Science- Fiction - worth giving a try!

          To begin with, I actually do not have any specific interest in Science- Fiction novels. Perhaps I have thought such novels to be obscure and puzzling. Moreover, the advanced technology pictured in it would be absolutely, Greek and Latin to me. I never have tried to even watch movies of these genres. It is always a romance that would please the eyes of the literature students. I am not an exception; I always read ‘romance’ or ‘romantic- comedy’. Finally, the time came. I was asked to read THE CALCUTTA CHROMOSOME written  by Amitav Ghosh. I had no other choice because it is prescribed to me. I had tried methods to evade reading, however, caught and convinced to read. Though this novel is not entirely a pure Sci-Fi, I felt the aversion deep inside me. The comments about the book reached me through my classmates, the aversion getting worse. I’ve decided not to read it. Nevertheless, the beautiful paperback edition pulled me to closer to it. I read few pages, it was ambiguous. That’s it, I told myself that this is not a book for me. I closed it, replaced it in my shelf, and locked it, keeping away from my vicinity. The day before exam, I grabbed the gist of the novel from my friend. As usual wrote the exam with what I’ve heard from her. The awaited moment has come. While writing the essay in test paper, I realized that the plot is quite interesting. I waited for the other exams to get over. Once it got over, I reached for the book. Opened, started afresh, and I was immersed in the sea of complex and intricate knots of the plot.  Though the hi-sounding language intimidated me, I managed to understand the essential ideas. To some extent, I maintained the pace with the constantly changing speakers. The novel is about the malaria research done by the Noble winner Roland Ross, however, in reality it does not stop with the malaria research. It brings in the various genres, religion, thriller, gothic, horror and what not. The thrilling nail biting sequences made me completely lost in the story. To add beauty, the open ending of the novel just hit right at the expectations of the readers. So, I came to a conclusion that it was worth giving a try to SCI-FI novel. I’m expecting another book of this kind to be prescribed.