Wrong
For The Right Reasons
by
Ritu Lalit
The Blurb
Shyamoli Verma’s timing is wrong. In her late twenties, she finds that her marriage is irrevocably broken. She comes back to her parents with her pre-teen son and an infant daughter, only to find that she is unwelcome.
Independent and brash, she decides to bring up her children and also get a divorce without any support from friends and family.
Written with wry self deprecating humour, this is the story of a divorced woman's quest for love and security.
MY THOUGHTS:
Before I knew Ritu as an author, I knew her as a fellow blogger whom I interacted within the online groups. I found her (still do) to be a strong woman who is open about her views, intelligent and also witty. I can find these traces of Ritu's character in Shyamoli. This is the first book I have read which Ritu has authored.
The characters in the story are the people whom we find around us every day, who are a part of our life and who either rub us or inspire us and they come in all shapes, sizes and colors with a dash of 'quirky personality trait.' Shyamoli is an average woman, with an average height and looks; who though intelligent and educated is unaware of her own strengths until she walks out of her marriage. Malati is the typical overbearing mom who behaves like a sophisticated and modern woman but is regressive in her thinking.
The story starts with a bang...it is gripping from the word go. Written in first person, the language is simple, engaging and the flow seamless, the wit and humour is natural and effortless. I could not put the book down. This story made me hungry...while Shyamoli prepared the jams and the dips or mixed flour for the cake, cookies and bread or rolled out the cinamon rolls, my mouth watered...seriously!
What I also liked was the thoughts or the words of wisdom printed in bold at the beginning of each chapter which resonates and impacts you long after you are done with reading the book.
However, the story could have ended when Mr. Malhotra died and Malati disowns her daughter. That would have been apt and crisp. The conflict at the later part of the story or the drama or even the re-entry of an character was unnecessary as it did not add anything to the story as a whole while maybe offering a closure to the protagonist regarding her frenemy.
There are a few editing glitches which stared at me. Samar, Shyamoli's son's age is first mentioned as 17 in one chapter and later he is still 16. Shyamoli seems like she is forever 27 in the first part.
Manav, Shyamoli's ex-husband is supposed to be living in Mumbai after their divorce with his second wife and 3 daughters but they seem to be living next door as they come and go in the later chapters when Ketaki runs away from home.
And when Nimmi, Manav's second wife comes to meet Shyamoli, she is wearing a lemon colored sari yet when the tears fall, it wets the front of her kurti.
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The Story Told In Pictures
Ritu Lalit is a corporate slave turned fiction writer. A voracious reader, she is a gold medalist post graduate in English Literature who spent most of her childhood in remote areas in the northeastern parts of India, lying on grassy hillsides daydreaming and reading books.
She loves spinning tales, but no longer has her captive audience as her children grew up and flew away from the coop. Her three dogs don’t pay much attention. She began writing in the vain hope that the characters she creates will listen to her, even do her bidding.
She has five books out in the market, A Bowlful of Butterflies, HILAWI, Chakra, Chronicles of the Witch Way and Wrong, for the Right Reasons. Her fifth novel, His Father’s Mistress is coming soon.
You can stalk her @
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