Wings of Freedom by Ratan Kaul

There are two types of readers- one who just want to read facts and are interested in knowing the history and the other who read in their leisure time and prefer non-fictional stories.

Ratan Kaul’s book launch at Oxford Book store.

However, it is hard to find someone who knows the right blend of both and is able to cater to the fetish for good stories for both types of readers.

Ratan Kaul does exactly the same with his writing. He has come up with a new offering called Wings of Freedom which is a romantic novel about a revolutionary couple and cross-cultural romance of an Indian freedom fighter and a British girl. The story set with the backdrop of India during British rule portrays the bubbly romance of Raju, an Indian boy and Eileen, the teenage daughter of a British officer.

Ratan Kaul reliving the memories of Old Delhi

What is unique about the book is that Mr.Kaul has not only focused on the love-story but has also tried to introduce the Delhi of that time. He has made sure to give visual effects for the readers through the facts that he has mentioned about the heritage in Delhi, which were just colonies in that time period. When we spoke about how he thinks the youngsters would be able to relate to his novel, he said “Well, the point is that as far as the theme of the novel is considered, it is romance and romance is perennial. It existed thousands of years back and it remains today too, the only thing that changes is the environment.

Interactive session on what the book consists of.

The basic emotion of a boy and a girl, their first touch, first kiss etc. they are subtle and difficult to forget at any point of time. The first emotions of romance are very important for any one. So, it’s not the emotion that has changed but the surroundings.

In fact, it is not just the romance but also the struggle to be with your love that remains the same- even back then, the couple had to defy the society, culture & religious differences and also had to fight imperialism. And even now the couples have to fight for their love.”

Book launched by eminent personalities.

Talking about how long it took to get over with the story, Ratan adds “It took me one and a half years to get over with the writing of the novel however it took six months more with the scrutiny process. I had to do a lot of research to make it authentic and find facts about the places I was planning to write about. I have already published it on Kindle and have received good responses from it. The book has been called one of the best Indian books which have shown Delhi in exactly the way it used to be and not what people knew about it.”

Adding to the conversation, Ratan Kaul spoke about his next novel, “My next novel is a sequel to ‘Wings of Freedom’ however I am waiting for the Indian response to this book since it has been able to fetch a good response internationally. The next novel is a contemporary romance novel and would have substance from my real life experiences as well. However, ‘Wings of Freedom’ doesn’t have any excerpts from my life but it does mention the romantic scenes between the two protagonists, in fact it begins with a romantic scene between the two protagonists at the time when King’s procession was going on from Red Fort.

Wings of Freedom- a story of love between cross-culture and cross nation couple

Ratan says that he always had a flair for writing and history but because of the pressure from professional life,he could never carry it forward, however it is now that he is doing so. On being questioned why he has amalgamated history and romance, Kaul said that a novel is not just written to fulfill the creative appetite of the author but has also been written keeping in mind the interests of the readers.

It is a Delhi centric novel and many geographical aspects are discussed at length throughout which Kaul wants to grab the attention of Delhiites to the heritage sites which needs to be given attention. In conversation with us, he gave us an example: If one stands near Kashmere Gate, one would be able to see the mark of the bullet fired by General Nicholson in the first war for freedom in 1857, such facts are told in this book. Also, there is a lot of poetic infusion in the novel- like couple of Shers (couplets) by Mirza Ghalib, Folk songs from Haryana and also excerpts from Meghdoot by Kalidasa to describe the emotional moments between the couple.