GoldenQuill Award 2008

Education...Reloaded.....

Review By a friend :)

Viral Match by Rajesh Khullar

Is this a text book about AIDS or what?!? This was the first feeling I got after reading the book. The author desperately tries to scare people to stay away from post-marital affairs. He dumps the reader with unwanted gyan about AIDS and the main characters seem to be somewhere in the background.

The story is about this hard working stud Vishal and his very faithful wife Vandana. A pregnant Vandana pays a visit to her family doctor who informs her that she is HIV+. Worried about herself and the unborn child, Vandana starts to suspect Vishal’s faithfulness.

Vishal is a young successful entrepreneur who runs a software company in Gurgaon. Even with such a caring wife he turns out to be unfaithful. Vishal has 3 to 4 post-marital affairs ranging from his college-mate to a business partner’s wife. Vandana insists him to get tested for HIV & hints on the possibility of her being HIV+. Vishal thinks he has been affected with HIV during one of his many ‘adventures’.

Vandana on the other hand has no concrete evidence with which she can confront him directly. So, with the help of a close friend she spies on Vishal and enlists all the possibilities. One of the possibilities is an emergency blood transfusion which Vishal had in Chennai after a head injury.

The rest of the story revolves around how Vishal has been affected with this virus. Was it during one of his relationships? If yes, with whom & when? Or was it during the blood transfusion in Chennai? If it was, doesn’t the virus die within 20 seconds when outside the human body?

Ashrith

What would you do if I wrote out of boredom.....

Jet City Woman.


So here we are, all teenage angst and confusion, except, these are not teenagers. They are adults with a teenage hangover.
It all begins as the narrator, also the protagonist, meets an old girlfriend of his at an art exhibition. Naina, as we are told her name, carries a certain mystery about her since the time of college days. The unexpected meeting sets our protagonist off on a trip down the memory lanes of good old college days. Those were the days of attending parties, late night drives on the bike and general lazing around in Delhi’s by lanes. He muses on how he met Naina and the circumstances which led them to date each other. She is beautiful, intelligent, wild and mysterious. She refuses to discuss about her past and her family. She goes out of his life as suddenly as she had come in. From that time onwards, the protagonist cannot really get him out of his mind. She is always there at the back of his mind. He meets her in the art exhibition while covering the event. She’s a very popular journalist. This meeting gets her back into his life sporadically, but enough to trigger his interest and curiosity. He goes through a couple of jobs and his new job lets him travel. One day while returning back from a place he’d gone to review, his car breaks down and he inadvertently discovers Naina’s roots. His discovery leads him and us to understand her character better. At the end of the novel, Naina flies to London and takes up a job there and the protagonist moves back to his hometown to set up a restaurant and gets engaged to his girlfriend.
It's an interesting premise. Good storyline. Has all the requisites for a catchy read. A mysterious girl with a past, the life of students and what they face. The rise and fall of the dotcom boom is there in the background. Not too much, but just enough to make us understand its widespread hysteria. What lets the novel down is the narrative. It starts off well in the end, but meanders through pointlessly without any rhyme or reason. The way the protagonist discovers Naina’s past is too clichéd and something that Karan Johar would be proud to have in his movie. The character of Naina is not really etched properly and we fail to understand why the protagonist is obsessed with her. The ending gives an uncanny feeling that the author is looking for a sequel. It’s a good start to a first book, maybe the sequel will be better.

Review No 1 - Trust Me

I have started this blog with a sole purpose of purpose reviewing Indian writing. Being an avid reader, I've read quite a few books, but have so far not read Indian authors extensively. I mean Indian writing in English, not translated work. I came upon this idea when I came across a site http://www.indiaplaza.in/Goldenquillaward/ These are rewards for Indian authors with an Indian jury, quite distinguished too, if I may say so. So i got thinking as to how I've not read a lot of Indian books, so I've decided to read most of the books on their list and write a review. I'm hoping to generate interest in Indian writing. So here goes the first one. Was not too happy with it. But hey!...It's a good first effort. It's not in the shortlist, but in the longlist.

Trust Me - By Rajashree.

Trust me, famous last words. This is the premise the book is based on. The protagonist, Paro is from a small town who works with an ad agency in Mumbai. It’s the big bad city. As happens to most wide –eyed, innocent women, she also falls for an attractive man and gets cheated out of her ‘virginity‘ and is also made to abort her baby. As it turns out, even her boss, whose shoulders she cries on, is after the same thing. She’s shocked, disgusted and quits her job. She gets a job through a friend in a B grade film sets.

The first lead of the movie is a well known hero who is past his prime but still commands the ‘buffalo belt’ market and can pull in crowds. He throws his weight around, sleeps around with the heroine and is generally a pain in all the wrong places. Since the film is dependent on him, he gets away with it all. There is also a second lead, Rahul, who is the love interest of our protagonist and at 20, very young, a couple of years younger to Paro. He falls in love with Paro and tries every clichéd trick in the bollywood book to woo her. Paro, just being dumped is still nursing a broken heart and has come to detest the words ’trust me’. Gradually over a period of time, they get to know one another and she moves in with him, living a strictly ‘limited access’ relationship. After a misunderstanding at the end of the book, she moves out and he comes back to resolve the issue and everything is hunky dory again. Happily ever after.

A indianised version of mills and boon, the story does not offer anything new in the terms of the story or characters. What works in the book, about just is the humor. The whole book is a light take on the whole mess, the protagonist and her friends always deal with most of their so called relationships with humor. It’s a funny book though it’s hard to sympathize with the protagonist at times.

It’s a good first effort by the first time writer, she seems to have a hold on the humor. She should stick to writing these sort of books before she can progress to more serious ones, as she seems to concentrate on the humor and forget the characters she’s writing about. All in all, a time pass if you have nothing else to do other than clean your nails.


PS: Other reviews are most welcome.