"Like a Bird on the Wire"

Chhavi Bhardwaj is a true-blue "pahari" who loves trekking, tea, and music. She is an IAS officer, currently posted in Jabalpur as Collector. Born in Uttarakhand, she completed her studies in electronics and communications engineering before joining the Indian Administrative Service ten years ago. Now in her early thirties, she has begun her third decade with her first book, "Like a Bird on the Wire."

The novel runs 317 pages and follows a lucid narrative style that moves fluidly between past and present. Several things make it stand out. First, the plot is set around the lives of IAS officers and the people connected to them, whether through relationships or work. What makes it especially compelling is how this world is woven into a romantic story. Picture it geometrically: a love line connects two main characters, Nethra Kaul and Avinash Rathore. But as the story unfolds, that single line grows into a love triangle, and hints of an even more complex shape emerge, a partially formed square, even a pentagon, had Nethra returned Mrityunjay's feelings or given Amit a real chance.

Second, the novel has an honest, unguarded tone. The author seems to hold nothing back in laying out the finer details of the setting, characters, and situations. This comes through especially in her language, which blends in plenty of Hinglish and Hindi-influenced phrases, "maal maam," "Humara GL kaisa ho," "patta," among others. Colloquial expressions like "Avinash-Rathore-sort-of-reply," "how-to-stop-sulking-and-start-living," and "no-how-have-you-beens" add to this effect, making the story feel real and easy for readers to connect with.

Third, this is fiction that often doesn't feel like fiction. The plot is constructed with such care that it constantly nudges you into wondering whether it's really someone's true story, retold with different names and a few changes to the backdrop. It feels that real.

Fourth, the author shows real skill in shaping her characters. Take the chapter "Harmony Regained," where she introduces M.B. (Madhuparna Baruah), whom Nethra had met seven years earlier, in 2015, at Dehradun's well-known EBD bookstore. Nethra refers to her as an "ageing Cleopatra." The chapter opens with M.B. lost in a daydream, piecing together the story of a teenage girl running away from home. The author captures her imaginative nature this way:

"Her head was this unruly creature spinning fantastic yarns in strange contexts. In her queer imagination, scenes and situations, dialogues and conversations would spring up from apparently nowhere and delight her into smile. As a compulsive daydreaming teenager, she had often wondered if she was all right, mentally. Now, at fifty-eight, she had made peace with her mind and the daydreaming flowed naturally, without any guilt-ridden hangovers."

Throughout the novel, Avinash comes across as an upright, principled IAS officer. This is clear from the very first part, "Nethra Kaul," where the government faces a major breakthrough involving big-data analytics. The project calls for an administrator who is more than just an engineer or manager. After three months of screening candidates, "three probables were listed for the job. The one who came out the cleanest, as also the 'junior-most,' was Avinash Rathore." This impression of him carries through other parts of the story as well, in different contexts.

Traces of the author's own personality naturally find their way into the story. As mentioned earlier, she loves trekking and exploring new places, details that surface in "The Himalayan Trek," part of "The Academy" section, complete with references to mountain treks and trek groups like Trek Group No. 7. Nethra, too, is in her early thirties, much like the author herself, and these small reflections appear throughout the novel.

There are plenty of other reasons this novel stands apart, and you're probably curious about what it's actually about. We won't give away the full story here, since it's best experienced by reading the book yourself, but we'll share enough hints to show you why it's worth picking up.

The story opens with: "It had been seven years he had last heard from her. Seven years! And though a part of him was relieved, even happy, the other part was already ruminating on the pun, the subliminal implications of that terse 'hard work paying off.' Was it relief? Nostalgia? Anxiety? He couldn't put a finger on what flustered him all the more, because even today, seven bloody years down, nothing, nothing could affect him the way she did."

The novel unfolds across eight parts. Part One, "Nethra Kaul," introduces its sharp, efficient, beautiful, and single protagonist. A quintessential "good girl," she believes in always doing the right thing, though her own life isn't quite as straightforward. A broken heart? Check. Feeling out of place at work? Double-check. Hopeless romanticism? No number of checks could cover that. She carries a large heart, one that accepts both loss and gain in equal measure. Having made it through her thirties unmarried, she often finds herself on the receiving end of her aunt's "how-to-stop-sulking-and-start-living" lectures, delivered as well by her best friend and batch-mate Madhavi, who, true to the tradition of every agony aunt, reminds her for the nth time that "it was only passing through pain that one could hope to reach anywhere."

