Mukta's Reviews > The Unburn Desire

‘The Unburn Desire’ is a captivating and tender tale that spans the life of a boy through his teens till he is a young man in his early thirties. Roy is the name of the boy and by page 3 I was pulled right into what Roy calls his adventurous fable. Before I knew it, I was roaming inside his head, hearing his thoughts, feeling his hurt, his loss, his guilt.

Thirteen-year-old Roy thinks his army officer father does not love him, loved only the older brother, Joy, he never did want a second child. Roy is a writer, Joy excelled in sports. For the army man father, one is the proverbial apple of his eye, the other he simply terms a loser.

Tragedy strikes when Roy helplessly watches his brother drown in a pool, unable to save him. Soon after, he loses his father in the Kargil War. Overwhelmed by shock and guilt, Roy feels an urgent need to escape. He leaves his family home and enrolls in a boarding school in Dehradun.

Later – a young man – Roy still lives with the trauma, is unhealed, lending to the narrative therefore the same sweetness of innocence, albeit of a hurt soul. He visits his mother, seemingly, after many years and receives several mementos, belonging to his brother and father. He realizes how many misconceptions he has been living with. After all he was just a kid when those two loved ones left him so abruptly.

He learns of his father's heroism during the war and decides to memorialize his life story, ensuring the world knows about his bravery. The more he writes, the more deeply he feels connected to his father—the man "who didn't fear getting shot on the battlefield but rather feared the death he had died a million times already in his son's heart."

The real drama unfolds when Roy crosses fate while trying to save a drowning man. The book he is writing is yet unfinished and we enter the strange realm of the afterworld, so meticulously researched by Karan Bhatia, the author.

‘The Unburn Desire’ engages the reader right from the start, is tenderly written. This is one book where heroes are not just men who defy death but those with enduring spirits and unfulfilled aspirations.