Chetan Bhagat’s much awaited and controversy engrossed novel “One Indian Girl”, definitely raises many questions, and gets my thumbs up.
The book begins with “To all the Indian girls especially the ones who dare to dream and live life on their own terms.” and this statement does pure justice to the novel.
However, this novel is not for misogynist and for people who believe a girl should get married by 25 or she would end up living with cats and dogs alone.
This story is about Radhika Mehta, who is a punjabi born, not so fair, rather “Wheatish”, and a tad bit nerdier than the normal nerdy, a girl who earns half a million dollars, in the distressed debt department of Goldman Sachs , which is hard to get into.
So, judging by the cover if the book, three things , one can be sure of are -1.She makes alot of money , 2.She does have an opinion on everything , 3.She has had boyfriends….and yes many may not like her.,especially at the end of the novel.
So, Radhika is an over-achiever and a hardworker, who gets a big money whooping job in the New York city, and meets Debu, a creative bengali who works in an advertising agency,earns one third of what Radhika earns and just like Radhika we are also left confused what exactly he does, however he leaves her making a snide remark, “I go to work,make the mone,wife takes care of home.”
Shattered as her first love didn’t work out, she takes a transfer to Hong Kong,where she meets Neel, who is 20years older , extremely dashing ,married and facing marriage turbulence, on a business trip they end up sleeping together and an affair begins, Radhika’s perfectly depicted punjabi mother pressurises her to get married and hence, Radhika leaves Neel, when he makes another snide remark , “You didn’t seem Maternal to me”.
This is where Brijesh comes in, an engineer working in Facebook, the “nice guy”, makes you fall in love with him but cannot make Radhika fall for him, Brijesh and Radhika are supposed to get married in a week, an arranged marriage, but what happens further is simply a shock of turn of events.
If you like bollywood masala, then read the novel, otherwise, very soon  a movie will be in making  based on this novel.
Radhika Mehta at some point, makes you remember Ananya Swaminathan of 2 states, the book  is worth  a read, or should I just say, for this novel ” Don’t judge the novel by it’s author’s Twitter trolls”.
Stars- ****