She is, in many ways, a progressive Indian woman who dares to dream despite the setbacks life throws her way. So when she sees Avinash Rathore's photo on the front page of the newspaper, having received the PM's Excellence Award on Civil Services Day, her first thought is, "Bad start to a bad day," even as her heart aches with a mix of longing and pain.

Avinash Rathore, the focus of Part Three though present throughout the story, is Nethra's batch-mate from the IAS. He is the man she once loved and hoped to build a life with. Successful and idealistic, his life appears picture-perfect on the surface. He is married, with a three-year-old daughter. Part Eight, "Malvika Rathore," centers on his wife, a 5'8" fashion designer who chose marriage over a career. Strikingly beautiful, "like an haute couture model," she leaves Nethra wondering why Avinash would ever look twice at the "awfully bored Madam Collector."

Yet Avinash does look at Nethra, and fate takes its course. The two keep crossing paths, first at a party, where Avinash slips away under the pretext of "some unavoidable work in his Bungalow Office" to write her a long, four- or five-page letter.

What was it that he could put into writing but never bring himself to say aloud? With a wife, children, success, and a stable family life, what more could he possibly want? He finds himself torn between what his mind tells him he should want and what his heart quietly longs for, unable to choose between the two. Was this simply the result of running into Nethra again after so many years, a fleeting moment of eye contact, or its absence? Or was something deeper stirring within him all along?

Symbolically, standing between Nethra (Part One) and Avinash (Part Three) is the quietly sincere Mrityunjay Ranjan, the focus of Part Two and very much a part of this tangled shape, whether you choose to call it a triangle or a square.

"Why don't you count me in?" he laughed. 
She gave him a breezy, don't-you-say-that smile.

Mrityunjay quickly backtracked, saying, "I was kidding," regretting the words as soon as they left him. Seven years earlier, during their only truly serious conversation, she had told him that whenever he said he was "just kidding," he actually meant every word. And in truth, Mrityunjay was someone who always meant what he said; pretence simply wasn't in his nature.

She noticed this too, and tried to steer the conversation elsewhere. "Was this William Faulkner?" she asked. 
"Yes, you are always right," he sighed. 
"And don't bring that up," she said, without looking at him. 
"What, Faulkner?" he asked. 
"No, love," she answered.

Here, Nethra makes clear that she is avoiding, and effectively rejecting, any romantic possibility with Mrityunjay, even as she herself was once turned away by Avinash. Fate, however, brings all three together, especially the story's two "no-sayers," Nethra and Avinash. What comes next: something wonderful, or something disastrous?

Mrityunjay speaks of an emptiness within him: "Of course, it is the whole big world minus myself." Tired and frustrated, he adds, "I have had it, Nethra. I cannot be the amoral salesman anymore, the seller of glorious dreams. All my life I have tried to avoid being the desperate salesman, and all my life I have been told that that is what the race is for. I cannot join this rat race."

Avinash and Mrityunjay were once close, very close, but have since drifted apart. Avinash disapproves of Mrityunjay's ways, chalking up much of his eccentricity at work to a kind of self-importance that has little place in government circles. Mrityunjay, in turn, dislikes what he sees as Avinash's calculated self-interest, a trait others have described as a thread running through every part of Avinash's life.

The story stays firmly rooted in the spirit of its generation, weaving in references to "Game of Thrones," "Fifty Shades of Grey," "One Direction," Deepika Padukone's kurta-palazzo looks, and "Comedy Nights with Kapil." It also nods to OMG, a fictional round-the-clock news channel run by one of India's largest media companies, and to Amit Bhargava, a thoroughly materialistic character. For Amit, friends are little more than "vital inventory resources," useful for everything from Bacardi Rum, Smirnoff, and Johnnie Walker Scotch to free dining at seven-star hotels and paid holidays. He is, in every sense, an opportunist.

So where does he fit into the story? Why does Nethra keep her distance from him, even while engaged to him? Despite the engagement, she wants little to do with Amit and avoids physical intimacy with him altogether. She believes deeply in the sanctity of relationships, yet knows exactly where to draw the line when it matters. With so many twists along the way, will Nethra and Avinash finally give in to their feelings? And if they do, what happens to Nethra's fiancé, and more importantly, to Avinash's family? Will any of these birds finally find rest in their nest, rather than remaining forever on the wire? To find out, you'll have to read this heartfelt novel by Chhavi Bhardwaj.