Title: The Great Indian Love Story
Author: Ira Trivedi
Paperback: 196 pages
Publisher: Penguin Global (May 26th 2010, first published 2009)
Genre: Chick-lit
Read: Paperback
Stars: ***/5
Buy On: Amazon | FlipKart
Summary: (Goodreads)
The Great Indian Love Story is set in a world where appearances mean everything and nothing is as it seems. Ira Trivedi weaves together sex, revenge, glitz, friendship and a chilling murder to create a potent cocktail in this gripping novel on the perfidious nature of love and power.
My Review:
Cover: Simple but eye catchy.
Paper and font: Easy on the eyes!
Readability, language: Makes for fast reading.
Why did I choose this book: The cover and blurb caught my eye...
A disappointed Riya comes back to India after failing to get a job in America and finds herself in a changed Delhi. While she is trying to make sense of it all she meets Serena, a wild party animal who lives life one night at a time. Serena introduces her to the night life of Delhi, filled with parties, ecstasy, cocaine and sex. And then there is Parmeet, Serena's mother who just wants to be loved but her simple want leads to an illicit affair that breaks her family.
'The Great Indian Love Story' is a story of love in modern Delhi where there are dark undertones and complications galore to the simple emotion called love. If you are expecting a warm fuzzy love story, this isn't it. This is love and life on Page 3.
The plot involves two families with quite a few sub-plots. Ira tells the story of three women - Riya, Serena, and Parmeet, who are just trying to find happiness, each in their own way.
Set in present day Delhi, Ira takes us into the party scene where the page 3 crowd live their lives. They may have all the money but they crave the rest, and drown themselves in cocaine, alcohol and sex.
Ira has a fair number of characters in her book. There's Riya who is trying to make peace with being in India; she isn't happy about coming back from America. Serena who's mother has married again but Serena doesn't fit into the new family. She craves love and finds it in Amar who is a rich married serial adulterer and cocaine addict. Then there is Parmeet, Serena's Mother who craves romance. When it fizzles out in her marriage she has an affair that leads to violence, murder and a new marriage and baby for her.
'The Great Indian Love Story' is a story that has you shaking your head and wondering how life can become so convoluted and complicated for some people. The rich have it all yet their lives are so empty and incomplete.
The story is told by Riya, Serena and Parmeet with bits from Parmeet's first husband S.P. Sharma to tie it all together. We get to hear from the protagonists about just what's running in their minds as life unfolds for them.
The book is a fast read that leaves you thinking and contemplating the lives of the page 3 crowd. Worth reading once if you want an insight into the pseudo lives of Page 3 people.
About the Author:
Ira's wrote her first book when she was 19 years old. Apart for being an author, Ira is also a yoga teacher and teaches at Sivananda yoga centers across the country. She holds a MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in Economics from Wellesley College, USA. She can be found at iratrivedi.in.
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