A Knotty Affair by Dhaval Birajdar Jinadatt is Published by Leadstart Publishing Private Limited. This book has two stories running parallel and meets at the end. The use of Flashback technique is apt.

The first  look decides that whether you want to read the book or not. Honestly speaking, this cover might not appeal to people those who go for the book cover but people who go after the main thoughts while surely feel attracted as the cover, though not so good shows a connection between sky and water. If we analyse these two can never meet. Hence, through this the author is trying to tell us that he has a story just like this. Then with this approach, the cover surely makes sense.

The title gives us a vibes of an erotica whereas its just a misleading thought. The book is not at all an erotica and has a contrasting them with a totally poles apart plot.

“A Knotty Affair is a story about a thirty-year-old software engineer, Viraj Sargaokar.
Born into a middle class family that lives in the suburbs, he joins a south Bombay college, where he encounters a culture divide between him and his rich classmates, who ridicule him in various ways, making his college life a hell. 
With a father that is a disciplinarian and a professor in the same college, Viraj’s only consolation is his mother. His mother thinks the world of her son and stands by him through all his struggles. 
Viraj is fascinated by a classmate Ruhi, a beautiful good-natured girl, who be-friends him and treats him well, unlike the rest of his classmates. 
Life changes drastically for Viraj, when his honest professor father is accused of bribery and arrested. 
Will Viraj be able to prove his father’s innocence? 
Will Viraj survive the rigours of college life and overcome his shortcomings?”

The story revolves around Viraj Sargaokar who is a victim as well as a survivor of bullying.  Whereas, his father is an honest man who is accused of taking bribe. Ruhi is the female protagonist who enters Viraj’s life and from then they have been sharing an on and off relationship. The plot is just fine but could have better. The parallel plots makes it interesting for a change.

The author has done wonderful job in characterization. Viraj’s character is the most loved as the way he handles all those bullies and get affected. Further, how he becomes confident from an underconfident guy. This story is Viraj’s journey and its full of struggles, be it winning Ruhi’s heart or proving his father’s innocence.

Ruhi is a simple, confident girl and is again connected to her college friend Viraj through a wrong phone call. A wrong phone call changed her life forever. She is ambitious and the way she handles her friendship with Viraj in college and then after that is impeccable.

Important Messages:

Bullying is a crime and it should be taken care of. Many guys commit suicide because of this. The shyness in behavior or the physique should never be judged. It is a personal choice. Nobody has the right to tease anyone or torture the mind of a person.

The author talks about how people change at times of adversity. This is a true fact. And the thought: Never get connected to an institution in fact love your job and get connected to that.

The style of writing is simple, lucid and clear but too much clarity makes it absurd and boring. The language could have been better though the flashback technique is flawless. The book is short though it has 228 pages but the short pages makes it easy and one can complete the book in one day only. The editing and proof reading needs attention. The plot construction had some loopholes in it. One question remains unanswered as Who was behind the bribery case?

Grab your copies from : http://www.infibeam.com/Books/knotty-affair-dhaval/9789352016242.html#variantId=P-M-B-9789352016242?trackId=india_bookstore

http://www.amazon.in/Knotty-Affair-Dhaval/dp/9352016246?ie=UTF8&tag=indi08-21

https://www.flipkart.com/a-knotty-affair/p/itmema8zxvj3htyg?pid=9789352016242&tag=indi08-21