Author: Shabri Prasad Singh
ISBN:978-93-86643-06-3
Price: Rs 399
No. of Pages: 237
Publisher: Bloomsbury Prime
About The Author:
Shabri Prasad Singh is a philosopher by heart. She was raised in cities like London and New Delhi and studied in New York. She is into the study of the mind and behavior. She went to the city university of New York where she chose to major in anthropology and psychology.
She likes painting cooking and above all writing which gives her an immense sense of peace. A true feminist by heart Shabri fights for freedom of speech and equality.
About The Book:
Borderline is the journey of Amrita Srivatsava and her fight with Borderline Personality Disorder. The book is a true life narrative of the author, turned fictional. The book starts with Amrita’s background, family history and what goes on in her mind. Her beliefs, obsession, thought-process and her struggles with her mind and soul.
It shows the underlying currents of a loving close-knit family, how the family splits apart due to a distressing divorce which affects Amrita mentally. After the legal separation, she is completely dependent on her father who also is protective, giving and kind-hearted in nature.
She moves to America for her higher studies, and there Amrita falls in love with Hafeez. Due to her dependence, growing insecurities and controlling nature, the relationship ends badly. This took more toll on her mental health.
When she visits India on a vacation, her father passes away, shattering her into pieces, sending her into a whirlwind of emotions and obsession with love. She is unable to move past her father’s death, begins hallucination, blame games and hellbent on finding love.
She makes wrong choices, follows a lifestyle of uncontrolled and excessive drinking and partying, ending up with heartbreaks and finally leading to a mental breakdown.
Amrita moves back to India and stays with her mother, continuing the similar obsessive and erratic behavior. Desperate for love she befriends a girl in her gym, who eventually become best friends. But this doesn’t go well either. Her best friend writes a horrible a book about Amrita, sending her into another mental breakdown. She then visits a psychiatrist, to be diagnosed with Borderline personality disorder by Dr. Sanjay Chugh.
Her journey of healing, acceptance, and betterment begins.In this journey of healing, she turns psychotic, gets admitted to a rehabilitation facility and has an internal awakening post it. She finds her solace in writing and confronts her demons daily. Still on the path of betterment.
My Say:
In the recent past, I have begun reading books on the holocaust, psychology, and mental health. I am overwhelmed at the personal accounts and how my interest has increased double-fold.
When I was approached to review this book, I said yes without second thoughts and the reading in itself was an amazing journey.
The book is raw and intense. By intense I mean the thoughts that happen inside the mind is written so well. The thoughts when you have an OCD, the thoughts that happen when the parents are divorced and the urge to be loved is put out well.
The struggles, the acceptance, and the healing, the journey, to be told is a task in itself. At few points, I felt I could relate a lot and at times, I could feel the pain and agony. There are beautiful snippets here and there in the book which again is one of the highlights of the book.
If you are interested in personal essays, psychology, and mental health and even if you aren’t I recommend that you pick up this book, just to see the weird ways of the mind.
Rating:
Overall I rate this book a 4.5/5.
Seems interesting!
Good summary.
Sounds like an interesting book. I have been experimenting with the genres that I read, maybe I’ll pick up this one someday.
Wow 4.5 rating. That sounds like an amazing book. And very intense too. Reminds me of the character from Homeland series, if you have seen it.
Detailed review. Seems rather complex in plot for my tastes, although mental health itself is a subject I am personally interested in. I wonder how this one will play out.
Thanks for the review, Ramya. Interesting!