The story begins with the very interesting banter between Rumi and the protagonist, Jinni – the nightmarish mouth she possesses and the comparison of kitaanus (germs) with villains in superhero movies being standout points – and I instantly knew that the intuition I had about an Anuja Chauhan book being good was spot on. Normally, I hesitate to pick up books of Indian authors which is a double standard, I know, but I’ve had precious time wasted on books that were ‘best sellers’ but didn’t even exhibit the quality of an amateur writer’s first creation which only told me that being a novelist in my country requires me to master the art of marketing or write stories that catered to whatever readership such writers had – which I couldn’t bring myself to do and hence my novels remain stored in a file on my laptop probably never to see the light of day. Anyway, I recently made a wise choice to Google the type of work (I put in a lot of work into my reading) that certain authors did and find more writers of similar genres or class and that led me to Chauhan. It is obvious that she is one witty woman with terms like ‘pollies’ for people from political parties being coined in the book and it’s refreshing (I burst out laughing when I read the character describing her mother as someone who ‘reads girlie magazines and books about monks who sold their ferraris)! I can’t help but imagine how much trouble she must have faced for writing (on-point facts) about politics in India. Notable is the writer’s effort to add the touch of Hindi accent/way-of-speaking (especially the reference to oneself being ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ as a substitute for ‘hum’) in English whenever the Grandmother (Amma) speaks. Since there is an extensive usage of Hindi and references only Indians would get, I’m unsure whether this book could have readers beyond the country but as India is large, I guess it pays off. The frequent reference to the poem ‘Jhansi ki rani’ reminded me of my school days because it was in the Hindi curriculum and I agree with the protagonist’s view that it is one hell of a poem. With Zain Altaf Khan getting introduced into the story, it swivels in the direction it was headed towards and though my relationship with politics is almost non-existent, I was engrossed in the way the election process was getting unfolded through the effective and oft-hilarious narration. I finally realised that it wasn’t a lone case that my teacher called earrings as ‘tops’ when I saw the same reference in the story (once again, this story is heights of Indian-ness, atleast the north part and heavily so). Jinni’s awe at watching the election process’ background works and the ease with which her grandmother played her part as a politician was explained in such a way that the feeling was palpable. The fact that most guys in the book are snobs made me think what kind of people the author associated with or who exactly she was trying to take revenge on with these portrayals. It’s spectacular how well all the prejudiced notions that people of the country, my country, have about each other has been written about because every single one of them is true even today which is just one of the many reasons why India remains ‘developing’ – a word you come to hate whenever you see it in Social Science textbooks. The secondary characters, i. e. the campaigners, were sketched quite well and were funny because it was easy to imagine real people who belonged to the same category of sucking-up-to-please-the-powerful money-minded false-promising-with-panache kind. The twist in the middle laced with all the romance in a manner that almost deceived me was awesome! Satire is predominant in the writing as most aspects Indian have been commented on in an honest yet not that cruel or far-fetched from reality way which people who know India could digest with ease. The cheap tricks used by opponents to show each other down came forth only later in the story and having watched too many Malayalam movies based on politics as a kid, I had actually looked forward to such antics from the start. The comic book series that showed up out of nowhere was cute in that the innocence and hopefulness of childhood was the essence of its design which added a nice touch to the hardcore nature of elections even if it was only a tiny excerpt and didn’t add much to the plot.
What this story highlights, even if not quite obvious in the midst of all the politics and romance, is the plight of rural India and the sad state of democracy in the nation. I could feel the angst that Anuja Chauhan felt at the conditions prevalent in the country she belongs to by writing about it in a way that was covered with comedy so as not to upset people who only get offended by things that are irrelevant unlike, say, the lack of education, non-availability of essentials like water, food, electricity and sanitation or the abundance of poverty. She has painted quite a picture of the pathetic state of affairs through the story which is engrossing because of the quality of writing as well as the truth in the statements. This is a novel worth reading and above all, it is a read that makes one think about how, as a citizen, all of us have a long way in actually contributing to the welfare of the society, even if by beginning with tiny steps that count. After all, the ripple effect is real and we need to initiate it to improve our country and soon.
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