Music and Fidelity

 

Book Review

 

Title: An Unfinished Melody

Authors: Ravinder Singh and Richa Mukherjee

Publisher: HarperCollins India, 2020

Pages: 46

 

At first glance, this novella appears to be the story of a lonely woman who drifts into an emotional relationship outside her marriage. But beneath that simple plot lies a sensitive exploration of loneliness, unmet emotional needs, guilt, and the fragile dreams people build to escape an unfulfilling life.

Aradhana, the first-person narrator, has been married for four years to Ravi Kashyap, the quintessential corporate professional of today, perpetually glued to his laptop, consumed by work, and with little time or emotional energy for his wife. Their relationship has become so neglected that they have not even found the time or intimacy to bring a child into their little world.

“My life feels like a warm blanket,” Aradhana tells us, “that has over time unravelled and become riddled with holes, and is leaking happiness, one day at a time.” One chance encounter changes everything. Trapped in an elevator for two hours with Yash Mathur, a young, charismatic music teacher, Aradhana begins to rediscover the happiness and emotional vitality that her marriage had quietly drained away.

Yash becomes the embodiment of the attention, appreciation, and companionship Aradhana has long craved. The relationship develops naturally, reminding us that emotional betrayal often begins long before physical betrayal.

There is genuine affection between Aradhana and Yash. But Aradhana knows that Ravi does love her, though his love is constrained by the relentless demands of his career, leaving him with little time or emotional presence for his wife. It takes a catastrophe for Aradhana to look deeper within herself and check where her loyalty should belong really.

The authors’ greatest strength lies in portraying ordinary human emotions with sympathy rather than judgment. Every character in this book, which may be called a short story rather than a novella, is flawed, yet recognisably human. The husband’s neglect, the wife’s emotional hunger, and the teacher’s presence all emerge from believable circumstances rather than melodramatic or romantic exaggeration.

If there’s a limitation, it is that serious readers will wish for a deeper exploration of the husband’s inner life and the emotional complexity of the music teacher. Nevertheless, the novella succeeds because it refuses to reduce its characters to heroes or villains.

Ultimately, this short work is not merely a story about longings and infidelity. It is a meditation on the emotional costs of neglect, the seductive power of escape, and the sobering truth that reality eventually demands its due. Quiet, poignant, and psychologically convincing, the novella lingers in the reader’s mind long after the final page.

PS. I received a copy of the ebook as a prize for my contribution to a blog hop organised by Manali Desai and Sukaina Majeed.

You can buy the book here.

 

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