"Arranged Love" by Parul A Mittal-Book Review
A novel by Parun A Mittal, titled "Arranged Love" is the latest fiction I've read. This post is a quick review of the book.
I received this book some 10 days ago, but last weekend I was driving around in a Tata Safari, hence couldn't read the book. Finished reading it this weekend instead.
"Arranged Love" is a must read for those on Arranged Marriage or Love Marriage dilemma. Sometime back there was an Indiblogger contest on this topic, had I reviewed this book earlier this might have been a good entry at the contest.
Coming back to the novel, the plot revolves around Suhaani, an Indian born, America studied girl who's forced to come back to India since her US job offer at Lehman Brothers didn't materialize due to slow down. Meanwhile her family tries to hook her up with a nice guy, who eventually ends up being her boss when she takes up a job in a dot com company. The plot is a first person narration of Suhaani, mainly revolving around the dilemma of having to chose between her american boyfriend and her boss as her life partner.
Couple of side tracks involving love lives of few close friends/relatives offers good deviation from otherwise focused Suhaani-Jay-Deep story.
Plot leverages facebook cleverly, there's generic mention of Chetan Bhagat and other real life characteristics or business houses. Lots of Hindi movie names and plots are also mentioned/leveraged where appropriate. Usage of Hinglish (usage of Hindi words in English), several analogies and lots of cleverly crafted dialogues/phrases keep the readers interested in the book.
Personally I liked Suhaani's mother's tech savyness and her Dad's open mind. I also find it amusing how relatives think "if you don't like this guy can I consider him for my daughters?'- as if Love is like a book borrowed from library, pass on to someone if you're not reading it.
I wonder if iTrot is makemytrip. We were given to feel that it is a start up. But it looked like a well established start up with 200+ employees. No mention of its founders (start ups are usually known by their founders)
Though there're few pages discussing the topic from male perspective, by and large the book portray's female perspective of Love vs arranged marriage. Narrating part of the story from male angle (like what was going on Deep's mind when he proposed, was rejected or later accepted) could have balanced the novel very well. (or may be reading a different novel would compensate on that aspect-This of course is my personal opinion.
Also elaborating a bit more on how low conversion at itrot were increased. For those not very keen on emotional stuff of love and marriage, this track could have been a real value add. But doing that would have diluted the core topic and might bore an otherwise interested readers
You can know more about the author Parul Mittal at her website, www.parulmittal.com She seems to have designed her site on her own, so we have an author+ designer here. "Arranged Love" is her second book, first one being "Heartbreaks and Dreams". Book is published by Penguin metro reads and priced at Rs 150 (but you'll get it for little less at online shopping sites).
Other book reviews: Once Upon the tracks of Mumbai * * Topgear magazine * Comical Saga * Fate, Fraud and Friday Wedding * She's a jolly good fellow * 3-in-1 Book review *
I received this book some 10 days ago, but last weekend I was driving around in a Tata Safari, hence couldn't read the book. Finished reading it this weekend instead.
Coming back to the novel, the plot revolves around Suhaani, an Indian born, America studied girl who's forced to come back to India since her US job offer at Lehman Brothers didn't materialize due to slow down. Meanwhile her family tries to hook her up with a nice guy, who eventually ends up being her boss when she takes up a job in a dot com company. The plot is a first person narration of Suhaani, mainly revolving around the dilemma of having to chose between her american boyfriend and her boss as her life partner.
Couple of side tracks involving love lives of few close friends/relatives offers good deviation from otherwise focused Suhaani-Jay-Deep story.
Plot leverages facebook cleverly, there's generic mention of Chetan Bhagat and other real life characteristics or business houses. Lots of Hindi movie names and plots are also mentioned/leveraged where appropriate. Usage of Hinglish (usage of Hindi words in English), several analogies and lots of cleverly crafted dialogues/phrases keep the readers interested in the book.
Personally I liked Suhaani's mother's tech savyness and her Dad's open mind. I also find it amusing how relatives think "if you don't like this guy can I consider him for my daughters?'- as if Love is like a book borrowed from library, pass on to someone if you're not reading it.
I wonder if iTrot is makemytrip. We were given to feel that it is a start up. But it looked like a well established start up with 200+ employees. No mention of its founders (start ups are usually known by their founders)
Though there're few pages discussing the topic from male perspective, by and large the book portray's female perspective of Love vs arranged marriage. Narrating part of the story from male angle (like what was going on Deep's mind when he proposed, was rejected or later accepted) could have balanced the novel very well. (or may be reading a different novel would compensate on that aspect-This of course is my personal opinion.
Also elaborating a bit more on how low conversion at itrot were increased. For those not very keen on emotional stuff of love and marriage, this track could have been a real value add. But doing that would have diluted the core topic and might bore an otherwise interested readers
You can know more about the author Parul Mittal at her website, www.parulmittal.com She seems to have designed her site on her own, so we have an author+ designer here. "Arranged Love" is her second book, first one being "Heartbreaks and Dreams". Book is published by Penguin metro reads and priced at Rs 150 (but you'll get it for little less at online shopping sites).
Other book reviews: Once Upon the tracks of Mumbai * * Topgear magazine * Comical Saga * Fate, Fraud and Friday Wedding * She's a jolly good fellow * 3-in-1 Book review *
Nice review Shrinidhi. I love to read Indian authors in general, but nowadays the Chetan Bhagat wannabes are mushrooming and they target the english understanding population, rather than readers. Eventually, that also is a good sign if it ensures that publishing houses have enough money to publish a few books with genuinely great content. Just my 2 paisa.
ReplyDeleteSeems like a good read...!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for such a detailed review. I am thinking of writing my next book in third person so that both male and female thoughts can be described.
ReplyDeleteThanks Janit, Anjan Roy.
ReplyDeleteParul: thanks for stepping in and comment