“Almost Single”….A Review!!

For those of you who like “sex and the city” and were wondering if an Indian version of it would ever be available, there is good news. “Almost Single” comes pretty close to the Indian version of it. If I could summarize the book in one sentence it would be “Sex and the Indian City with a happy ending”. There is a lot less of ‘sex’ but pretty much the same amount of melodrama and bitching as the original American version.

The protagonist in this case happens to be from the “Hospitality Industry” The story revolves around three single women in their late twenties or early thirties living in the big bad city all by them-selves. Though they have a traditional upbringing; all of them broke free of the regional fetters in the search of a life which they would lead on their own terms. The ‘single and ready to mingle’ status of their personal life also brings them to lock horns with their traditional belief system and the modern lifestyle they seem to have so naturally adapted to. Another important and very widely know fact that this book underlines (especially for men) is that women are “complicated” so trying to decipher them is not only difficult but rather ‘impossible’. Most of the times even women find it difficult understand each other, what chance could a Man have then.

As the story unfolds; there are many instances that the reader might find that the character’s are in a state of moral or ethical dilemma. Their intellect; being the source of their pride and ego tells them to act in self interest while their heart, the seat of their emotional intelligence tells them to act in self less interest. Thus we have a series of events where there is an identity crisis between the Modern day working corporate woman and the traditional home-making women as both these personalities are manifested in the characters.

The language used very simple and straight forward and the use of humor with a slight touch of sarcasm is also refreshing. There are some lines that were really worth the read such as – “These days when women say the word ‘dil-do’ the certainly aren’t taking in ‘Hindi’ and most definitely not talking about the ‘heart’” or “ There comes a time in a women’s life where she has to go from searching for Mr. Right to going for Mr. Right Now.”…..etc. It also highlights the viewpoints of the present day youth with regards to life, love and marriage where ‘sexual compatibility’ with a probable husband is as important as their ‘horoscope compatibility’. There are some instances in the narration where the author has gone a little over board with a situation and made it look like a scene out of a ‘Bollywood flick’ but then keeping in mind the target audience its not that atrocious. There is also a highlight on the difference between the western dating system and the Indian system of arranged marriage with pros and cons discussed in depth with examples for both. The icing in the cake here is that the book has a Happy Ending or at least the reader is made to believe so and that adds a feel good factor to the book. To summarize, not a bad read especially if you want to catch up with the gossip and lingo of the cosmopolitan India.