Crossing the Line, A Threat to Unethical Politicians, Bureaucrats and Cheap Educationists is a novel by Aabhas K Maldahiyar, a research scholar and an architect.
This is the story of Aditya Sinha a journalist-turned-architect who is very revolutionary and resilient by attitude.
Though he is doing well as an architect, he becomes a professor and tries to rectify the system.
He appears for IAS exam and becomes an administrative officer. But his approaches to improve the system makes him unpopular and consequently, he is transferred from one place to another frequently.
He resigns from his post and starts an architecture firm.
Aditya’s honest docile image earns him a political party’s ticket and he gets elected into the Parliament. Subsequently, he becomes HRD minister.
He comes up with an agenda to revive the Constitution and clean up the rotting education system with some revolutionary amendments.
The bill he proposes becomes a thorn in the throats of his own party leaders, bureaucrats and educationists.
They all conspire against him. The rest of the novel deals with will he be able to implement his bill and clean up the education system.
The novel, comprising 30 chapters, reflects the condition of the country today.
The author writes “This book is indeed an episode from the chronicle of Great Combat against the decaying acerbic system.” Protagonist Aditya Sinha’s character has been portrayed well.
We see a glimmer of hope in him. His honest intentions to rectify the system, his work and his dreams are very much ours. His travails are every honest officer’s travails. So are his family matters.
The politicians who appear in the novel are realistic too.
Their self-centeredness, negligence towards social good and greediness are in stark in contrast with Aditya’s intentions. There is also a reference to Naxalism.
The novel, it seems, is a result of Aabhas’s own experiences and the people he came in contact with in his life.
At some points, it seems lengthy. The reader may not agree with the revolution that happens in the novel. It is okay as it is in a work of fiction.
The novel should have tightened a little bit and done away with the details of Indian Constituent Assembly. The book also needs a sound proofreading.