Indian YA: Bombay Rains Bombay Girls

Things were a little tough, a couple of years ago. Seeing me down in the dumps, a young cousin (who is majorly into Indian YA literature) gave me this book in order to cheer me up. Looking at his bright hopeful face, I did not have the heart to tell him that YA was simply not to my liking. Time passed and things eased but this book sitting on my shelves unread would make me feel extremely guilty. This year then I was determined to read it.

“Idealism, however impractical, gives a meaning to our existence.”

As far as story goes, Bombay Rains Bombay Girls follows the trajectory laid down by countless other Indian YA novels. A young boy from not so privileged background is able to get admission in a prestigious academic institute. There through sheer grit and courage, he is able to outshine the other students (some of them from very privileged background). Throw in a romantic angle and a tragedy and voila you have a novel.

The author, a doctor by profession, does put in some serious issues: the right of doctors to go on strike, the issue of minoritism in India, the alienation felt by people from the North-East, but it doesn’t really work because his main concern seems to be to portray his protagonist, Adityaman Bhatt (an alterego?) as a hero who always comes up trumps.

*

First Line: On learning that I was going to study medicine in Bombay, someone said to me, ‘You’ve got to see two things in Bombay: the Bombay rains and the Bombay girls.’

Title: Bombay Rains Bombay Girls

Author: Anirban Bose

Publication Details: ND: Harper Collins & India Today, 2008

First Published: 2008

Pages: 453

Other Books read of the same author: None

*

Submitted for various challenges.