A Second Spring : Novel Review

A Second Spring…brings new hope is the debut work of Sandhya Jane, who has been associated with the corporate world for about two decades, working for leading investment banks across continents.

Avantika, lovingly called Avi, is a single mom and a workaholic who’s often referred to as Monster boss by her sub-ordinates. She is successful, intelligent, witty, ferocious, passionate about work and a control freak. She socializes only for work and post that, rushes home to be with her young son.

She takes Rohan, a new employee with the bank she works in, under her wing as she sees potential in him and wants to give him a chance. Rohan is exact opposite of her and isn’t as passionate about work. He is careless, likes to enjoy life and take it easy instead of being absorbed in work all the time. Although Avi is irritated with his erratic behavior in the beginning, she doesn’t torment him because he manages to meet his deadlines and finish his work in time.

They spend a lot of time together at work, planning and preparing presentations, meeting new and prospective clients, finishing business and having fun. Slowly Rohan manages to tear down the facade of aloofness that Avantika carried around herself to ‘protect’ herself from pain and gets closer to her. Eventually they fall in love.

One fine day, Rohan vanishes from her life, leaving a note that his marriage was fixed by his parents and he couldn’t rebel against them. She immediately moves to States as she is surrounded by the memories of her love in Mumbai and she needed to get away. She finds solace in spiritualism and meditation. Eventually Rohan comes back to her.

What happened to Rohan’s marriage? Doesn’t Avantika find anybody in States? Does she forgive and accept Rohan back in her life? Read on to find out the answers to these questions.

The characterization in A Second Spring is perfect and the matters of love and life are ably dealt with in the novel. Control-freak facade and that aloofness to keep people away, so as to protect oneself against the pain experienced in the past and not wanting to going through it again. But that soft and caring demeanor and vulnerability beneath the facade that allows anyone who’s a little persistent to get closer and gives them the power to hurt.
About how it is in most middle-class families in India where people still don’t rebel against their parents’ choices and sacrifice their love when it comes to duty.
About how destiny plays a major role in who you end up with and if something is meant to be, it happens anyway, now or eventually.

Both know that what they are getting into is trouble and their struggles to stay away in the beginning are nicely portrayed. And how eventually love overcomes their resistance and brings them together only to be fallen apart by the curse of destiny.
How they get closer and how wrecked their lives become when they are drifted apart and how difficult it gets to cope up with the break up is also nicely portrayed.

How most loveless marriages turn out to be after a few years is also aptly shown and while many continue to stay in it for the sake of society and children, more and more people are getting divorced today in modern India.

Overall, A Second Spring makes up for a good read.

Connect with the author here : Sandhya Jane