Twice Upon a Time by Anjali Bhatia: a review

A story of love, karma, dreams, memories, and destinies… I can’t really put the cover in words but can say that the cover of Anjali Bhatia’s debut book Twice upon a time, touches chords of the readers. The cover in itself brings in a surrealistic feel with itself. The lotus shaped 7 point sign, the readers would know is of much importance in the book. Travelling through time, this book in itself is a dream.

A sneak peak on the blurb- Is a man’s past set in stone, or can it be changed? Rewritten and reshaped? Is time a reality, or a construct of the imagination? Fleeting and fragmented? One man is about to find out…Meet Arpit, a bitter young man who embarks upon an incredible and seemingly impossible journey to right the seven wrongs that have shadowed his life, all in a quest to be together with Mannat, the love of his life. When Arpit meets Nishimaya, a modern-day mystic, little does he know that his life is about to change. In entirety. But change comes with effort. And Arpit has to lose himself in order to resurrect his past and set things right. With every past mistake he corrects, he finds a corresponding change in his present life… but not all changes are easy to make. And as Arpit travels further back into his own life, he’s forced into frightening depths and fight against his own self to dredge up the truth from the sediments of folly that litter his world. Unknown to him, however, Mannat is supporting his struggle from halfway across the world even as she tries to gather her own life together. And Nishimaya, as she takes Arpit through the swirls of time, has to confront ghosts of her own as well. As their lives get caught in the web of karma, dreams, memories, and destinies, Arpit, Mannat and Nishimaya must stumble and fall if they are to reach the end. But time still holds a revelation none of them had expected.

To describe the characters, Arpit’s character was very vulnerable from the very start. But the descriptions were so wonderful that any person reading it would paint the picture of the characters in their minds (only if they have powers like Nishimaya to produce them on paper) A few characters were very distinct and I didn’t feel any unnecessary characters here in the book.

Certain stories bring forth a character and then make them disappear only to never bring back it in the story but Anjali Bhatia proves all those sensations wrong cause whenever she has brought forth a character in the story, she has done proper justice , to the story and to the character; mixing them both very beautifully in a single story.

I loved the character of Nishimaya cause maybe I could see a few similarities with me. The characters of Mannat, Veerji and even Sunny were beautifully etched. The way the author has weaved the story together with the perfect punches, makes this book a nice read all-together. The incidents in the book seem to-good to be true at certain points of the story making it more of a fantasy but that doesn’t mar the effect of the story.

The way the story seamlessly slides from one place to another brings the readers in awe and that is, I believe to be one of the plus points of the storyline. The other elements apart from the mystic flavor of the book also show to be a nice part of the story. I particularly liked the redreaming sessions and the end of the story. Coming to the hitches, I felt that at places it has been a bit exaggerated and so much of divultion wasn’t much necessary for the book.

For that sole reason, I also felt that a few more twists and turns would have done no harm to the story and the book in itself and would’ve given it a more interesting feel. For now, I would like to rate the book 4.25 out of 5 waiting for more of the majestic experience from the writer in the future.