Book Review: Anything for you Ma’am

A very very long blog-post, that is how I would describe the book “Anything for you Ma’am” by Tushar Raheja (www.raheja.org). The same lack of structure, the same lack-of-flow, the same flying off at tangents, the same numerous footnotes (which are not at the foot of the passage but within the passage – just like this – within brackets), and the same need to read 🙂

I spied the book at Odyssey; I was reluctant to buy it, but seeing that The Hindu had given it a positive review terming it as one of the funniest books, I bought it. The review goes to show that even The Hindu has some bad reviewers. I did not hate the book, but neither would I suggest it to others.

Some good things:

• Very good writing skills, keeps the reader captive (Ok, not the prison-type-captive, but at least house-arrest-type-captive).
• Vivid descriptions of the weather, beautifully written.
• Description of the love-interest of the writer makes one fall in love with her.
• You cannot help but smile as reading this book. It is one such book where everyone will find some shades of himself.
• Book is cheap; at 100 bucks it does not burn a hole in the pocket.

Some bad things:

• Why does this have to be “an IITian’s love story”? I know IIT is a huge huge brand, but does it mean that it has to be in the title. IIT has no significance as such in the whole novel. Keeping IIT in the title seems to be nothing but a marketing gimmick.
• It seems the editor of the publication house was sleeping. I don’t remember the publication, but that publication house should look for a new editor. The writer is verbose – like a blogger – but verbosity is not good in a book unless you are Arthur Hailey. The book would have been way better had it been 50 or maybe 80 pages shorter.
• Too many co-incidences result in indigestion. One co-incidence is ok, two – I could live with, three – difficult to digest but I have strong stomach, but here the whole book was hinged on co-incidences – resulting in a severe bout of burps & hiccups. The premise was very real, very believable; but the events that unfold – let me put this mildly – were a bit out of this world.
• Why this obsessive need to glorify everything? October is great, January is great, winter is great, monsoon is great, trains are great… Was there anything that was not great?

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