When the Wildflowers Bloom-Rupa Bhullar

Book: When the Wildflowers Bloom
Author: Rupa Bhullar
Publisher: Rupa Publications

When are some strangers not strangers enough?

When the Wildflowers Bloom by Rupa Bhullar is the story of Tara Bhullar, who faces public humiliation by her husband one evening, finds herself at a crossroad as she cannot readily go back to the life she once knew, nor can she move forward without a career or life skills to sustain her. To cope with the emotions, she decides to go to her grandmother’s place in the village. Amid the simple joys of rural life, and heart-wrenching struggles of daily survival, Tara unknowingly kindles a spark of hope. A hope that eventually lights her own fire. As she explores her own life, this is a story of hope, love, and the power of dreams.

The book is wonderfully plotted, and I loved how the author decided to keep the plot simple to focus on the characters and their emotions. The storytelling is quite powerful, and it almost magically transports you to the place the story is unfolding in. Be it Kasauli or the village in Punjab, the author has vividly described the scenes to help the reader visualize the events properly. Another aspect I loved was that the story was quite realistic, without any untoward dramatization or irrelevant scenes. The focus was always on Tara, her life and how things change in life once we change our perspective. The message that the author wanted to convey from the story of accepting life as it comes and to always focus on the larger goals is very well described. The climax was interesting and personally, it was something that drove the point home. I loved the fact that it was original and moved away from a movie-like ending.

The characters are well crafted and each of them suffer from their flaws, one that makes them who they are. There is no knight in a shining armor or a damsel in distress. There are normal people, like you and me, in a situation we would have seen or experienced and Rupa has just manifested them in the story. The element of relativity is quite high and that is what impressed me. Tara’s character has an arc that would be a path a lot of us would have thought about at some point in our lives. Dev’s character was the one that could have gone either way, but Rupa manages to balance the thin ice that the character treads on.

Overall, a wonderful book that I would recommend you read for its wonderful storyline and relatable characters. It scores a 4.5/5 for me.

Grab a copy of the book here.