I guess after Enid Blyton’s MaloryTowers and St. Clare’s series, no other writer could fill up the gaps of the decades to come up with sensible and youthful books for the teenagers.We are still forwarded to Enid Blyton’s series like ‘Famous Five’, Malory Towers and St. Clare, but then there has been a huge leap of generation gap between Blyton’s time and the current generation-Y.
It is for the first time, an Indian author took the pains to bridge this gap between kid’s fairly tales/bedtime stories and adult novels/best sellers. Shobhaa Dé the noted writer and a household name of the urban Indian society who has successfully made her presence felt in almost all houses where reading is taken as a daily activity, has now turned her focus to enter into the mind of young girl called Sandhya who is in her adolescence, an age where life is a tug-of-war between remaining a child and being an adult. This is the most difficult phase of all human beings born when life takes a sudden U-turn as everything learnt earlier start rebelling and seeks for independence, privacy and ecstasy. Free from all bondages, like a free bird but with a feeling of insecurity looming inside of losing the trust, faith and love of near and dear ones. The age before adulthood is the most delicate age with loads of unimaginable secrets and gossips that can be shared nights after nights with friends and only friends; the unfathomable dreams that bring smiles and sometimes fear; the yearning to be best in everything (right from fashion-to-sports-to-cooking-to-studies); the overwhelming feeling of having the first crush and then being jealous out of the blues; and severe heartbreaks after not being able to live up to the expectations. Shobhaa Dé explores all with a little feminine touch and girly mannerisms.
Sadhya, her protagonist character who hates her name and curses every now-and-then her parents to bestow such an outdated one, finds herself sandwiched between her younger sis, Pia who is 5yrs younger to her and her elder bro, Siddhartha who is 4yrs elder. Being the middle one, lands her into a no-man’s land, where she is neither her father’s favorite nor her mom’s but when it comes to managing the house and relationships she is given the center-stage by the family. Sandhya’s situation in her house is a microscopic representation of the transitory age of adolescence, where relationships, ideologies and faith are in complete contradictions and chaos. She is in constant tussle with her younger sis who is the carefree and pampered one but at the time of desperation, when her sis is scared, she takes the role of a mom to comfort her. She adores her elder bro as a priceless possession and cannot understand why he had to take up smoking when both her parents dislike it. She loves her mom who is a doctor, and tries to understand the difficulties she faces managing the house and profession but cannot see her as a friend as she is too strict of not letting her wear a designer stuff to the social in her school. Her father who maintains a gravity that scares her like a shi, t, shares a common and keen interest of good height and inspires her to stretch high to increase 2 inches more. Her sole interest to win over Akshi (Akshay) in the school’s social by dressing best with the trendiest dress that Kareena wears and her hidden inconfidence of losing him amidst all beautiful girls is something all youngsters go through. At last, the deadly secret which she keeps bottled within herself and do not share it with her best friend too. What is that secret which is killing her every moment and driving her to a dark dungeon? Can she overcome it by sharing it with someone she can blindly trust and get back to her normal life? To unfold the secret take a youthful journey through Sandhya’s life by reading ‘S’s Secret’.
What appealed me the most is Shobhaa Dé’s easy and carefree flow of writing that beautifully depicts an innocent mind and the natural process of tossing of emotions. She just let Sandhya speak with her bitter-sweet tongue that we used to do every night while scribbling pages after pages in our dairies. Some of the striking portions that I liked:
The Facebook conversations between Sadhya and her bestu friend Asavari. The jargons and short forms used are so aptly picked up.
Sandhy’a time-to-time usage of terminologies like mom’s ‘ladla’, her sis doing ‘chugli’, maro-ing’ things, ‘sans-bahu lafda’ soaps, ‘filmi-jhatkas’, ‘patao’ dad etc added intense spices to the story.
Some real sweet situations: Sandhya’s letter of deep concern for her bro, her reaction and trying to-be-big attitude when her Nana had a heart attack; her constant tiffs with her lil’sis Pia.
Overall, it is a sugary treat from the country’s most sensational author, Shobhaa Dé with her Snappy Happy series where ‘ S’s Secret’ is just the beginning for more fun and more high-spirits. For young teenagers it’s a must recommended book; and for older people why not take a ride back to the memory lanes and refresh your buried secrets once again.