For The Sake Of Love Book Exclusive Excerpt, Page 61 onwards…
‘4.5 stars on 5 stars on Amazon’ + Amazon Best Reads Indian Books 2018
‘This book will rekindle your faith in love’ – India Today
‘Perfect blend of suspense & romance’ – Deccan Chronicle
‘An ode to selfless love’ – The Hindu
Winner of Literary Excellence Award 2019 at Asiad Literature Festival
‘A tale that will make you re-think about love and life’ – Asian Age
‘Anamika knows that art of storytelling and keeping readers hooked’ – TOI
‘Suspense of the missing girl keeps you hooked till the last page’ – HT City
Book Blurb:
Young, pretty and successful, Twisha Khanna has it all. She works hard and has no time for frivolities like love. After all, being the creative head of a happening travel magazine is no joke.
So when she travels to Shimla on an assignment, the last thing on Twisha’s mind is love. But then, life has other plans. On finding a stack of old love letters that speak of an unrequited romance, Twisha is convinced that she must find the man who wrote these letters and help him.
Along the way, she meets spoilt rich boy Alex, who is everything she would NOT want in a man. As the two try to reunite the old lovers mentioned in the letters, they are hardly aware that how they feel about love and life is going to change forever…
Read the exclusive excerpt from the bestselling novel For The Sake Of Love, Page 61 onwards…
‘You? But why?’ I was surprised.‘They interested me, Twi. The letters seemed really
For the Sake of Love 51 antique, vintage types. You see, they were bound by this lovely leather strap and some even had a sheet of butter paper covering them,’ said Bobby, as she made herself comfortable on the cozy, furry couch.
‘But why would you pick those pieces of crap?’‘
Well, last night, I kept thinking of those letters—who would’ve written them, who they would’ve been for I couldn’t even concentrate on my show. So after I finished watching my TV serial, I picked them all up and thought of reading them. I have read nine letters so far.’
‘Oh…kay, stop it, Bobby! I don’t think I want to know this. How can you read someone else’s letters? You shouldn’t have!’ I said, as I sat beside Bobby, with my cup of coffee.
‘Twi, just read one letter and I bet you will not be able to resist reading the rest. They are addictive!’
Bobby suddenly sat straight with full-on energy.
‘No, thanks.’ I just wasn’t interested.
‘C’mon, Twi. These aren’t some boring old letters. They’re love letters! For someone named Jasmine, from a guy called David. It’s all so romantic!’
‘Love letters?’ I asked. I have to admit my curiosity was ignited.
‘I have never read a real love letter in my life, Bobby! Never ever.’
‘Oh, Twi! You have to read them. This guy is super romantic. But the girl is weird. In all the letters that I read so far, David says that he is awaiting her response. I guess she never replied!’ Bobby said, as she rolled her eyes.
‘Okay, I take my words back. This is definitely interesting. I called those letters crap. I shouldn’t have!’ I replied, with guilt in my heart.
‘Oh, you are having coffee. I am going to make some for me too. You want another cup, Twi?’ Bobby asked, as she stood up from the couch and started walking towards the kitchen.
‘Yeah, sure. How can I say no to coffee?’ I grinned.
‘Hey! There’s an automatic coffee-maker in here! This is awesome, Twi, isn’t it?’ Bobby said from the kitchen.
‘It certainly is. By the way, Bobby, come to your room when you are done. I am heading there to check out your new collection of antiques,’ I said, as I winked at Bobby from the living area.
‘Sure!’
Two hours passed.
Bobby and I sorted all the letters and put them date-wise in order to understand the real story behind the letters. Once done, we started from the first letter, which was written on February 14, 1956.
It was fascinating stuff. What Kind of love is this?
As we read the letters, our curiosity levels rose. With each of David’s letters, we kept getting keener to see if Jasmine had replied. This guy, David, had almost narrated his whole story through these letters. And all through life and its harsh phases, what did he wish for? Simply a reply from that girl. He tried to keep his promise of not visiting her home, wrote to her regularly, and seemed to love her forever! Was this true love? I wondered whichplanet these guys were from.
Actually not ‘these guys’, but this guy: David. For over fifty years, he had waited at that goddamn place: just waiting for the girl and her letters?Could all this be real; or was it some kind of a joke? Maybe someone was playing a prank on us! But who? We didn’t even know anyone here. And what about the feelings in those letters? They felt so real. I had read somewhere that people wait for years for their true love. The hope of meeting them one day keeps their love alive. They pass their time reminiscing about the moments spent together. While they may not rebel, and instead may go through all the necessary duties of life, they silently try to keep their love alive. They don’t trespass the line of dignity. They respect each other’s feelings.
They stay silent.
They suffer.
They wait.
They love…
Whenever I would hear these soppy, philosophical thoughts on love, I used to gag. I used to think that it was all bullshit. I mean really, who does that? But today, reading these letters … I cried. I had no words to express my sadness…
How can a man love a woman without getting intimate, without even kissing once? He loved her like crazy without any of this.Yes, he was crazy and this was sheer madness. But I guess, love does this to people! Reading these letters made me wonder: I had never been in love but if I found someone who loved me even half as much as this guy loved Jasmine, I would consider myself lucky.
A sudden feeling of empathy and sorrow hit my heart.I was feeling this way for the first time. I actually cared about this. I wanted to know what happened next. I wanted to know where David was.
I wanted to know what was the last letter he wrote… Of course, these letters had been lying here for years, collecting dust.
This meant that nobody had read them, not even Jasmine. And yet, he still wrote to her! His faith really moved me.
I couldn’t imagine this happening today. Yeah, I read the newspapers. Guys stalk and sometimes even kill their ex-girlfriends, just because they can’t handle rejection. Do you blame me for not believing in this so-called love?
Why just the news, I have seen horrible cases all around me. I have seen guys lose their cool on being turned down. I’ve seen a guy turn into a pure devil, making a girl’s life worse than hell when she didn’t want his attention.
I have known guys to create a scene right outside a girl’s house if she refuses to see him. Maybe David was just an exception, but it was good to know that people like him existed. He lived all his life just waiting for a reply from Jasmine. He shared every happy and sad moment of his life with her.
He had wanted to grow old with Jasmine, but he couldn’t. So he grew old waiting for Jasmine.
I wondered how peculiar and painful that feeling would be, getting no reply from the other side … just waiting for years with a blind faith that one day, that much-awaited reply would come.And what made me even more sad was that he did not even know that his letters were unread. He had waited fora reply to letters which nobody had read.
‘Hey, Twi! Look at this. It’s the last letter. It arrived on December, 2017!’ Bobby said, interrupting my thoughts.
‘What? That was just a day before we arrived!’ I asked, astonished.
I snatched the letter from Bobby’s hand and tried to open it as fast as I could.
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