Endearing Comedy Everyone Can Connect with – Arranged Love by Parul Mittal

Title: Arranged Love
Language: English
Author: Parul Mittal
Genre:  Romance
Publisher: Penguin Metro Reads (2012)
ISBN – 10: 0143418823
ISBN-13: 9780143418825
Binding: paperback
Price: Rs. 150 (Buy from Flipkart for Rs.99)
Pages: 256

Summary: Arranged Love is a simple love story with which every youngster of today can easily connect to. It has touched many aspects of love that we experience in our lives, from crushes to true love and from breakups to moving on in life. The language is simple adding to the beauty of the story. There is even a track from an earlier novel by the same author which in a way binds the story together. The use of humor, sometimes does jar a bit, but the sum of the parts is better than the whole! All in all, wonderfully written and a good storyline – an endearing comic romance that most of the Facebook/Dotcom generation will instantly connect with!!

Detailed Review: What would you do if you’re a desi girl living your dream in the land of promise – USA and found out that you’re losing your job before you’ve gotten it, you’re moving back to India leaving your extremely hot boyfriend and that you’re being betrothed to a guy you abhor, by your parents?

Those are the questions faced by the protagonist of “Arrange Love” – Suhaani. The opening line of the novel makes you think instantly!! There is a strong narrative that makes you instantly take to the protagonists dilemma about the entire Arranged Vs Love marriage theme.

Suhaani is on the verge of completion of her PhD in the United States, has an extremely hot boyfriend and lands a job with the Lehmann Brothers, only to find that the recession has hit the economy. She’s forced to leave all her dreams and fly back to India, where her parents have conveniently decided to find her a groom as per Indian traditions. The suitor as it turns out is everything that Suhaani hates in a guy – he’s an IIT graduate, moustachioed and “Ugly” compared to her extremely-hot boyfriend back in the promised land.

To try to get out of this seemingly “not-made-for-each-other” wedding Suhaani enlists the help of Tanu di (a Character from the authors previous novel “Heartbreaks and Dreams – The Girls @ IIT” ) and Neha, a socially forward girl who doesn’t mind the extra romance in life. Despite best intentions and desperate measures, she inevitably lands a job in the startup run by her prospective suitor (Deepak) and the story takes you through a great many humorous scenes till it ends up with the quintessential question that faces every Indian boy or girl of the Facebook generation – To marry the one you love or To love the one you marry?

Synopsis:

Suhaani is enjoying her independent status in the US and her sexy Indian American boyfriend, when suddenly she loses her job to recession. And she’s forced to move back to India where her father has selected a ‘boy’ for her from his guitar class. Suhaani doesn’t know how to tell her Internet-savvy dad and Farmville-addict mother that she’s not interested in an arranged match, especially to an IITian. She decides to dislike the guy. Except that he’s not too thrilled about her either.

Even when they end up working together, Suhaani decides she will not fall for this guy. But before she can turn him down, he rejects her!

Find out what happens next in this racy comedy of relationships that is Arranged Love!

Positives:

1.  Crisp writing and easy-to-read instantly connecting language of the novel is a huge plus!
2. The clever integration of the multitude of uses of Facebook in our daily life, a little mention of Chetan Bhagat and the many small nitty-gritty stuff of our life experiences give a realistic appeal to the novel. (For a bit of time, I was totally relating the story to my life experiences!)
3. Apart from ‘love’ as the main theme, the book also from time to time throws light on other themes like friendship.

Negatives:

1. A clichéd story line.
2. Sometimes the humor is a bit stale.
3. A few chapters dragged on and could have been edited better. (But then, may have made the story duller)

Who will enjoy this? – Everyone , especially the younger generation for whom this book is intended.
Buy or Don’t Buy? –  Definite buy from me. Flipkart at the moment is even giving a Rs.51 discount on the cover price.

About the Author
Parul A. Mittal is the author of the national bestseller Heartbreaks & Dreams!: The Girls @ IIT. Apart from reading and writing fiction, she loves listening to old Hindi music, cannot resist jiving to dance beats, loves to party with friends and has a keen interest in staying fit.

She did her BTech in electrical engineering from IIT Delhi in 1995, followed by masters in computer science from UMich, Ann Arbor. After twelve years in the corporate world (Hughes, IBM Research and Nextag), she is currently running an e-venture called RivoKids . RivoKids offers parents smart ideas to raise bright, happy kids and free online memory books to capture fun parenting moments.

Born in Delhi, she did her schooling at Lady Irwin School, New Delhi and Navrachna School, Baroda. She is married to Alok Mittal and has two daughters Smiti and Muskaan.