The Scarlet Scar: A story of love, fate, and destiny

Scar is not merely a morphological item enshrined in the dictionaries of English language. It is rather a deep emotion with poignant connotation. With the passage of time most of the bodily scars heal and disappear but the scars inflicted upon our psychological landscape have at times no remedy and thus they keep on inflicting pain on our sensitive souls till eternity.

With consummate care and great dexterity Soumen Roy, an acclaimed Indian author, has produced this highly emotive novel 'Scar'. It is an extraordinarily excellent from the quill of an ace novelist in which the novelist throws a flood of light on Supriya's journey of unrequited love, misunderstandings, wait, grief and episodes of battling her own mental demons.

Virgina Woolf pertinently remarks that every novelist is an ultra sensitive psychologist a superlatively refined soul who has a remarkable ability to feel the agony of his/her contemporary human beings with whom the former normally live in proximity. In an absolute empathy with the protagonist Supriya, the novelist lays bare the cognitive threads of her life and transports the readers into her mindscape.

Endowed with quite an elegant literary prowess of unfolding the narrative, the author deeply contemplates over the various aspects of human life. While journeying through this piece of psychological fiction, the readers happen to latch on to the fact that one can do wonders with power of profound passion and copious conviction.

Most of the modern day novelists are of the opinion that plot is the soul of a story. Therefore they invest a chunk of their energy in weaving a well knit plot but in their dogged pursuit of creating a fully cohesive and coherent plot, they wittingly or unwittingly leave their characters in somewhat neglected state. Here deviating from the prevalent culture of novel writing, the author of this book has been fully cognisant to the needs of his characters. It is the commendably convincing portrayal of the chief protagonist Supriya through whom the narrative is unfolded and on the shoulder of whom a well organised plot is erected. In the context of the plot construction when the term 'Well Organised Plot' has been referred to, it is not to be misconstrued in the sense of the Victorian Era of fiction writing. A well-organised plot is not necessarily shorn of psychological brooding. It can justifiably contain the episodes of flash-forward and flashback. Therefore when we analyse the novel on anvil of plot construction, it makes we the critics to lavish oodles of admiration on the author.

This story deals with the journey of Supriya's life through various phases ,though she apparently seems happy and well established in the present life but at times there are reflections which suggest that there possibly could be some startling events in her past which keep on haunting her time and again. As the tale moves forward it delves into her past life of the protagonist when she is a school going teenager and slowly unfolds certain secrets which she keeps carefully close chested.

We also bump into a few other characters such as Mukesh , Nilesh , Ankush etc who form a major part in Supriya's life and the story is woven around them creating a perfect harmony of drama, suspense, tragedy and a myriad of emotions. As the climax unfurls Supriya seems to be in a state of complete awe burdened by the chain of events taking place in her life in the past few days, the story closes with the steps taken up by Supriya to get rid of such condition. What are those crucial steps and who does she deal with her inside demons must be left to readers to explore. Sublimity of style and lucidity of language are the other hallmarks of the novel which make 'Scar' a scarlet scar.