Diwar Me Ek Khidki Rehti Hai by Vinod Kumar Shukla

It was social media that first drove me to this book. I kept seeing snippets and quotes from Vinod Kumar Shukla’s Diwar Me Ek Khidki Rehti Hai, and I finally gave in. What I discovered was a story that looks so ordinary on the surface but constantly unsettles you with its layers of reality and imagination.

The novel follows Raghuvar Prasad, a very common man utterly ordinary, dark, proper Indian. His ability to write with both hands oddly reminded me of Virus from 3 Idiots! At first, it feels like we are simply watching his small-town, lower middle-class life with his wife Sonasi. But then comes the window and everything shifts.

The world inside the window is full of routine food, work, neighbors, relatives, and the slow rhythm of survival. But the world outside the window? That feels like Utopia. It’s nature-filled, magical, almost too good to be true. In postmodern terms, it reminded me of simulacrum the blending of reality and imagination until you don’t know what’s authentic anymore. It’s like Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children or Alice walking in Wonderland, except here it unfolds in the deeply Indian, small-town context.

"देरी नहीं जाती, देरी होने का एहसास चला जाता है । नए सत्य के आने से पहले का सत्य हम भूल जाते है ।"

The elephant metaphor gripped me most. Only later did I realize it even appears on the cover page woven throughout the story, shaping conversations, reminding us of freedom and captivity. The bear’s sudden entry also forces us to ask: what do we really mean by wild and domestic when it comes to animals, and by extension, ourselves?

"देर का जीवन बचा हैं । क्या हम यहां से मृत्यु देख सकते हैं?"

The novel is deceptively smooth. You keep reading and don’t even realize where reality melts into imagination. But then a doubt lingers since it’s a third-person narration, to what extent should we trust the storyteller? Is the world behind the window really there, or is it only as fragile as a dream?

This book is highly connotative, full of hidden meanings that unfold slowly. At times you have to peel its layers, like with this line:

"कितनी चीजें होती है पर ये जान जाते है कि वे हमारे लिए नहीं है । ऐसा होता तो दिखाने के लिए थोड़ी चीजें होती और सबकी जरूरत पूरी हो जाती।"

Or the haunting reminder of loneliness:

"जब हाथी स्वतंत्रत था तब अपने पालतूपन में अकेला हो गया था ।"

And finally, this thought that lingers long after you close the book:

"याद किया हुआ जो दुनिया में है उससे अधिक भुला हुआ दुनिया में है ।"

In the end, Diwar Me Ek Khidki Rehti Hai is not just a novel but a layered experience. You live in Raghuvar Prasad’s small one-room world, yet through the window you step into a space that is magical, philosophical, and endlessly thought-provoking. Shukla doesn’t just tell a story he opens a window for us, too.

I bing-read this book may be yes it is social media who pushed me to read the book. But I enjoyed it. You are someone who is looking for some stuff which is easy to read yet appealing this is the book go for it.

That's it from my side.  Untill next time. 

Have a good reading time.

Thank you.