Look at these Aunties of Vasant Kunj
Public Lokpal
September 21, 2024
Look at these Aunties of Vasant Kunj
Harsha Vardhan Dwivedi
Anuradha Marwah , a professor of Delhi University has written a masterpiece in the name of “Aunties of Vasant Kunj” to cater a huge population of middleclass and especially the women of Vasant Kunj. As per a survey of 2021,there are 432 million middle class Indians in the country which constitutes 31 percent of the total population. Vasant Kunj itself has a total population of 1.5 lac (as per some survey).Out of that 65,000 are females and atleast those females can easily connect this novel as a story of their vicinity. This book can all those happy who fall in this category of population.
Small town middle class women generally think the camaraderie they enjoy living in their places is always missing in metros like Delhi but the way three characters Shailaja ,Mrs. Gandhi and Dini are characterised by the author in this book, gives a different impression altogether of Delhi. South Delhi is known as a place of elitist class and Vasant Kunj is one of the poshest part of that but despite this, this novel creates an impression that these people also stop and smell the roses. With beautiful depiction of these characters, it seems that the writer has herself experienced these characters minutely and then etched out in the leaves of this book.
Although, there are certain patches in the book where these protagonists of the book - Shailaja ,Mrs. Gandhi and Dini, make the story a little slow moving but still the interest of knowing what next, never dies. Dini is more of a feminism brand in the story, Shailaja’s affair with an ex is a critical point and interesting to read for any avid reader of any age group, in the meantime Mrs. Gandhi’s characterisation of discovering her husband’s affair with his secretary make readers glued to this book. All these instances mentioned here create the story going with a steady speed with no major jerks while reading.
Once you start reading this book, there is an urge to finish the book till the end but even if you can’t do this, the publisher has done your job easy. The publisher of the novel Rupa Publications has tried to make the reading easy for the readers with proper page breaks so that continuing the story next time after a break is not so troublesome .
(Reviewer is a seasoned media professional, author and motivational speaker)