As a kid my father inculcated the habit of reading in me.Newspapers, Tell Me Why, Encyclopaedias, Readers Digest.....name the book meant for children of my age and I was reading it.Much to my torture of course, because if left to me I would have bombarded my brains with Tinkles (supandi being my all time favourite tinkle character) and Archie comics.
Though it was enforced reading by my parents slowly, steadily and rather reluctantly I admitted to myself that I rather enjoyed the experience of holding a book in my hand and unravelling its contents page after page.
Many summers down the line reading became a passion (thankyou papa) given an interesting book to read and I wouldnt even acknowledge an earthquake in my area(i am dramatising here of course)Hence for obvious reasons Crosswords-the book store would be one of the places I visit more often than I would visit a temple.On one such ’darshan’ of Crosswords I managed to set my eyes on the book Accidents like love and marriage by jaishree misra.
I was drawn to the book for one of the lamest reasons and that would have been the cover(yeah yeah I have heard about the saying ’’never to judge a book by its cover’’)Having read a book called Difficult Daughters by Manju Kapur and loving each and every word in it I was intrigued to read a book by another Indian author again.(atleast this reason is not so lame)So having bought the book I ventured home and began my journey into the world of the main protagonists- the Sachdevs, the Singhs and the Menons.
SACHDEVS-Jagdish Sachdev is an elite punjabi industrialist based in Delhi whose sole aim in life is to make his business excel in the international markets.His wife Swarn Sachdev is the typical delhi based punjabi housewife whose life revolves around social gatherings.She also classifies herself as the devoted mother to her 2 children Rohit and Tarun.The affectionate grandmother to Rohit’s children Rinku and Ritik.The perfect mother-in-law to her daughter-in-law Neena.The perfect wife to her husband Jagdish.
Rohit Sachdev is the dutiful son of his parents following his fathers footsteps in the family business and marrying the girl selected by his parents.Neena Sachdev is Rohits wife who comes from the influential family of the Singhs.Neenas sole aim in marrying Rohit was because she considers Rohit to be the look alike of Imran Khan the hunky pakistani cricketer.
Tarun Sachdev is the black sheep in the family whose wild nights and bachelor lifestyle is frowned upon by his father Jagdish Sachdev in particular.
The Sachdev mansion also boasts of domestic help in the form of Moolchand who constantly suffers from amorous thoughts towards his ’malkin’ Swarn Sachdev who in her youthful days was a beauty but now suffers from over weight and varicose veins due to a languorous lifestyle.
SINGHS-Manny Singh just like Jagdish Sachdev is an elite punjabi industrialist based in Delhi.His wife Kammy Singh is an active social worker and spends most of her hours dealing with various social issues.Manny and Kammy Singh have 2 children-Neena and Danny.Neena being married to Rohit Sachdev and living the life of a housewife.Danny the younger brother is studying in the states.The Singh family also has a pet dog named Sultan.
MENONS-Gayatri Menon is the beautiful and intelligent madrasi (based in delhi) friend of Neena since college.She is back from London after a gap of 5 years and has pursued a Phd out there.Keshava Menon is the father of Gayatri who works for the Indian Standards Institute.His wife Raji Menon is a professor of botany in the Indian Institute of Science.The Menons come from a humble background unlike the Sachdevs and Singhs.
Tarun Sachdev is highly enamored by Gayatri Menon.Neena Sachdev plays cupid for her brother-in-law Tarun as she has a vested interest in Tarun marrying Gayatri much to the annoyance of Swarn Sachdev...........hereby establishing the basic sketch of the story.
As the plot revolves around all these characters the reader comes across various social issues of inter caste marriages, class differences and the hypocritical society we live in where superficial appearances matter more than the innermost happiness of any given person.All this is intricately woven into the story.
OVERALL SUMMARY-The author has sketched the characters in this book very vividly that there seems hardly any room for imagination.The story is based in Delhi with predominant punjabi characters (even the language used in the book tends to go the ’’punjabi way’’.The reader would come across a lot of ’’haanji’’ and ’’naaji’’ which seems to add colour to an otherwise monotonous exchange of dialogues)The author having lived most of her life in Delhi (currently residing in London) seems to have grasped the histrionics and exultingly joyful nature of the punjabis right till the
end of the book.The characters at some point of time give the reader a deja vous feeling which makes the book on the whole a real delicacy.
A definite read for one of those dull rainy afternoons when a good book and a cup of hot coffee would satiate the most restless of souls.
On second thought......forget the coffee how about some parathe-sharathe,
lassi-wassi ji?