The Great Indian Love Story by Ira Trivedi !!!

         
About Author: 

          Ira Trivedi is the author of the best-selling novels “The Great Indian Love Story” (Penguin 2009) and “What Would You Do To Save the World?”(Penguin 2006.)  Her latest book “There is No Love on Wall Street” (Penguin 2011) was released at the Jaipur Literature Festival by Pulitzer Prize winning author Junot Diaz. Her books have been translated into several regional languages and met by critical and public acclaim.
Ira’s wrote her first book when she was 19 years old. Since then, she has gone to create a name for herself in the writing world and she talks extensively at top schools and colleges across the county, including IIM and NIT on topics ranging from becoming a writer, to pursuing non-traditional careers. She has been interviewed by and written for all of India’s major publications including Times of India, Hindustan Times, India Today,  Hindu, DNA, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, etc. She regularly makes television appearances and is invited to speak on various panels and forums.

Ira is also a yoga teacher and teaches at Sivananda yoga centers across the country. Ira truly believes in the Sivananda motto of transforming our lives by serving others and  aims to spread that message through her various talks and discussions.

She holds a MBA from Columbia Business School  where she won the prestigious Feldberg fellowship and a BA in Economics from Wellesley College, USA.


The story of THE GREAT INDIAN LOVE STORY:


           The Great Indian Love story talks about lavish parties, coke mafia, sexed-up dolls and raunchy extra marital affairs. It also talks about how youngsters fall prey to the glittering web and lose themselves in the world of drugs and sex and finally lose their lives.
           The story starts with Riya, who fails to find a job in US after finishing studies and left with no choice returns to Delhi, her hometown. This is where her life takes a turn, Riya gets introduced to a bubbly girl Serena, who becomes her closest ally in town and through her, Riya sees the plush side of Delhi and it's people. From here Serena and her story takes over, which helps Riya to realise her aim in life.
            It is also the story of Parmeet, Serena’s mother, who looks for passion outside her marriage with disastrous consequences, and S.P. Sharma, Parmeet’s husband, who is driven to violence by her infidelity. Ira Trivedi weaves together sex, revenge, glitz, friendship and a chilling murder to create a potent cocktail in this gripping novel on the perfidious nature of love and power.


My Review:


              The reason of picking The Great Indian Love Story was the charming face of Ira Trivedi. Yes, I'm that kind of an idiot. Then, I cam to know that she has participated in Miss India. Now, I don't know how did she lost it but if I would have judged, she would have had that crown on her head. :-) But, after reading this book, I am happy to meet one of those rare girls who are a combination of Brain and Beauty. First, I would like to talk about the publishers- Penguin Books. Penguin Books has given the best outlook to the book with perfect cover page and perfect fonts and paper quality. You get a good feel while reading a book of good quality. Now coming to the Ira Trivedi's work, the book is written with a nice flow of story. The language is perfect. You get to learn some good words too. But it's not a book which will compel you to sit with a dictionary. You will enjoy reading as every sentence is structured so perfectly that you turn out to be a fan of Ira. The book ends up in 188 pages and every page has a life into it. Generally, a book is written with a short fiction extended upto 200 pages but this book has so much variety into it. It has many elements and many stories into the story of the protagonist- Serena. 


            Coming to the story, book starts with Riya narrating how she leaves USA because of financial problems and comes to Delhi. But suddenly in the next chapter you find that Serena is narrating her piece. After reading Serena's part, you start liking her more than Riya. The meeting part of Riya and Serene is very funny. I liked it. :-) Then the story moves ahead and Serena's mother, father and step-father comes into the scene. When you read the first chapter narrated by Serena's mother- Parmeet, you start hating her but as soon as you read the second narration of her, you start liking her. The sexual stuff between Serena and Abdullah is described perfectly that you can imagine Serena's emotions. The excitement level of the book moots by 1 from 146th page.The pregnancy part makes you sweat. Then, the abortion part almost killed me. Ira has given a very nice description of the girls who has to abort their babies just because of the rejection of boys who are the culprit of it. I started hating the character of Salman after reading this part. The climax of the book is so unpredictable. And the good part of The Great Indian Love Story is that the whole story is unpredictable and you don't know where's its going. :-)


             I didn't found any kind of drawback in the book except one. The character of Riya is not used much and it disappoints the reader because Ira started the book with her but made her a supporting character of the story. Else, I didn't found any loose part in the book. Everything is perfectly embedded in a story. This is how things happen in cities like Delhi and Mumbai. Even I have seen some. I will rate this book- 3.3 out of 5. You can definitely read it once. And I would say- Do try it. And yes, rating is given on the basis of book and no point is given to the Ira's beauty. :-)


            Thanks.


ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU