Book review: 45 days in a cancer hospital

Publisher: Leadstart Publishing

ISBN-13: 9789381576823

ISBN-10: 9381576823

No. of Pages: 298

Format: Paperback

Language: English

About the book:

The first verdict after reading 45 days in a Cancer hospital-by Alka Dimri Saklani- I could not stop myself from throwing suspicious looks at my neighbors. Both the hubby and his wife are doctors at a city cancer hospital. I confess I did have one more reason to be at daggers drawn with this couple. None of my rubber balls saw the field again after landing at their balcony! But we are not playing gully cricket with 45 days- we are trying to chalk out the pros and cons of the book. Thus here it goes. 

Starting from Dr Chatterjee to the main culprit- whose is also one of sweet talking doctor of the board- all of them gave me Goosebumps. One talks with dead mom and the other is up to make the living turn into ghosts. I am not reading too many ghost stories-but a silhouette lurking in empty corridors is to enough to make me hide under my bed. Dr. Amin is a wrongly persecuted guy- but is he the culprit- I don’t mind if the readers consider him as one along with the lead protagonist of the novel Ashritha. And I do have problems with a love plot jutting in from nowhere in any suspense novel-thanks to the writer- she has saved me from this agony. She rightfully keeps love in the backdrop- mentioning it only for the sake of the narrative at places.

My heart goes out for the suffering cancer patients- starting from Niharika, Romil to Pinky- all made me feel blessed in one way- I am lucky to be miles away from this ailment. Perhaps this is the reason why- I rebuked myself for forgetting how my neighbors are angels in the lives of many of their patients, later on. 

The characters are really well formed. You can feel the pain of Saurabh, the panic in the voice of the nervous nurse Vishakha and even the trauma some of the alleged patients counting their last days in Umeed hospital. Quite an irony name this institution has. But- I found the lead character quite interesting in a weird way. In one way it is good that I don’t wish to consider writing as a career- for me reading to good enough for a lifetime. Or else I might end of wishing to live in a mine- simply out of the whim to write a novel on the lives of miners. Ashritha stays in a hospital just to give her novel a real feel!! The CBI officer Animesh among all the others is perhaps the only man of honor in the whole book. A balanced human portrayal- though a few pages seemed unnecessary making the book fatter than it actually should be. A 3.5 out of 5 is what I can afford for the medical thriller- Alka promise me that your next book will be suspense and thrill packed- I am a ready buyer!