As I am not in a mood to read heavy stuff (both H is for Hawk and The Emperor of Maladies are sitting in my book shelf unread), and as my sister-in-law had left "The House that BJ built" by Anuja Chauhan in my house after reading it, and as many people had said it was a laugh riot, I decided to read it.
We have clearly mastered the art of rom-com be it our movies or our books written in English. The Hero and the Heroine have clearly been lifted from the pages of Mills and Boons and you know how it will all end. In summary, there are two love stories (better to give the readers a value for their money), 4 of the Thakur sisters who featured in an earlier book by the same author, their evil uncle and aunt and cousin, two Bhutanese who end up featuring in an item song, and a haveli that needs to be sold off because the sisters need the money.
In the end, the only thing I liked about the book was that it was set in Hailey Road in Delhi, where I went to my first school.
The rest...well, I won't go as far as the review that appears in The Ladies Finger, but definitely it was not a laugh riot as some of the reviewers had said. And oh, some one needs to tell Anuja Chauhan that Dahlias and Amaltas do not flower at the same time.
We have clearly mastered the art of rom-com be it our movies or our books written in English. The Hero and the Heroine have clearly been lifted from the pages of Mills and Boons and you know how it will all end. In summary, there are two love stories (better to give the readers a value for their money), 4 of the Thakur sisters who featured in an earlier book by the same author, their evil uncle and aunt and cousin, two Bhutanese who end up featuring in an item song, and a haveli that needs to be sold off because the sisters need the money.
In the end, the only thing I liked about the book was that it was set in Hailey Road in Delhi, where I went to my first school.
The rest...well, I won't go as far as the review that appears in The Ladies Finger, but definitely it was not a laugh riot as some of the reviewers had said. And oh, some one needs to tell Anuja Chauhan that Dahlias and Amaltas do not flower at the same time.
Thought you'd like to know that I bought the last available copy of your book from Amazon. Very well written. The illustrations are also very good. Bought your book with the intention of gifting it to my niece. After reading it, I decided to keep it for myself since it was the last copy - in case you win a Nobel (or equivalent), your book will become a collector's item.
ReplyDeleteYou could have added some more chapters to the book, or written another one. You have a nice writing style and the ability to present complex scientific concepts in an entertaining manner.
What a great pity that people would rather spend their money on chicklit and rom-com instead, authored by the likes of Anuja Chauhan and that Shobha woman. I read through the previews of Anuja's Chauhan's latest. Awful. It is worse than M&B, it's that bad. Obviously Anuja Chauhan, like that Shobha woman, will make pots of money with that rom-com drivel.
Sadly, she will make considerably more money out of that rom-com drivel, than you will make from your writings.
Cheers ... SKS
Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI have written another book but it is languishing with National Book Trust. NBT moves at a snail's pace!
Rohini