Twenty and the City

Twenty and the City Chick lit finds witty utterance in India. But it may be still too early to cry 8216;Delhi baby8217;

Almost Single
advaita kala
HarperCollins India, Rs 195
It8217;s been a decade since the original chick lit novel, the stupendously successful Bridget Jones8217;s Diary by Helen Fielding. Since then, the lives of twentysomething career women, battling weight, wavering self-esteem and hangovers, and their woefully complicated love lives, have captured the imagination of readers worldwide. This genre is finding expression in India, too, and the latest 8212; and arguably the most skilful so far 8212; in the chick lit sphere is Almost Single by first-time writer Advaita Kala, who works in the hotel industry in Delhi. Almost Single is an endearing mix of Bridget Jones and Sex and the City, the American television series that gave a hyperactive attractiveness to the single woman in the big city.

The protagonist, Delhi-based hotel executive Aisha, 29, lives alone, on occasion drinks and smokes too much and has a penchant for designer wear. Of course, her mother can8217;t wait for her to be married 8212; and takes Aisha8217;s singleness as a personal failing. Thrown in for good measure are the gay confidant, a lousy boss and a couple of friends on the verge of nervous breakdowns because there are no suitable 8212; read non-resident Indian 8212; men in their lives.

Despite sticking to every conceivable stereotype and detailing every set piece that there is in chick lit, Almost Single manages to be original. It is written with disarming honesty with occasional glimpses of staggering wisdom. Like the description of Aisha8217;s friend who quietly accepts her own desperate need to be married and succumbs to registering on a matrimonial website.

Kala also makes some fairly astute observations of urban companionship in general, where according to her, 8220;the perfect picture also has lots of blots and splotches8221;. She takes several digs at the Indian dependence on astrologers when it comes to choosing your soulmate, and candidly acknowledges that the spiraling divorce rates in Indian cities are something of a 8220;boon8221; for single women like herself.

Undoubtedly, some of the situations in Kala8217;s book are straight from her experiences as a hotelier; all those secret afternoon rendezvous in the hotel and the perils of being the mistress, and not the spouse. All very authentic but not terribly entertaining.

The love interest, Karan Verma, is, of course, the perfect catch, an NRI investment banker setting up base in Delhi. However, his nonchalance is inconsistently done and he comes across as an insipid Darcy. The mother makes annoyingly recurring appearances, and somehow, considering the bold and feisty Aisha, just doesn8217;t ring true.

However, what makes Almost Single appear incomplete is that there is very little allusion to the sexual freedom that comes with being single in the city and having the assurance of a fat paycheck at the end of the month. Unlike her western counterparts in chick lit where steamy details are dutifully recorded, Kala stops short of going the whole hog. There are a few, halting acknowledgements to Aisha8217;s own sex life but don8217;t expect anything as disarming as Fielding8217;s passages here.

Story continues below this ad

Almost Single is emblematic of a demographic change in India, overlaid with cultural changes as well as gains towards gender equality in the workplace. But India still doesn8217;t have a voice that8217;s frank, hip and realistic in its treatment of sex and social bonds, like twentysomething Wei Hui8217;s in China, whose risque book Shanghai Baby gave readers fascinating insights into the single lives of urban Chinese women.