Book review: Ravish Kumar’s Ishq Mein Shahar Hona is a chronicle of love in the city, or finding the city in moments of love. It speaks to your heart and splatters your city with small but significant love stories, ones you can never forget.
To say that its association with one of India’s best journalists led to its popularity and success would be unkindness to the nostalgia and innocence of the 90-page paperback. Aptly titled Ishq Mein Shahr Hona, the book chronicles young and old love stories set against the chaos and calm of everyday Delhi.
A collection of Laghu Prem Kathayein or short love stories, abbreviated as LaPreK, the book has been reprinted several times since its first release in 2017. In this bestseller, it seems that many have found their own love stories in which the city too plays a character.
Ravish’s love stories are infused with societal realities – the barriers of caste and class, the secrecy and fears that surround the expression of love, and a growing city that doesn’t look back. He captures all with the innocence of a first-time visitor, tracing his own experiences as a 17-year old boy from Patna struggling to catch up with the pace of a ‘big city’.
The city quietly exists in the background, as lovers meet and separate, giggle and gasp at its avenues. “Going from familiar places to strange corners is the city happening in love. Who is original here? The love between you too has happened to many before.”
The surprising freedom of Delhi is observed with a hitting wordplay – “Only two kinds of people look for a safe place in Delhi. Those who want to love, and those want to look at love.” The metaphors of Kumar’s poetics do not discriminate against a low-budget, simple love – one sought by the many cramped in metros, crossing footbridges with office bags in hand, strolling around colleges with a look of idleness.
If you love the city in all its colors, this book is a must read. Perhaps you will find how great a role it has played in your own stories. Perhaps on one of these pages, you will find yourself.
