A COSMOPOLITAN TALE STRADDLING DIFFERENT ERAS AND CULTURES

Book: Harp Author: Nidhi Dalmia

A romantic read that delves into a better and mature understanding of love, duty, obligations and compassion; that too foraying into a different era and culture seems very interesting. The author Nidhi Dalmia comes up with such a book “Harp”, which is a romantic love story which depicts the lives and loves of three protagonists in the zeitgeist and idealism of the 1960s, straddling the American, European and Indian cultures.
The book details the journeys of three protagonists- Ashok, a young man coming from a manufacturing family, travelling in a Europe-less-travelled; Lauren, a young Polish woman from Wroclaw, who has a calling to music; and Aparna, brought up in India and settled in California, who has loved and lost once. Moving through India, Europe and USA, Harp follows the lives of the three protagonists as they engage with the cultural, sexual, student revolutions, and the music of the sixties.
The front cover of the book depicts the musical instrument Harp, a building in the Indo-Saracenic style of architecture and a European sculpture. A romantic couple is also seen kissing. The trees are also depicted in varying shades of green, amber and ochre and depict the changing phases in the lives of the protagonists. The blurb on the back cover is lyrical and exquisitely written. The title “Harp” is also spot-on, because of the protagonist Lauren’s dedication to the musical instrument and because it partly drives the narrative; and also because the book is a harping on the idealist life of the 1960s.
The characters are the heart of this story, and it is their musings and complexities that gives the narrative a cozy appeal. The writing style is eloquent, yet simple; and there’s peppering of words from many languages, including Polish, French, Hindi and Sanskrit in this cosmopolitan tale. A glossary of words used from different languages has also been provided at the end, for the readers’ reference. The author’s command on the technical details of the dairy sector is commendable, but it dulls the story a bit and makes the reader disinterested at times.
This is a book having an absorbing and engaging story of memorable and impressive protagonists and will surely entice readers who like somewhat classical and nostalgic romantic reads. The Iron curtain and the cold war years form a backdrop of the story; and life in communist Poland, India of the pre-liberalisation times and the American capitalist dream has also been detailed well. This is a book in which the subtle nuances of that period have been captured intricately; and readers will surely love this period romantic saga which shows the quintessence of multiculturalism, and this portrayal of the benefits of a cosmopolitan free world also has contemporary relevance in the present world of trade wars, growing Western isolationism and Right-wing extremist nationalism.