Never Mind Yaar is a book that based in one of Mumbai’s top colleges, and is the story of three girls who end up discovering each other, love, life, and a lot more; both on and off their college campus.
Shalini, who hails from a rich, conservative Rajasthani household, Benaifer, a Zoroastrian, and Louella, a catholic from Bandra are the three main characters with Shalni’s grandmother Mem (short for Memsahab), Shalni’s love interest, Bhagu, and her apparently perfect suitor as certified by Mem, Rajinder, who makes only fleeting appearances in conversations, for the remaining characters.
Characters really make this book, and the author brings out each one beautifully. An inconspicuous bit where the author describes Louella’s society’s watchman’s reaction to Shalini’s car and chauffeur is priceless. One of those moments in the book that make you go...Wow! Now that’s some attention to detail!
College life too is described perfect to the tee. Right from the various activities like debate clubs, the first brushings with the emotion of love, the big dilemma of friends versus the one you love, friends playing matchmaker, students displaying their rebelliousness, canteen food and it’s prominence, no matter how bad the quality is, little white lies that seem fair in love, the principal’s reaction to students and college, the clerks who behave as if the college wouldn’t run without them, there’s hardly anything the author misses out on.
I also loved how the friendship between the three girls develops through the book. It is always said that college is the place you make friends for life, and I’ve experienced that; so reading about that life-long type friendship brought a smile to my face. The trip to an expensive boutique in Bandra, the joy of celebrating a friend’s new vehicle, long telephone calls and parents yelling away to get off the phone (yes...the book is set in a time when mobiles had not yet become an all-pervading entity in our life and conversations about love, life and breakups happened in person and not on SMS, Whatsapp, BBM or Facebook status messages), made for a nostalgic read. The emotion of doing everything it takes for the happiness of your friend and leaving aside grudges to ensure her happiness is also very effortlessly conveyed, without coming across as over-the-top or too perfect to be true.
What I missed was a little more detailing of the love story between Shalini and Bhagu. A few nice conversations between them would have made for a good read. Also, three friends spending three years together, without a single fight seems a little unbelievable! It would have been interesting to see how the three characters developed post a fight or an argument.
Towards the end, the story seemed forced and a little too filmy. I appreciate how the author has weaved together a number of social problems like riots and rapes, but the ending somehow just did not work for me. Not that it’s badly written or illogical, it’s a very possible ending, but very Bollywood like.
Throughout the time I read the book, and after I finished it, I had this constant feeling of having missed the everyday sights and sounds of Mumbai. For some reason, the words, sounds, expressions, that you hear every day and connect with instantly were missing. It was a story about Mumbai, with characters from Mumbai, but came across as not up close and personal with Mumbai today.
But that being said, I must mention; that in no way am I saying that anything in the book is wrong or false.
Whatever’s written is all correct and great, but something’s still missing!
All in all, not a bad read, but not super-thrilling either.
I’d give it 2.5 on 5.
Sunshine Smiles! :)
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