Lifeline-Chetan Maheshwari

Book: Lifeline: Will They Ever Succeed?
Author: Chetan Maheshwari
Publisher: Storymirror

Do you have a zeal to follow your passion?

Lifeline by Chetan Maheshwari is a story of three people, about love, friendship, money and a lot more! Exploring the lives of Teesha, an ambitious workaholic who is battling the scars of her last relationship, Akhil, a consultant and good at his job who is facing the biggest challenge battling office politics, and Rati, a single mother and a freelancer looking to launch her own startup. When their paths intersect and life takes a turn, the three of them have to take come of the most crucial decisions of their lives, one that could probably define the rest of their lives. Can they hold on to their lifelines in this challenge?

The story is an interesting fables that takes up multiple themes and explores them through the course of the story. While the primary arc of the story is that of discovering one’s own self, it also explores various ideas such as relationships and family. I loved how there are three independent stories in the first half of the book, each of them unique and dealing with a specific aspect that Chetan wanted to explore. The narration is interesting and the changing perspectives between Teesha, Akhil and Rati shows different perspectives to a similar situation. Chetan has expressed his idea of relationships quite interestingly. The things that did not work for me though was that the story stretched out a bit in the second half. Some of the scenes felt over dramatized and probably could have been toned down as they caused the concentration to break. The climax is interesting and well developed and closes the story nicely.

The book stands on the shoulders of its three characters-Teesha, Akhil and Rati and they do an excellent job pulling it forward. The character arcs are well developed and each of them gets their own space to develop. I particularly liked the way Akhil’s character developed through the hoops of office politics and emerged a better manner. Rati’s character seemed more like the whining kind and while she appeared positive on the first impression, her character had a negative trait that cast a shadow on the otherwise positive vibes from Akhil and Teesha.

Overall, a good book that scores a 4/5 for me.

Get your copy from Amazon India here.