When the miracle that is the mind begins,
It can crave a path towards beautiful springs;
Alter the flow of thought,
and the same mind on damage can binge;
The objective is not that sin but does catharsis in the end win?
Change- just escape and endure it.
Author: Shabri Prasad Sigh
Publisher: Bloomsbury India
Ratings: 4/5
Summary:
Borderline is a journey of Amrita Srivastava. It is the journey of her mind, her b
eing her soul. The book starts with Amrita’s background birth and family history. It shows the underlying currents of a loving close knit family and how the family splits apart due to a ghastly divorce which affects Amrita mentally.
Thereon Amrita is completely dependant on her father and she worships him. Upon moving to America for further studies Amrita falls in love, due to her dependence and growing insecurities, the relationship does not work. Amrita comes to India on a vacation only to find her father dead the next morning. This event in her life shatters her forever. She cannot move past her father’s death, although her mother remarries, Amrita is hellbent on finding love which in turn makes her obsessed with the men that come in her life leading upto a mental breakdown.
When Amrita moves back to India she again gets obsessed with another guy but it ends quickly. She is forced to move into her mothers house and she struggles to make a connect with them. Amrita find liberation and freedom when she gets involved with a married man named “Pink”, who is the only man who understands her mind and her wavering emotions.
When her best friend writes a horrible book on her Amrita has another mental breakdown and goes to a psychiatrist who diagnoses her with Borderline Personality Disorder.
From thereon Amrita tries to heal herself and goes to regular therapy. Things seem to look up but when she meets and forms a bond with another woman diagnosed with the same disorder who eventually commits suicide. Amrita becomes psychotic and is taken to a rehabilitation facility. When she comes back from rehab, Amrita has an internal awakening and she confronts her demons and her past by having an internal debate with herself. She reaches catharsis and she makes a career for herself in writing.
This is the synopsis of the book, and although it is not a woman centric book as many men are also diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, this book takes the readers on an emotional journey into the mind of a borderline.
Review:
Borderline is the story of Amrita Singh who suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder. It’s her journey from school days where she has to move to different places because of her father’s transfer. every time she learns to adopt change. It is tightly said, Situations that happens in childhood stays in our mind forever. Watching her parents getting Divorced, her mother’s affair, Fathers friends misusing his position and His Death. Many such events make Amrita’s condition worst.Will she accept every change that life shows? will all past scars heal?
Borderline is a beautiful story, well expressed by the author. The command that the author had in language is amazing. Not too simple, not too fancy just connecting with the audience. The start of the story is too good. Loved how there were short poems and lines at the start of every chapter. Every new chapter had a new story, a new puzzle to solve. I loved Rose and Thorns chapter. This book has various themes like struggle, emotions, emptiness, love, relationships. It’s a Journey from Amrita’s School life to Graduation to healing. The author also created very strong Personalities. The characters were too strong and each one had their own importance. They added much more to the story. I loved the Father-Daughter relationship expressed by the author. It’s Wonderful. It has many points that we face in our daily lives. Fear of rejection, Fear of getting attached emotionally, fear of losing someone, Fear of failure, fear of getting Ignored. The Pace of the story is too good, though lil heavy. The tempo is full of mystery and surprises. Every chapter had its own importance, it’s own mystery, a story to be told.
There’s a lot to learn from this book.
Shabri left an important message for everyone. what I learned from this book is, Never underestimate anyone, we never know what they are going through. Give time, hear out every person who shares their problem with you, Maybe something good happens.
Strong plot, Astounding characters, Strong command of language makes this book one of the best read.
It’s a lil heavy read and one should read it with lil concentration to understand each and every aspect.
One MUST read this book.
You can get your copy here.
*** I received this copy from the publishers in exchange for honest and unbiased review***
