Book Review: Her Last Wish by Ajay K Pandey

Book: Her Last Wish

Author: Ajay K Pandey

ISBN: 9789382665878

Publisher: Srishti Publishers & Distributors

Pages: 208

Sometime in December 2016, I came across an online contest shared by Ajay K Pandey. The Bookoholics were conducting a contest named, Her Last Wish. It asked to share what will one do if he/she has just 24 hours left to live his/her life. 

I started thinking, what could be my last wishes which I would like to fulfill if I found. I am going to die in next 24 hours. I jotted down my wishes, shared it in the post and forgot about it in my daily schedule.

Surprising, few days later, a message from Ajay popped up in my chat box sharing the link of winner list. He congratulated me for being selected as one of the winners. A smile spread over my lips. 

I got the book last month and am sharing my views below.

About the Author:

Ajay K Pandey is a popular author of two books, You are the Best Wife and Her Last Wish. He is currently working with Cognizant, Pune. Although he grew up with a dream of becoming a teacher, destiny landed him in the IT field. Travelling, trekking and reading novels are his hobbies. Travelling to different places has taught him about different cultures and people and makes him wonder how despite all the differences, there is a bond that unites them. Trekking always inspires him to deal with challenges like a sport. Reading is perhaps what makes him feel alive. Apart from writing, he wants to follow his role model Mother Teresa and make some contribution to the society. His debut novel, You are the Best Wife was based on his life events and went on to become a bestseller soon after its release. It charmed many hearts and inspired several others to live every moment with love, peace and happiness. 

Book Blurb:

His father’s over expectations only ruined his self-confidence further with each failure. A ray of hope walked into his life as his wife, a charismatic personality spreading joy wherever she went. Everything is going per plan, but darkness comes knocking soon. He finds out that she does not have much time to live and takes it upon himself to fight all odds – even his family, if need be – to help her fight her medical condition. His father sees his own redemption in helping them, he knows his son will be a winner only if he will fight for her, with her. Will a defeated son prove himself to be a good husband? Will the father-son duo together be able to change the course of fate? Her Last Wish is an inspiring story of love, relationships and sacrifice, which proves once again how a good wife makes the best husband.

Book Cover:

The cover jacket is eye catching. I’m sure, it will draw attention of several book lovers. However, I felt, the book cover is not at all related to its story line or title of the book. 

Characters:

There are six major characters in the book. Several minor characters also played their part well. Vijay and Astha are the two main characters around whom story revolves from the very first page to the last page of the book.

Vijay Sharma is the central character in the novel. He is the protagonist of the story. Reader sees the story of Astha from his eyes. 

Astha Sharma is another protagonist of the story. The story revolves around Astha’s disease and her last wishes.

Sanjay Sharma is Vijay’s father. He forced his dream on Vijay to become an IAS officer. 

Sushma Sharma is Vijay’s mother. 

Sargam is Astha’s best buddy with whom Astha shared everything. Sargam helped Vijay in finding out Astha’s last wishes. She stayed beside her during her hard times and proved herself as her true friend. 

Daniel is Astha’s ex-boyfriend.

Sanjay, Sushma, Sargam and Daniel also appeared as guest narrators. There are many other minor characters in the story who played their role very well and departed. Without their characters, story line would not have been smooth. Though, I would not get into more detailing. 

My Review:

Her last wish is an emotional read of a warrior like Vijay and a survivor like Astha. Her Last Wish, the title itself speaks aloud the theme of the story. It clearly indicates that it is a gloomy tale. The name prickles a sad feeling. The novel is about Astha and Vijay who were deeply in love with each other. Vijay was a complete introvert, who considered himself a failure. Whereas Astha has a modern ambitious, career oriented, extrovert persona. They were perfectly, mismatched couple. They fought all odds that came their way. They were living a life of happily married couple. 

The story is well knitted. It would never let its readers lose their concentration. It narrates how a failed son turned into a superhero for her wife.  Vijay comes to know that his wife Astha is affected by HIV and she may not survive long. Instead of weeping like other husbands and doubting his wife, he wanted to keep her happy. The story was an inspiration from a real life incident as per the author. Vijay did every possible thing to fulfil his wife's last wishes. Not a single way remained untouched to provide best possible treatment to her wife fighting HIV. Vijay proved to be a real hero the very moment he chose not to doubt on his wife's character. Vijay succeeded personally to gain respect in my heart. I can relate few of Astha's wishes with mine, especially her seventh and the last wish.

The narration has been done in first person narrative. The language is simple and has that personal touch which will make you feel like you've known the characters since quite long time. The best part of the book is the information provided about HIV, AIDS, medical tests etc. It will make the readers aware about the disease. It also talks about how a HIV patient are looked upon and treated by others. 

Favorite quote from the book:

“Always try to represent yourself to be happy, because initially it becomes your look, gradually it becomes your hobby and one day it becomes your personality”.

My Rating:

I will rate Her Last Wish a 4.5, out of 5 stars. 

The only drawback I found in the book is that it failed to create suspense and thrill in the story. I was able to understand easily, what will come up next. Poor page quality upset me. I think, Srishti Publishers & Distributors should take a note here. Apart from this, there were no errors.

Dear Ajay, you have done a brilliant job by penning down such an inspiring story. I'm unable to decide which of your books is better. Looking forward to read more from your pen. Best wishes!

You can get your copy of the book at http://amzn.to/2lw7Rbf.

Feel free to share your honest opinion, views, suggestions and comments. Your little time can help me grow. Till then, Good Bye! Shabba Khair! Sayo Nara! :)