Formulaic, prosaic and predictable

Short takes

By

Randeep Wadehra

The Angel’s Share by Satyajit Sarna

Harper Collins. Pages: x+230. Price: Rs. 250/-

After engineering and medical colleges it was only a matter of time before a law college too featured in the campus-lit genre. Most of the ingredients are familiar. Zorawar from Delhi joins National Law School, Bangalore. He stays in the hostel where, predictably, he has to share his room with a couple of other students. After going through the rites of passage, viz., a bit of ragging and not-so-good natured ribbing, he becomes friends with many – Sasha being the most interesting of the lot. While interacting with several girls Zorawar falls in love with Jennifer – a “northeasterner” – but is not really loyal to her. She, on the other hand is serious about her feelings for him…

Outside the campus, the usual local versus outsider conflicts lead to violence, one of them resulting in Sasha’s murder. The storyline is not very different from other campus-lit novels, comprising drug trips, drinking binges, explicit and promiscuous carnality, and the almost phobic reaction to lifetime commitment. Apparently, this genre is heading towards becoming the print equivalent of the mindless TV soaps wherein even dialogues are unsurprising. However, this novel is readable for one reason alone – crisp phrases strung together in smart prose, garnished with the right amount of humour and pathos. Some may even enjoy faux philosophy; sample this, “That history lay on the ground around us like the dark shadow of the next building. It made us tell half-truths and, sometimes, made us lie.” If you dig this, you may love to read the entire novel.

I never thought I could fall in love by Chanchaldeep Singh Sandhu

Penguin. Pages: 156. Price: Rs. 99/-

This is another of the campus-lit genre, albeit without philosophical frills. Ronnie alias Romil Khanna lives in Patiala. As a school student he does everything that a kid should not be doing, including losing his virginity to a classmate named Sonal. But then, love in the 21^st century Indian Writing in English has shed all the traditional niceties, and has turned into explicit, unsentimental carnality seeking instant gratification. By the time Ronnie enters college in Chandigarh he has already become bored with Sonal and has no hesitation in breaking up with her. If it was Sonal in Patiala, in Chandigarh he gets attracted towards two girls – Monica and Payal – who are as different from each other as two persons can be. His first day in the hostel is quite similar to that of most other protagonists’ in most other campus-lit novels. The novel ends after Ronnie comes through his troubles with not just girls but also a gang of criminals.

Although, the prose is prosaic and the treatment unadorned, it is worth its price, if you just want to pass your time.

Romance on Facebook by Amrita Priya

Jaico. Pages: 210. Price: Rs. 125/-

Internet has not just wiped out distances between cities and countries but also has become a handy mediator for various types of interactions. Geeti, a 39 year old artist, lives in Mumbai and is happily married to Ravi. Siddharth is an architect in the US, happily married and is father of two kids. While surfing for friends on the Facebook, Geeti comes across his profile. Both of them realize that, as children, they were neighbours in Cuttack. On further chatting they discover that they secretly loved each other but could never gather the courage to say so. The next obvious step is taking the relationship to a more intimate stage.  Adultery makes for fascinating reading. However, not many concessions have been made to the anticipated salaciousness; Priya has preferred the tougher option of exploring the female psyche. However, the denouement, though not surprising, is something that is becoming increasingly rare in today’s love stories.

Published in The Tribune datedAugust 26, 2012