Two Sided Dilemma by Divyansh Bhatnagar (Book Review)

Book: Two Sided Dilemma
Author: Divyansh Bhatnagar
Publisher: Notion Press
Format: Ebook
Pages: 209
Genre: Fiction

Every moment in life, we are making decisions. We face a dilemma, and we make a choice. To sleep or wake up, or to swipe left or swipe right. There you got it. The two-sided dilemma is the story about swiping left and right, not just about the life partners but also different choices available during different life stages. The story starts with poetic lines that walk us through the streets of Paris. The book’s greatest strength is the verisimilitude of the events that the Indian audience, especially the youth, would relate to. The novel is full of childhood memories, hopes, heartbreak, friendship and unfulfilled childhood dream/s(yes, I too wanted to be an astronaut). The author, Divyansh Bhatnagar, did a beautiful job of weaving together the experiences from his life with characters of his imagination. The book closely relates to the story of a Bollywood movie (and I believe, in future, we might see a screen adaptation of this novel). Though certain events are predictable (as we all might have gone through similar experiences), that would not stop you from relishing the story. Divyansh described wonderfully how life transitions, and sometimes we have to console ourselves with what destiny has planned for us. As he says,” life always gravitates you towards the things that you resist the most“. Though the novel is more inclined towards love and relationships, I see a tint that the author tried to highlight the importance of mental health in a very subliminal way. We require explanations and closure for many events in life, but sometimes we are left with unanswered questions that leave us in a dilemma. As said by Raghav (the protagonist of the story), “Well, I do not keep a book unread back on the shelf“.

The title of the book justifies the story of Raghav which is faced with the dilemma of choosing at every turn of life. And sometimes, it is hard to make those choices because things are not always black and white.

After all, life is not that black and white after all. one has to look for the rainbow shining behind the dark clouds a heavy rainfall.

PS: To avoid any spoilers, I have not highlighted the characters and storyline.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5