Magical Love Story

A debut fiction by Suman Hossain, A Guy Thing is the story of an IITian, Sahil, who is a dreamer and has the courage to follow his dreams. He wants to break the norms at IIT, Delhi, and change the clich`E9, which he has heard from girls that "IITians are nerds".

Sahil, unlike any other IITian, is busy ‘exploring’ the best moments of his life in Delhi—he is enjoying his hostel days, blind dates, night-outs, porn videos and much more, but it’s his magical love story that takes him to a different world and makes all the difference in his life. Surrounded by shadows, in search of a lost enemy, Sahil’s dream love is following him. Oblivious of destiny’s plans, Sahil is now taken over by the chanted beauty who is like a shadow of swords in the devil land that comes prepared for destruction.

Within a month and after a few dates, Rida, his ladylove, becomes his world that now centers around Orkuting, SMSing and dating. Sahil, who made fun of his friends for chatting online, on the mobile for hours, is now following the league. Deeply in love, Sahil is aiming high to set trends and is now sure of his love for Rida, which can turn around his life for better. Rida’s letter is now a painkiller for Sahil and makes him realise a lot of things about love.

Discovering Rida is not even over and the hell breaks loose upon Sahil once again in the crowded Sarojini Nagar market, where he had experienced the minimum distance between life and death durbomb blast. But this time, it is no escape for him as Rida leaves him alone and disappears in the busy market. He receives nothing else except an SMS, saying that she will never meet him again and if he ever tries to meet her, she will kill herself.

His world comes to a standstill and he starts hating the books that promised to help build his career. His miseries are far from over as one of his hostel mates, Anjan, hangs himself to death. Sudden and strange death affects him deeply and here comes the turning point in the novel when he spots a book, which he had gifted to Rida, on Anjan’s windowsill. Sahil now decides to put an end to all the mysteries surrounding him, including Anjan’s death and the most baffling enigma called love.

However, you just have to read the novel to figure out for yourself how he had created an agonising situation for himself for absolutely nothing and how he comes out of it after meeting Rida’s father. On the whole, the novel is a good, entertaining read and offers a peep into hostel life.