The cover of Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan’s novel, Cold Feet, carries a blurb: ‘India’s answer to Bridget Jones’. I had absolutely no idea who Bridget Jones was until I turned to Google (who else) for help. Apparently, she is a fictional character, appearing first in a London newspaper column and later in a novel and movie, a thirtysomething single woman ‘who tries to make sense of life and love’.
That sums up the angst of various young women passing through this collection of interconnected stories, twenty-three of them altogether. Sex, or lack of it, plays an important role in their lives. Take Ladli’s plight: “We liked the sex and we did it often. It was never three times a day, but it was daily. Then it became a couple of times a week, then once a week, and before we knew it, it happened right after my period, once a month, and then nothing”. She runs off to Goa and feels disappointed when no one tries to pick her up on a beach. Ladli hates her name. Who can blame her?
Akshara runs into her soulmate while waiting in the queue for a movie. Her love for him is not reciprocated. Just kissing him makes her panties damp. Shayna has better luck with men; she knows how to handle them—“I am of the school of thought that advocates making them want you by not being nice to them.” Aditi is into a lesbian relationship. She shares a bed and a single wardrobe without attracting suspicion: “That’s the thing about India, even though it is tough being gay, it’s really easy to live with a woman without anyone getting any ideas.”
Amisha seems the happiest of the lot. She is marrying an Australian she met by chance when she was asked to share a table in a crowded restaurant. She got into a sulk and refused to make conversation with him. But when Derek left, he paid for both their meals without telling her. That got Amisha’s attention. Now, just before their wedding, she is anxious about a large pimple on her chin. There is a huge age gap here between the author and the reviewer. Such ‘chicklit’ fare is meant for the young but I enjoyed it enormously.
