A Marriage Knot by Shobana Mahadevan | Book Review

Shobana Mahadevan is an accomplished IT professional with a passion for story-telling. We had the opportunity to review her book 40 feet off the Ground on this blog previously and also have an interesting author interview with her.

We liked both her work and her positive enthusiasm and so when recently she provided us with an ECopy of her latest book A Marriage Knot, I was delighted to read it for Team Thinkerviews and share with you my views on it…

Book Cover:

As you know, we usually share our first impression of the cover page for almost all the books we read and review. The cover page of this book may look very simple as it shows a white and a red cloth tied together as is traditional in wedding ceremonies. It is simple yet decent and effective. The minimalistic approach the cover designer took is really impressive.

In our opinion, the book is so filled with vibrant characters, that it would be much more suited to the book, if it showed a colourful picture showing its characters… That would definitely draw more readers in then the current version.

Storyline:

We meet newly married Neha and Arjun on their wedding day. Amongst all the fanfare, they finally are left alone for the wedding night and Arjun says “He wants Divorce“. In the next few chapters, we are given the background of this announcement.

Neha lost her parents at an early age and has been living with his uncle and aunt since. The aunt has not been kind to her and Neha is quite keen to escape their household. Arjun, on the other hand, is the only son of his mother Vaidehi who happens to be an old friend of Neha’s deceased father Raghu. Vaidehi is convinced that Neha would be perfect for Arjun, but Arjun wants to find a woman of his own choice, not marry someone who is his mother’s choice.

For their own reasons, both Neha and Arjun agree to marry and get divorced after one year, so they can live their lives as they want, free from family pressure and obligations.

The first few weeks of the marriage pass by without them having much interaction with each other. But as time goes by, the girl gets a makeover, the boy gets over his attachment to pubs and wild nights, they start to work for the same company and if two people are thrown enough together, aren’t they bound to know each other a bit more? And Maybe fall in love eventually?
Let’s just say that with some help and intervention they do get their road trips and the journey becomes more appealing than the end of it…:)

I enjoyed the book for its simplicity and essentially for its feel-good factor. Two nice people, thrown together under right circumstances, with the right amount of sugar and spice are bound to make an entertaining week-end read that leaves you feeling happy…

I also liked as how the title can be read as both a knot for entanglement that every marriage is at sometimes – to a marriage Not – since the couple wants to divorce even before they tie the knot…

The storyline is not new, you have probably come across it in endless movies and television dramas e.g., ‘Hum Aapke Dil Me Rehte Hai’ or Tamil movie ‘Dum Dum Dum’, which is also referred to in the book. And the author does not try to make it a heavy read either. Her characters are fan of movies and sing their songs just like all other Indians do when they are in love or looking for love. They enjoy normal things like chat on the road, and occasional sneaking in prohibited places. Neha even tries her hand at smoking and drinking once, but not with much enjoyment.

And under all this lightness, there is always an awareness as the author weaves in some pithy and positive lines about how life works…

While speaking of marriage and divorce, how our society treats men and women differently:

A divorced guy finding a good girl is easy. A divorced girl finding a good guy is near impossible. Extremely sad, but true…

No matter how superficial we think fashion and its followers are, the author makes a good point here when she says that when people buy clothing…

They are buying an image, a new and confident them…

Life can appear full of challenges. One of my favourite lines from the book below says a lot about living life positively while facing challenges, using a simple metaphor of the famous temples where the poojaris keep telling everyone to keep moving:

Either the problem will get solved; else you will get the strength to bear it. Either way – it’s just Keep Moving…

Or that every moment of happiness should be enjoyed and turned into good memories:

Good times are magical. Not only do they make you happy while you are having them, it makes you happy every single time you think of them…

When I am truly happy, I become so involved in that moment, that I forget to take a picture…

There is a nice balance and bit of conflict shown between traditional Indian ways and Western influence on the young people, without any melodrama. Since the hero of the story has studied in USA, he does express some sentiments that show faults in the Indian society, like:

If Indians can respect talent and knowledge more than age I am sure we would be much better than we are now.

And while a chase for romance and adventure may be very appealing to youth, the marriage knot works on fidelity…

Fidelity is like the sunset. Same everyday but yet different.” Just like the Sun is going to rise every morning, the faith that your partner is going to be there for you every day, is what makes marriage work…

Since the storyline is simple, it is the scene-setting and dialogues which have to lend the book its strength and Shobana Mahadevan does that very nicely. It is a small book and some details around the household and the character background etc., has some room for improvement.

And yes, the author has given some interesting names to book chapters, you will enjoy reading them also :).

Summary:

So, in conclusion, a nice, ‘happily-ever-after’, feel-good love story for all the readers with a few hours to spend while relaxing with their feet-up.

Around 7 stars out of 10.

Shobana has made a segment of the book to read for free on her website. You can follow the below-given link to read the free chapters from the book.

• Sneak Pick into A Marriage Knot

Quick Purchase Links:

• Buy Book From Amazon India – Kindle Ebook
• Buy Book From Amazon India – Paperback
• Buy Book From Amazon India – Kindle Ebook

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