37+ Grace Marks by Vishal Anand follows the life of Viraj, a computer engineering student at a college in Pune. The story encapsulates the lifestyle of a typical engineering student, friendship, rivalry, love, bankruptcy and the most important of all, passing the semester without any backlogs.
Viraj is a first year computer engineering student and this is his story. Being in a college where girls are scarce is a feat, so when the beautiful Nimisha entered the class for the first time, after almost half the semester had passed, Viraj and several other guys had their eyes only for her. For Viraj, it was love at first sight, seeing her everyday from that day on, he would feel blessed. Soon, the end of sem exams arrive, and realizing he hasn’t even picked up his books till now, Viraj enlists the help of his friends to make him complete the entire syllabus in three days before the exams. But who in the world has ever stuck to the studying routine, and these guys were no different. Having wasted his entire sem, Viraj wasted more than half of his precious three days as well, eyeing up girls from neighbouring colleges and munching. Needless to say, he barely manages to pass, with one backlog as well. What follows is shock and fake promises to study next time.
All this while, Viraj was never able to let Nimisha out of his mind. Even the slightest mention of her name sent electricity down his spine and he found himself lost in her thoughts. On the behest of his friends, he call her at midnight of Valentine’s Day, not revealing his identity. Their chats continue for a month before she demands to meet him. Reluctantly, he comes out in the open, tells her he loves her, after which she asks him to maintain distance. But the lover boy just couldn’t, his infatuation deepens with time, and at one point, he abuses her as a result of his frustration. In spite of warnings from their common classmates, Viraj is unable to keep himself away from her, and requests her friend to let him spend his birthday with her. An arrangement is done, Viraj sits across at a different table with his friends while Nimisha on another with hers. When she gets to know the reason of the coincidence of him being in the same restaurant as her, she goes upto him and asks him to treat to a sweet dish, just for the sake of being cordial. Now the lover boy, falls hopelessly in love, unable to eat or drink which lands him in hospital with saline drips. Only after staying there for a few days and repeated coercing from his friends does he understand the need to eat and stay healthy, in order to continue his preparations for upcoming exams.
Viraj tries to put Nimisha in the backseat while his friends arrange for a set up another girl, but it fails too. Nimisha doesn’t go away from his mind. Losing in love and then losing an academic year since he failed, he finds himself at the edge of a cliff, ready to jump, but is saved by a call from his father at the nick of time. Motivation from his father enables him to finish his pending graduation and he passes with good marks. The day before his train to his home, when he is travelling on the highway, he witnesses an accident, only to find the victim as Nimisha. He rushes her to the nearby hospital, informs her parents and leaves just as she was coming into her senses after the successful operation. Six months later, he receives a call, from his beloved Nimisha, asking him to meet her, and then, life is beautiful.
The plot of this novel is like a lame rip off of the immensely popular, Five Point Someone. The narrative is that of first person, Viraj, but at times it changes to simple narration of events where he is not even present. The time span which is covered in the story is unbalanced, some semesters are spoken of via multiple chapters while others are just skipped in a line or two. It lacks a continuity. The language is extremely simple, more like having been translated to English directly from Hindi, phrases have been used where a simple word could have sufficed. There are instances form the book where the author seems to have been confused, while he speaks about telephone booths on one hand, he switches to mobile phones in the next chapter. One particular instance that made me question logic was when Viraj sees a coffee moustache on Laila, the girl he was talking to, just when in the previous line he exclaimed how quickly she was sucking all the coffee in via a straw! And the most important of all, should a girl suddenly love a guy and be ready to be with him just because he saved her life, even if he stalked her for full four years?
Having pushed myself to reach the last page of the novel, despite wanting to put it down after just a couple of chapters was a daunting task. The plot seemed to be going no-where, the author couldn’t clearly demarcate the course in which the story was heading. The name of the book suggested a good read, maybe a story about a student passing with 37+ grace marks always, during his tenure as a student, yet making it big in the real world, proving that marks don’t define the calibre of a person, it is his talent and the ability to thrive for the best of his future, but became a feeble stalking love story. Had the plot followed a more definitive approach to the journey of the protagonist, instead of it being a bunch of situations thrown together, alienated from each other to some extent, the novel could have been an eye opener to those who think good marks are the only way to a successful future.