K iss The Lines , the first book by author Vinamra Srivastava, begins with a lot of promise. And rightfully so, seeing how we have few books for youngsters in India that discuss the travails of making it big in the world of sports. And that’s it, really. The alluring topic seems to charm you for a while. But once you’re through a few pages, there is nothing the book offers to keep you from putting it down, literally and figuratively.
Good start
The story revolves around 13-year-old Payal Malhotra, a gifted badminton player, who has everything going for her until she and her family meet with a car accident. The accident brings a tragic twist to her life, killing her father and leaving her with retrograde amnesia. With this, Payal does not remember the last two years of her life in which she had found her true calling in badminton.
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Her family keeps her love for badminton a secret from her as they want her to be a ‘normal’ teenager who focuses on her academics. The rest of the story is about how Payal beats all odds to find her lost dream and make her way back to the court.
The book does a good job of illustrating how hard youngsters must work in order to follow their passion in sport. But sadly, the good times come to an end very early in the book, and without warning. The plot has a few loopholes too. For example, the author doesn’t quite explain how the universe manages to hide all those people from Payal who knew about her blossoming career in badminton, before she met with the accident. She does after all make it to the Junior National Badminton Championships!
Also, it is worth mentioning that the author has strived to use good, flowery language in his book. But this gets nullified by the handful of grammatical errors that are hard to ignore.
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Simply put, the story is quite predictable. You won’t miss much if you miss this one!