Sometimes the title would indicate what the content is about, although we wonder how the very few words could summarise something so big. I hope that the above statement would be agreed by most of the people.Perhaps it would be correct with a wild guess, but for how many of us does it click? I suppose that the title of this post might indicate that it is related to me in some way or the other. Till now I have blogged on various subjects...from cycle rickshaws to my travel experiences in chennai,movies,boredom,etc.This time i wanted to write about something different and the moment i laid my eyes on this book i decided that my next post would be about it.
I found this book lying in my friend's rack when I was prying around [the usual ;)]. The cover page was a bit unusual for a book by an Indian author. I have read various chick lit's from all over the world and I was very much surprised to find one from our very own country. The Washington post had declared the book this way - "cheeky new writing breaks shackles". I ran home so that I could begin reading it, somehow I forgot the famous proverb-appearances are deceptive. Well the book wasn’t just cheeky, it was too cheeky.
The lead - Aisha Bhatia is twenty-nine years old and is single, though she is ready to mingle she seems to be very unlucky when it comes to finding her perfect man. Self-actualized people are independent of the good opinion of others. But this female is far more than independent which is a disturbing factor. She works as a guest relations manager at a hotel in New Delhi and is quoted to be an ardent traveller. Yes she is an ardent traveller to the night clubs, pubs and bars of the city. She tolerates her job which requires her to wear a sari everyday which she casually drapes over a jean which is the after effects of a hangover. She hates her boss who is a big time jerk who shuttles between his wife and his girlfriend a.k.a his sister in law(Seriously!!). Aisha bonds really well with her friends, a gang which is an embodiment of friendship comprising of a gay couple-Ric n nic, a divorcee- Anushka and a very hip girl - Misha who is constantly ends up with the wrong man. The hero of course is an NRI who is a perfect package - handsome, ultra rich and loves the leading lady.Like every other chick lit the hero is a guy who is really very rich and the leading lady an ordinary girl next door (sort of) person.
The book comprises of experiences of all these people which are in the bollywood meets Sophie kinsella style or rather Hollywood meets Advaita Kala..Whatever!!! Aisha who is supposed to be an intelligent and independent woman fails in terms of morales..She is found to be constantly boozing and doing things which could probably be possible but unacceptable. Though such characters might be found in some or many parts of the Indian capital it isn’t acceptable when it is related to Indian women in general.
Although the author tries to be original, globalization has made us to read the chick lit's from the west and the context is found to be more than just similar. There is a very thin line distinguishing the content from that of the popular chicklit's .
Aisha meets Karan in a most embarrassing situation and somehow makes her way into his heart. Various other incidents help the leading couple to get closer and circumstances separate them. The book ends with Aisha getting down at Bhopal from a running train in the middle of the night (déjà vu anybody ??) and catches a flight to Mumbai to meet the man of her dreams and they unite finally.
The book takes desperation to a new level which is supposed to seem real but unfortunately fails. The champagne brunches, gay soirees and the dilemmas of hip young girls (not so young by the way) on the lookout for love and matrimony would work really well in the west but it is too soon to render Indian people this way. The parts of the book like the panditji(dude),a bossy house owner,the stupid boss,the bollywood moment-karva chauth..etc.that are named to be funny are highly pathetic (am still in search of the person who has called the book as the one with a wacky sense of humour).
The only good thing about the book is the depiction of friendship between the lead characters: the only non perturbing part of the book. The author is sensible enough not to tamper it any way, which was the only factor that kept me going till the end. A single afternoon is enough to read the book which was like watching the desi version of the Friends TV show or the inbetweeners or the recent blockbuster how I met your mother. Sadly the new breed of Indian women who are trying to draw a balance between their cosmopolitan life and an orthodox society are exhibited in a very bad way.
"Almost single " by Advaita kala - a book to read when there is no other go and you are stuck up with it !!
'The individual woman is required a thousand times a day to choose either to accept her appointed role and thereby rescue her good disposition out of the wreckage of her self-respect, or else follow an independent line of behaviour and rescue her self-respect out of the wreckage of her good disposition’. I dedicate this post to that special friend of mine - Tiyasha Sinha who has inspired me by being a representation of independency, whose constant encouragement has helped me in continuing this wonderful hobby/passion of mine !!!
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