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| Picture Credits: The Author’s Blog |
Most of us go through life trying to get from one day to another without paying much attention to how we feel about things. It is highly unusual for a person to keep track of their emotions, but just as popular to repress them.
With more and more attention being paid to mental health, people have started to take their feelings into account. How you feel about someone can influence much more than you could have imagined!
Introduction
Book’s Name - Life Is What You Make It
Author’s Name - Preeti Shenoy
Genre - Fiction, Romance
Language - English
Synopsis - Spoiler Alert!
The book, set in 1980s Kerala, opens up in a mental hospital, where the novel's protagonist and narrator, Ankita Sharma, a 21 year old beautiful and smart young woman, has seemingly been brought against her will by her parents.
The story of how she ended up there starts with a flashback of her exchanging letters with Vaibhav, her childhood friend and also her love interest, studying in IIT Delhi.
Ankita has just entered St. Agnes College for Girls, where she is not only an excellent student who aces her exams and excels in her extracurricular activities, but she is also an all-rounder who is adored by everyone.
She is even quickly elected as the Arts Club Secretary, and she makes a lot of friends quite quickly. These thrilling days of her life tower above her affection for Vaibhav and Abhishek, a guy from another college, takes his place in her heart and eventually they start going out.
After three years, Ankita gets into the MBA college of her dreams in Bombay and everything fits in when her family also has to move to Bombay as a result of her father's promotion. Ankita breaks up with Abhishek and not being able to cope with the separation, he gets drunk and commits suicide.
While in Bombay, even though she looks her usual self, depression slowly eats away at her and subdued by it, she tries to commit suicide. She is then diagnosed with bipolar disorder and admitted in the mental hospital and the flashback ends.
The epilogue of the book states that she is able to recover from her depression and fifteen years later, she has earned six degrees and is happily married.
About the Author
Born on December 21, 1971, Preeti Shenoy is an Indian best-selling author and blogger. She has been described as "the only woman in the highest-selling league", "one of India’s most popular authors," and a "keenly observant mind".
She debuted in 2008 with a collection of real-life incidents called 34 Bubblegums and Candies. Life Is What You Make It was her second book that came out 3 years later. Since then, she has been able to publish an average of one book a year.
Since 2013, she has been consistently nominated for the Forbes List of India's 100 Most Influential Celebrities. Brands Academy awarded Preeti the Indian of the Year award. She has also won the New Delhi Management Institute's Business Excellence Award.
About the Book
According to the Nielsen list released in Hindustan Times, Life Is What You Make It was among the Top Books of 2011. It was also included in the Times of India's list of all-time best sellers in 2011.
Out of all her works, Life Is What You Make It is considered her best. It is an incredible love story set in India during the 1990s. It is a story of 'love, hope and how determination can overcome even destiny'.
Psychological Analysis
The book attempts at spreading awareness about the frequently heard but little known disease of bipolar disorder, also known as manic depressive illness, that the protagonist, Ankita Sharma is suffering from. It is a severe psychological disorder that causes dramatic shifts in mood which are unlike the normal mood swings one experiences in everyday life.
It's called "bipolar" because its victims suffer from its two extremes or two "poles"- manic and depressive. When manic, they feel overly cheerful and energized and when depressed, a feeling of extreme gloom and worthlessness takes over them and they start thinking of death and suicide.
The aim of the book is to show readers how suppressing their emotions harms their mental health, how their careless attitude affects their loved ones, how, even if they're devastated, they can rebuild themselves with effort and resoluteness. It guides them on a path to accept their mistakes and move on with their lives.
Famous Quotes
““If I pretended to be "normal" and behaved just like everybody else, if I masked my emotions and smiled a lot, even if I felt disconsolate, nobody would be able to tell”
“We are what our thoughts have made us. So take care what you think. Thoughts live. They travel far.”
“Never belittle love”
“You have no right to kill others. Then how can you have a right to kill yourself?”
“I wrote and wrote and poured out my twenty one year old heart into those pages.”
“I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”
The Bottom Line
The story reminds us of the afflictions of our first love, its power to sway us and the influence love has over how we see the world and ourselves.
My Ratings for the book - 2.5 on 5
You can buy a copy from Amazon - Life Is What You Make It
Written By - Kristi Mazumdar
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