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Literary Review
First Impression
Viral Match; Rajesh Khullar; Rupa; Rs 195.
Vishal and Vandana are the ideal modern couple. He’s young and bright and has made his pile early in life. She is devoted to him and an angel when it comes to any cause. The birth of their baby should have brought them pleasure. But a call from
her doctor wakes her up to the reality fate has in store for her. A nagging suspicion that she has possibly developed the AIDS virus leaves her mind buzzing with the probability of her husband cheating on her.
Vishal, when confronted by his wife, goes into a tizzy. However his ruthless efficiency kicks in and Vishal decides to get to the bottom of it all by eliminating all the women he might ever have had an affair with. Beginning with a teenage infatuation to his more recent amorous alliances, Vishal asks all his girlfriends to undergo the AIDS test. He does so himself but finally is tripped up with the complexity of such a test and what it might mean in medical terms.
Meanwhile Vandana continues to carry her baby, worried about whether she would pass the virus to the unborn child. Their loving relationship is on the brink as both retreat to their own worlds and suspicions. Finally they both realise the futility of playing the blame game and pledge to relive and re-dedicate their lives to their child.
Viral Match is a commentary on the fear and ignorance about a disease considered a social stigma even today. It also carries a subliminal message of safe sex and total commitment. Unfortunately, the book seems skewed in bits while the story drags on to its logical conclusion. A little more effort at tightening up a good plot and better presentation and language would have hit the right note.
Jet City Woman; Ankush Saikia; Rupa; Rs. 195
Sex, drugs, rock and roll. Anybody would think this is all students at Delhi University are interested in. North Eastern students in India continue to suffer the stigma of being easy going and binging on a hideous cocktail of drugs and loose morals.
And this book seems to reinforce that opinion.
A young student from Shillong saves a enigmatic young girl at a party from her boyfriend’s violence. The two spend the rest of the evening together. Things grow and the two have a brief affair. However the young man who is introduced in the course of his affair , to his girlfriend’s shady friends and a cocaine dealer too, is not so sure if he wants to continue in the same vein .He’s never able to pry much out of her about it. He’s not left much of a chance because she announces that she is off abroad.
Years later she meets him again. He remains faithful to his memory of her and cannot seem to forget her though he knows a relationship wiht her is not possible. Meanwhile he finds solace in the arms of an old friend and finally goes back home to make a life for himself. An honest novel where the writer describes with some authenticity the haze of college life where most students flit from one class to another barely registering what is being taught. As for the sex and drugs? They are everywhere, anyway.
Glian; Shubham Basu; Srishti; Rs 100.
Dev, an NRI, returns to India to travel and see the country. When the opportunity arises he convinces his friend Ravi to take off with him. Sceptical as Ravi is of Dev’s non-plan with no fixed itinerary, he agrees when Dev informs him that they
may have some interesting company. So far so good.
And now comes the unbelievable part of this tale: Dev meets two young women whom he doesn’t know, who agree to accompany him and Ravi without batting any eyelid. The foursome go into the wilds and, while getting to know each other, encounter all sorts of people, places and strangest of situations. Dev, of course, is the leader and motivator. But at some point the group splits and Dev and one of the young women find themselves stranded with a strange tribe that lives close to primitive times. The two fall in love with each other and the tribe and its ways of life and contemplate staying on forever. This one’s best left on the shelf.
SUCHITRA BEHAL
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