Soup Story

The tale concerns one Jawahar aka Kavi Naidu, a sentimental aspiring poet, from a middle-class Delhi family of "potential overachievers". His mother instils in her son a deep sense of his own worth. Despite his poetry being highfalutin tripe, Naidu is nominated for a prestigious prize and invited to England. There, he’s entertained by the high commissioner, manhandled by his wife and outmanoeuvred by poetic arch-rival Seth. Through a series of comic mischances, Naidu stays afloat, guided by his mother’s unshakable, entirely misplaced faith in him.

Sadly, Ruia’s no Voltaire, and Naidu owes more to Mr Bean than Candide. The problem in having a first-person narrator who can’t see the obvious is one wants to slap him silly. Worse, the text is peppered with mistakes that make any Indian wince: Amitabh Bachchan’s name is misspelled, Haldiram is two words, words like brinjal and bhangra are italicised. Clearly, there are more black specks in the dal than Ruia intended.