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Almost Single

That is the book I recently read and not my current 'relationship-status'. For the latter, I will have to replace 'almost' with 'completely'. :)

Though the tone of the book is comic it deals with a serious problem of dearth of eligible men for thirty-something-working-women-in-metros. Trust me it is a serious problem. Advaita Kala successfully weaves a believable story of 3 such women and characters around them, at work and at home.

The first fifty pages seemed like just any Mills & Boon story. I have read 2 and a half and another half of MB to know this. The girl, single and ready to mingle. Enter the guy, rich, snob, and mysterious. The chemistry begins with a kind of discomfort and then leads to an inexplanable attraction. Surprisingly at the moment I was wondering why the author has written an MB in an indian context, she apologised for the turn of events in the main protagonist's life for being very Mills and Boon-ish. I liked that.


Other characters in the book have similarities to people most of us would have known or heard of at some point of time in our lives. A mother who does not approve of her daughter's lifestyle and has ready-to-give tips to the daughter for how to behave and what to wear when meeting a prospective groom's mom. A cousin who is not happy or satisfied with her marriage but is sticking to it since she does not have enough courage to give it all up and move out. A nosey neighbour who is very interested in knowing what is happening in the single-working-woman's adjacent flat. The curiosity reaches a peak when the frequent visitors are her guy friends. Another interesting character is that of another woman who is a potential danger as far as the love interest of the main protagonist is concerned. What adds to the spice is the ability of Ms Aisha Bhatia, the main protagonist, to land in all sort of embarrassing situations when either the guy or his mom are around.


The book is a fun read. It won't give you lessons on life but you will enjoy reading it at least. Near the end when Aisha becomes more introspective she shares some of her thoughts with the readers. I liked quite a few of them. My favourite one is how the desire to love rules over the desire to be loved and that it makes us feel 'emotionally-employed'. A nice way to give some reasoning to the foolishness done while being in love.
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