I was browsing in the local bookstore when the friendly attendant brought this book to me. It was just being unpacked and wasnt even on display yet . I winced a lil at the blindingly bright fuschia cover , but when I saw it was written by Jaishree Misra, author of the extremely well written ’’Ancient Promises’’, I thought it’d be worth a read.
And that was how I ended up with this shocking pink paperback ! Turned out that was not the only shock I was in store for....
’’ Accidents like Love and Marriage’’ is just that...a shocker!! Shockingly crass and petty. Shockingly devoid of the talent that Jaishree Misra evidently possesses.
It follows the lives of three Delhi based families. The Sachdevs and the Singhs are rich , upper class Punjabis, while the Menons are of the middle class ’’unfashionable’’ variety.
Their lives are interconnected by love and marriage , and there is a good deal of drama and scandal everywhere.
All the older women in the book are seemingly obese, and petty minded, and their sole motive in life is to go one up on their ’friends’ or scheme and plot their son’s marriage over endless cups of ’’chai’’ and ’’pakoras’’, while the men are all caught up in their business and are totally incompatible with their wives .
The daughters are exceedingly pretty, and alternate between extremely silly and highly intelligent, while the sons are all handsome casanovas.
And( believe me, this is no exaggeration) all the servants are old men harbouring secret passions for their mistress !!
I donno if the author was trying to make a point of some sort, and if she was, I certainly didnt get it !
Also particularly infuriating was the use ( or over use ) of expressions like ’’steady -sheddy’’, ’’seva -sheva’’ etc.. besides all conversation being more than generously sprinkled with ’’ ji’s ’’. It was so terribly stereotypical. That may have been the intention , but somehow Misra isnt able to pull it off. And all it manages to do is get on your nerves.
In the foreword the author expresses her deepest gratitude to New Delhi and to Khuswant Singh ( the renowned author of ’’train to Pakistan’’) for having insisted she send this book for publication! Khushwant Singh’s writing style , as is being widely acknowledged these days, has deteriorated in direct proportion to his advancing age, so I guess this shouldnt come as much of a surprise.
In short the book reads like a gossip magazine of the rather unsophisticated variety, and it is really beyond me how this book even got published by Penguin.
The title is ironically quite appropriate. I hope this was just an ’’ accident ’’ and Penguin will not release such glorified trash, masquerading as books with a sense of humour’’ !!!