Book review: Now that you are rich...

Book review: Now that you are rich.......
Hi,

I went on a book buying spree while in India. Alongwith other books, I bought this book named 'Now that you are rich, lets fall in love', by Maanvi Ahuja and Durjoy Datta. Now, I do not know what made me pick up the book in the first place. Maybe I thought that since Chetan Bhagat writes well, other Indian authors should be given a chance to be read.

And I really regret buying the book! I do not think I can tone down this feeling in any way. Before I start explaining my disgust and other related emotions in detail, let me first give you a background about the book.


The cover describes the book to be about four over achieving nerds who land themselves in job that pays at a higher rate that they could think about spending. Things are fine as they get along but……As they fall in love, sleep around with all the wrong people and recession threatens to take the company down, their bonds strain…till one day, the very reason that got them together tears them apart.Money. Hideous human resource managers picking on them, horny seniors looking down their cleavages, piles of workload, crazy shopping sprees, crates of beer and endless cups of coffee………Out from college and into the real world…how does it change them?


It sounded interesting, especially in recessionary times, which would have threatened or threatened to threaten (if you know what I mean) the best of us. So I started reading Now that you are rich......

Less than 30 pages into the book and I was already regretting buying it, mostly reading it! There were many reasons for it, yes, the story was definitely a key reason. But, 30 pages are not sufficient enough to judge a story, so there had to be some other reason.


Reason 1: the grammatical errors and typos. Oh God, there were so many. Initially, I started underlining these. Later, that got too much for me. I was in danger of changing my own fundamentals of English language!! The publishers have not bothered to proof read it, prior to publication. More importantly, the authors have definitely NOT read it again. Or maybe ever! Or maybe since there are two authors, as happens in most cases, one thought the other would proof read; and vice versa; the buck has been effectively passed on........to the poor reader.



Genders have been mixed up - "Arjun had changed her relationship status to single"; wherein the sentence actually means "Arjun had changed his relationship status to single" ; "He caught Karan in the parking lot kissing Ritika" (it was actually Garima who caught Karan.....and she has been described as a girly girl, so there should be no gender confusion right?).

Names of characters are miraculously changed in the very next sentence - "Abhi says he is okay with Riya....and calls Vartika" (Riya, poor girl, has been written as Vartika couple of times in the entire book)


The grammatical errors (any English teacher's nightmare) -

1. The apostrophes are all at wrong places: Arjuns's affluence, Garimas's behaviour, (and the best, the write up of the authors on the 1st page of the book) nations's fancy.
2. Other examples - "Makes my hair stands on end" ; "I will throw you out this house" ; "I will always knew" ; "Saurav at leasr learn something" (no this is not a typo made by me, least has been typed as leasr)


These are not stray instances, there are many. I did not want this blog to be dedicated as how to improve your English grammar, spot the mistakes! By the way, after writing this blog, I did spell check, and all the above mistakes came up, with auto correct options. Now, what can I say about the authors/publishers........ignorant about the spell check option (Mr. Gates pls note), lazy, complacent??


Reason 2: Okay, I could have ignored this (maybe, just maybe), if the story was anything worthwhile. Oh yes, the 4 'nerds' get into a high paying job and are about to get chucked out due to recession. Also, as a result of some defiance on their part, of the workaholic norms.

However, the characters of the story are weak, contradictory too. I mean, these 4 (Abhi, Saurav, Garima and Shruti) are the toppers in school and college. That is how they get the high paying job. However, both Garima and Shruti have boyfriends; Abhi and Saurav spend most of their time trying to get girlfriends. In fact, they are quite involved and in some cases, obssessed about this.


All of us have gone to school/college, known nerds and geeks. Do they really even think about such things? Or maybe they do, but do they make time for this?????? It does require time to plot, plan, spend time in shopping, on dates etc etc. These 4 are described at some point as being the ones to go back to their books after the last day of exam, to check what marks they would get. And that's the proper definition of a nerd/geek! Someone who is like that would place love as his/her top priority.


