“I don’t know if life is greater than death but love is more than either”.
The above line from the movie Tristan and Isolde was not the inspiration, but rather was a reiteration of her faith in the powerful emotion that love is, for Dr Navniit Gandhi as she penned her first collection of short stories in English. The Book titled: RAINDROPS was released at a Launch in Mumbai on Feb 24th at Title Waves—a favorite venue of book-lovers and writers, alike. Senior television/film artist and the present President of IPTA —Sulbha Aryaa unveiled the Book. While releasing the Book, Sulbha Aryaa fondly reminisced her association with Navniit, spanning over three decades, and expressed pride at her former student’s foray into story-writing.
All the 19 stories in the Book have one thread weaving them together and that is thread of Love. “However, the stories are not just about the romance that blossoms between two hearts, but are about the varying hues and manifestation of this emotion that stirs, like none other… Love, like the pure and translucent drops of rain, falls on every parched heart, at least once in a lifetime”, earnestly believes Navniit.
A relatively familiar name amongst the Indian community in Kuwait and particularly so, for the readers of the indiansinkuwait.com—Navniit is not a first-time author. She has already authored Five Books, all of which have been much appreciated, and the genres include poetry, philosophy, politics and fiction. She has contributed nearly 50 articles exclusively on indiansinkuwait.com, over the past five years—in addition to the nearly 150+ articles and columns which have been published in India so far.
Talking about Raindrops Navniit adds: There are stories in it of a student loving her teacher, and of a mentor loving the protégé, as also stories of an accomplished soul loving itself the most and of course, there are also stories of love reciprocated and love betrayed… For some of us, love is never returned and for some, it is returned but then it wrinkles and fades. I have often wondered that how this one emotion makes living worthwhile and blissful and then, bleak and sorrowful—for the same person at different times? What an emotion!!! Billions experience it and yet, no two stories are similar.” She says that the emotion is visible everywhere; all around us… One can easily see lives which are fragrant and lives which are tearful, all because of the presence or the absence of this one emotion.
Published and released by Story Mirror, Mumbai— Raindrops is available for sale in a large number of bookstores all over India and online on Amazon, Flipkart etc.