Book Review : My Mute Girlfriend

Name: My Mute Girlfriend
Writer: Himanshu Rai
Publication date: 10 February, 2018

ISBN-10: 9387022145
ISBN-13: 978-9387022140

Pages: 216 pages

Price: Rs.195
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★.5

Blurb:

Rohan is a telecom professional posted in Meerut and misses his girlfriend from college days, who had stopped interacting with him, without giving any reason. Although she had always stood by his side and her eyes reflected immense love, but she remained his mute girlfriend. The book opens with an SMS from Vaidehi to Rohan, after five long years. But before he could reply, his mobile gets damaged and he wanders in his memories to narrate a story. About how his girlfriend became his mute girlfriend after the first year of their engineering college. My Mute Girlfriend is a true romance story of how Rohan unravels the answers to why Vaidehi was mute for so long and how their life is about to change. But little do they know that the worst is yet to come.

My Thoughts:
I have mixed feelings about this book. I adored most of this book but there were a few parts that left me confused/annoyed.

The story revolves around Rohan, a telecom professional, who reminisces his college days. Rohan was in love with Navya for 3 years, who his junior during his school days but decides to propose her after he becomes an engineer.

"God help me. When I wanted to stay awake, she made me sleep; now when I want to sleep, she is keeping me up. Is it because I miss her?"

During the college counseling, he meets Vaidehi and instantly feels connected. 

When Rohan joins RK College of Engineering, Jabalpur, after the initial days of ragging, he ends up making a bunch of friends at his hostel. With every passing day, his feelings for Vaidehi grow stronger but also fills him with guilt because he didn't want to lose Navya as well.
His sister Bhumi helps Rohan understand his feelings. He realizes that his feelings for Navya were nothing but an infatuation while in reality, he had fallen in love with Vaidehi.

"Did I like Vaidehi? But how come, we were still just friends? Why was I seeing Vaidehi's face when I was talking to Navya? Which one was infatuation and which was love? Vaidehi was steadily creeping on my mind, but I still loved Navya. Oh god, I was getting really confused between both."

Rohan and Vaidehi were then in a relationship but Vaidehi asked Rohan to keep their relationship a secret but the entire college including Rohan's friends already knew about them. After the 1st year of college comes to an end, Vaidehi suddenly stops talking to Rohan and never tells him the reason no matter how hard Rohan tried. Initially, Rohan goes into depression but his friends help him to overcome the melancholy and achieve great heights in his studies and his career. Rohan, the guy who had ignored and lost all his friends during his relationship with Vaidehi; was now not only confident and studious but also had a large friends circle.
After 5 years, Rohan was still in love with Vaidehi and couldn't understand the reason behind her cold behavior. He still considered Vaidehi his "Mute Girlfriend". Unexpectedly, one evening, he receives a message from Vaidehi conveying her desire to meet him but Rohan drops his phone and loses her number. After a lot of struggle, he finally manages to get her number and contacts her. But this conversation only breaks his heart further. Why had Vaidehi contacted Rohan after 5 long years? What forced her to become Rohan's 'Mute Girlfriend'?

“That day I realized I had lost her forever. I had lost her smile, her friendship, her voice… But still, somewhere in my heart, I believed her to be my girlfriend. My mute girlfriend.”

Likes:

The language used by the author is simple and easy to understand.
The story is a perfect blend of emotions.
I was glad that the story didn't focus ONLY on the love story but rather described the hostel and college experiences as well.
I adored the bond between Rohan and his sister, Bhumi. It felt so relatable.
The relationship between Navya and Rohan was extremely cute and I wouldn't have minded if their story was a little longer.
The climax of the story was totally unexpected.

Dislikes:

The letters written by Navya, Vineet and Anurag seemed unnecessary. I think a conversation would have made more sense.
There are a lot of instances where Rohan and Vaidehi's friends describe Vaidehi as a selfish, arrogant girl who prides upon her intelligence. But there is not one instance where she was actually mean to anyone (except with Rohan after their breakup). So even after completing the book, I am not satisfied with Vaidehi's character.
Recommend?

All in all, "My Mute Girlfriend" was a great read and I would totally recommend it if you are looking for a light read.

"I tried to ignore her voice, I tried to ignore her twinkling earrings, but something in her eyes had made me follow her to Jabalpur."