The Last Bloom by Poulomi Sen Gupta: Book Review

The question is who cares about what goes on in the educational campuses? In India, do anything but don’t challenge the status quo is the message that we all are fed in our childhood and just rest with that for the rest of our life. Has anyone of us stood up against these odds and fought? Most of the times, the hanging faces facing the earth will tell you the answer to this question… yes, we do have to admit that artists keep trying with their works.

An author Poulomi Sengupta has come up with a book The Last Bloom which deals with the issue of campus politics which have become very popular these days in Indian educational institutions. She has tried to deal with the issue as far as she could. How does the politics enter into the veins and how does it perturb the educational system and how does the lust of power goes on to spoil the students… all these situations have been handled by the author up to her fiction capacity. The ultimate balance that she has also tried to establish is that politics is not so good if it goes as far as it should not go, in the terms of universities and colleges.

The young characters in the book represent various aspects of the student life in the colleges. A reader can find vivid description filled with vigour, passion and other decorative colours of life that we all go through at certain times. It becomes easy to relate to the characters as a reader who is interested in reading contemporary fiction must be attending college at some point in his or her life. College life is perhaps the best phase of the life of a young person and you can find the same sentiments here. However, the dream of the protagonist of a beautiful college life is almost spoiled as she finds herself trapped in the pang of dirty campus politics… A former bright student of the school comes to the university with lots of anticipations and dreams but all go waste because of the unscrutinzed administration going on llke a rotten record! The book The Last Bloom also shakes our minds – it asks us the question whether we are happy to let go as it is going or we are ready to do something and change the things towards betterment? Such sensibility from the side of a young author is a plus point in the book which is better displayed, perhaps from her mouthpiece character, Priya.

We choose our college just by the posters which are present in the daily newspapers or by the bright and colourful advertisements in the television or perhaps by the hear-say that goes around. The same mistake is committed by the protagonist in the novel. In the course of her bitter-sweet experiences in the campus, Priya meets some of her friends and foes. She finds Suvo, perhaps the counter-protagonist and other persons. The plot furthers with Priya’s tussle with the characters around her in the novel. She takes on the system entirely on her own and determines to change the system. As the novels are written by authors with a motive, surely, the protagonist here can drive the novel to a poetic justice, but it leaves a carved question on our minds – can we really change and take things on? Can we bring our education system to its basic purpose – educating the young people? Can we save our youths from the trap of dirty campus politics which at times might end in deaths? There are many questions which will arise in the course of this book’s pages… keep reading!

Review Routed Via: Ashvamegh Book Reviews