I remember the nerds/geeks in my school. They never had time for fun, they studied even in the 5-10 minutes it took for the next teacher to enter the classroom. One boy had even given me a lecture about the cons of reading Archie comics....wasting time he called it! (Imagine he felt so passionate about it, he left his books to improve my habits, even if for 5 mins!!!) :):) And here, IITian Saurav's friends urge him to have sex.....and he joins the gym (which IITian has time to breath, let alone joining the gym!!!!), and plots and plans for the same.



Reason 3: Sex is the over riding factor.......where in Chetan Bhagat's book it has been dealt with in a mature manner, this book makes it totally crass. Maybe the authors were trying to emulate Shobha De's style......but let us face it people, she is unique and even if she writes crap, she has clout.

Abhi is hinted as having buttered up the professors and hence improved his grades - "Abhi had been too busy with books. Professors' dicks. Sucking is a difficult job to do" The same Abhi who did this for his grades in college, does not understand at all when Shruti does the same with her boss, to save her job. And she really needs the money. He screams and shouts at her etc. I can understand this, if the authors had pointed out Abhi having double standards. But no, there is no reference to Abhi's earlier behaviour. It has been quickly forgotten!


The book ends in each getting what they wanted......however, the message conveyed is that the 2 characters from an ordinary financial background, get what they wanted - Abhi gets his rich girlfriend (but hang on, his earlier crush was not rich, so the criteria is not consistent).....and Shruti gets her super rich industrialist boyfriend (and hang on pls again, earlier she was in LOVE with a shop owner's son....so what happened now??). And the other 2? Hmmmmmm......they already had the money.....father's money! They needed LOVE :):)


The book has absolutely no message to give.......it is totally meaningless. I have read many meaningless books also.....my staple diet is MBs (Mills and Boons for the ignorant). However, MBs at least help pass time......and they do not irritate me endlessly with childish typos and grammatical errors. They also transport me into a romantic world....but that is reserved for a future post :):) It is not important that it should give a message, it should at least prove to be enjoyable, at a very basic motivation level.


Durjoy Datta is pursuing his MBA from MDI Gurgaon and I really did not think MDI had such a high threshold for poor English. I used to hold the school in great esteem (also because I did not make it there, but now I am glad).


Maanvi Ahuja, luckily did not decide to pursue MBA. I mean how many aberrations can there be for someone with such poor English. She has graduated from SRCC, which i thought would have taught the Indian income tax structure to its students. A 30 lakh salary does not mean 3 lakh in hand per month (as quoted on the back cover) Firstly it is a grave calculation error! (36 lakhs would be 3 lakh per month right? See, the book has shaken my Maths fundas also!!!!). In the story, it says 2.5 lakh per month. (which is gross, net should be much lesser, so do not know how the 4 smarties were counting on getting that much).
Tissot watches, Jimmy Choo pumps (are they even available in India??), cruises on the Caribbean....hmmmm....would require some saving right?? This is what the back cover says........there are of course no mentions of such a lifestyle in the story. Yes, this also means that the back cover has no sync with the inside.......and brings to my mind a saying "You cannot judge a book by its cover" :):):)


I also do not know which graduate gets 30 lakh salaries.......I seriously do not know. Maybe they get also, but then, why should so many students each year, especially toppers, slog for CAT?? But all these are minor issues.

The book cover says it has been on the best selling charts for 17 straight weeks (as per India Today)!!!!! What defines the best selling chart?? Are we starved for Indian authors so much that we put ANY Indian on the best selling charts?? Or is it defined by idiots like me, who buy the book in the first place. India Today really lost it's credibility in my eyes at least, with this book.


Okay, now for the main last question......the book is priced at Rs. 100.......Rs. 5 above what Chetan Bhagat's books are priced!!!!! WHY?????

If any of you can justify this Rs. 5 ....pls let me know...it has really shaken by Maths, Economics and book reading fundas.

Ciao