On a streak of losses

A young man’s shattered dreams, the resurrection of hope, the confluence of strange and oftentimes extraordinary incidents, and a whirlwind romance form the crux of Vishwas Mudagal’s Losing My Religion.

Rishi Rai’s dreams of revolutionising the video games industry go awry, forcing the man to question his life’s choices. When he meets the unpredictable and carefree American, Alex, an opportunity arises to start over.

And from then on, Rishi’s exploits take him to Malana in Himachal Pradesh, where he discovers Malana Cream and a horde of hostile villagers, and to Om Beach, where he opens a shack called Guns N’ Roses. From there his gamer instincts are aroused when a ship sails into a port in Goa, a ship with a Mortal Kombat championship just beginning. Rishi finds romance and a hundred other things from then on.
To be fair, Losing My Religion does take on an interesting premise. A young city dweller’s journey of self-discovery and his adventures on the way could have had sufficient grounds for intrigue. Rishi is, as far as the story goes, a brilliant businessman with an eye for detail. Alex is infuriating, sometimes volatile, and loyal. Kyra is mysterious and also a woman of ambition and  multiple talents. These three have their own personalities and agendas, and a willingness to go along with the quirks of fate that bring them together. Nevertheless, the novel has several characters spread across its canvas, most of whom also appear to have elaborate backstories that are distracting from the main narrative.

Unfortunately, the execution of the book’s base storyline is more than a little amateurish. The descriptions of Rishi’s Mortal Kombat duels sometimes read like a walkthrough for the game, with far too much emphasis on game mechanics and opponent tactics. Character backstories and Rishi’s business ideas for the Kumbh Mela are elucidated with the efficacy of an essay. His foray into the party scene at Om Beach reads more like a roundup of an event than its explanation. Not exactly ideal for a novel. There are far too many subplots, schemes, ideas and a handful of clichés that make the concept, unfortunately, tedious. Timeskips also pose a problem, with Rishi moving from place to place with a clarification of how he got there presented much later.

Character dialogues tend to be stilted, especially for the American characters, who seem to have plenty of un-American expressions in their speech, and sometimes, their dialogue is a little cringe-worthy.

The reality show and the appearance of a certain American billionaire are also awkward and do not make for easy reading. The writing alternates between very amateurish and bombastic.

There are idiomatic and editing errors that simply do not help a work already strewn with problems. An example is on page 167, where Rishi ‘...still hoped that she would returned to him...’ The book also has a fair share of coincidences that aren’t presented in the most believable of ways — characters appearing out of the blue, events taking place at places convenient for the protagonist, and hazards, both professional and personal, that are solved quickly and for the most part, tamely. Descriptions are sparse and hardly as effective as they could have been, besides, where they do appear, the essay-like tone prevails.

Kyra’s explosive secrets are also not as believable as they should have been, nor is her and Rishi’s deadlock with the said billionaire. Perhaps more fluidity in the writing style and showing more by way of character interaction and thought would have helped, instead of a bland explanation in the narrative itself.

Losing My Religion may have been better with crisper writing and less focus on the sensationalist hooks in the story. Too many plot points do not add to the ease of reading a novel either. A little trimming would go a long way.