Matters of size and soulmates

Maybe it’s because I’m middle-aged that where once I thought chick-lit was cute, today I think it’s sad and old. I was the target audience when the genre officially launched with Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding some 20-plus years ago (not that it had never existed earlier — according to my sister, even Pride and Prejudice is chick-lit). By now I’m tired of young women being self-deprecating about their inexplicable need to find a boyfriend/husband, however funny they are about the lack of romance/true love in their lives. So I confess I groaned a bit when I began reading I Am Big. So What by Shuchi Singh Kalra. I mean, one more thinner-than-she-believes-she-is young woman seeking a prince Oh bleah. But it took me only a few pages to settle more comfortably and really focus on the story. Roli, the heroine, is not even in her wildest dreams thinner than she believes. She’s B-I-G, big, with a weight that falls comfortably in three digits. I use the word “comfortably” advisedly, because Roli stopped weeping about her weight and size years ago, after the dreadful day in school when the boy she had a crush on humiliated her in class for her size. She could have been devastated — and she was for a while — but bright Roli learned to understand that weight issues, provided you’re healthy, don’t matter at all. So our girl accepts she’s big and makes no attempt to blend into the background like most big girls do. She’s fashion-forward and makeup-friendly and utterly confident. And she works from home as a freelance graphic designer, making pots of money. The people around Roli, however, don’t see “big” in quite the same way as she does. They seem to think it’s something to be ashamed of. It’s not only strangers — Roli’s father, an Army man, is not as fond of his big daughter as he is of Roli’s younger, much slimmer and more athletic sister. And for some odd reason, people believe that only really peculiar men are the only men a big woman has any chance with. Roli learns this only too well when her parents force her to meet men for a possible arranged marriage. The men get weirder and weirder — and then one day, a rather big man sits opposite Roli on yet another meet-a-man-to-marry coffee date, and turns out to be actually human. A rather nice human at that. Is it love It could be. Roli and Kabir get along really well. But his name is Kabir. Kabir Wagh, previously known as Kabir Khanna Kabir Khanna, the boy who humiliated Roli in class Yes, unfortunately. And Roli can’t forgive him. What happens next is not quite the roller-coaster ride it could have been, but is most certainly not what you imagine it would be. I Am Big. So What is truly chick-lit with a difference, very refreshing even for a cynic like me.

I wish I could say the same about The Spectacular Miss by Sonia Bahl, unless you adore the idea of 234 pages of extreme self-deprecation and absolutely no forward movement from the lead character till the very end of the book. This is seriously frustrating because the story has brilliant potential, the kind that can really make a difference to a young person’s sense of self. Nira is a girl who’s always wanted to be a boy. Her knees are permanently red with mercurochrome, she only wears button-fly shorts, and she is such a scruffy urchin that most people believe her parents have three sons, not two sons and a daughter. No one understands Nira except Bir, her oldest brother’s friend, who is 10 years older than Nira. Bir takes the little girl (boy ) very seriously, and makes sure all her wishes come true. Nira, obviously, hero-worships him. But then Bir goes and marries a gorgeous girl and Nira hasn’t the faintest idea that her heart is broken. She only knows she seems to have lost her best friend. The best friend is back many years later, when Nira is in London, studying medicine and not even remotely interested in any boy she meets. Bir visits often and though he’s still married, Nira has never been happier. He treats her as paternally as he ever did, so she doesn’t notice what her friends do: That Bir might actually be the man for her. Then Bir does something truly spectacular for Nira, and spoils it all by talking about the baby he’s soon expecting. Now Nira knows once and for all that her best friend’s gone, and he’s never coming back. This sounds good, doesn’t it It is good — but only in summary. The full-length novel has the same tone of voice throughout; over 20 years, Nira stays exactly the same. There’s no growth in her character, except towards the end of the book, and even that is not for very long. It’s frustrating because there could be real inner conflict when the brat grows into a girl, which naturally happens even though she doesn’t like it. But no. There could also be real romance when Nira meets Bir in London, at least in Nira’s head. But no. Nira remains Nira, an eight-year-old emotionally-plateaued child. Even more frustrating is the fact that Bahl’s writing style is not bad at all — but that’s not enough reason to buy this book.

Kushalrani Gulab is a freelance editor and writer who dreams of being a sanyasi by the sea