meet each other, the first introduction turns into friendship and friendship turns into love. Then comes the role of their family who have to come in between them. The problem of Atit and Saaya is mainly due to their caste difference but I bet even if they were from the same caste, there would be some other problems. Sigh! seems like most Nepalese family have a problem with their children's choice. 

My View:

Although the story is ordinary and addresses every problem a Nepalese couple go through, you are kind of confused thinking why it happened the way it happened. In the middle of the story, Saaya is completely changed and you have no idea why and just to find that out, you have to read part 2. It's kind of annoying sometimes when you have to do that. On the other hand, the character, Sushmita seems so lame and nonexistent. I don't think there ever existed a woman like her and neither will be there in future. And Saaya's father, Dayaram or Dayabir whatever his name is, he doesn't seem to be 'Dayalu' even though there is Daya in his name. He calls Atit all the way from Dhangadi to Kathmandu just to humiliate him. And the author ends the book in such a way that you saw part two coming miles away but in his defence, he had to write part 2 otherwise, it would be one of those times where you convict a prisoner without hearing a defender. So if you want to know the full story,
Read Summer Love (part 1)- Atit's part of the story
Read Saaya (part 2)- Saya's part of the story

Then sit back, relax and punish the convict!

Last but not least, the biggest question I kept asking myself throughout the book- 'Why is it called Summer Love?'