"Harp" | In a quest to know the self

Harp is about love, longing and coming of age. The three main protagonists – a young man Ashok travelling in  Europe, who forms the pivot of the story, a young woman Lauren whose love for music is eternal and Aparna, who has loved and lost – provide the frame of this narrative about the journey. Encompassing these journeys is also a quest on their part to know themselves better and seek what they really want. These aspects reflecting real life situations and the universality of emotions resonates well with the reader. Author Nidhi Dalmia’s book is set in the context of the idealism of the late sixties. The book is a first-person narrative of Ashok as he travels to Europe including the Eastern block countries for training in dairy product companies. But for him, it was equally important to get a taste of European world and life, this being his first visit abroad. It is a racy and colourful read as he visits cities in France, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Poland. The descriptions are vivid almost photographic like that of a postcard. 

The story is gripping and one does not want to put the book down before knowing what happens to Ashok and Lauren. A telling aspect of the book is its portrayal of the lifestyle of the three young characters with the attachment to the countries they travel to. With the existing socio-economic situation of that time in India and abroad, Harp is a period book. The style is refreshingly natural. The difficulties and pressing emotional pressure experienced builds up and makes the book an interesting read making it more relatable to one’s life as most of us have been or are there. Life is full of uncertainties especially when it comes to love. 

This is what Harp talks about. It is the story of Ashok who is caught up between what is expected of him and what he wants to be. How a person has to sometimes choose between the love of his life or the duty towards his parents is what Ashok tries to find an answer to in this book. The twists and turns in this unique love story simply make it difficult for a reader to part with it. Instead of crowding the scene with multiple characters the author very wisely develops a few, doing ample justice to each and keeping it simple and engrossing. It is well fed with the culture, the idealism, the happenings and the music of the late 1960s. 

Like Ashok, the author Nidhi Dalmia underwent extensive professional training across the world and has had experience in running dairy product factories hence, making this novel a pseudo-biography.