posted by: Sapana Bang Jul 27 2009 @ 12:44 pm

Book: Life is perfect
Author: Himani Dalmia

The title of this novel made a snide sarcastic voice in my head say, “Yea! Right!” Dreading a preachy, motivational monologue I was surprised to find the voice of a young girl speaking to me. Her dad is on the verge of leaving her family; she has a crush on a guy who is seeing someone else and her life is scheduled around inexorable exams that would come despite heartbreaks or earth shattering events around her.

In short the book shows in every way how imperfect life can be, specially for those who least deserve it. The plot has hardly any turns or dramatic twists but there is something in the narrative that will compel you to read on. The inner workings of a teenage girl’s mind have been the subject of many a pens but in this one I found reality and a welcome lack of frivolity.

Mitali, the 19 year old protagonist is almost threatened by the swirling turbulence of the events in her life and finds an anchor in her dead sister’s diary. Excerpts from the diary interweaved with the main narrative are oddly touching. The hopes and fears of a young life abruptly terminated are laid bare in that diary and become the source of dawning maturity and strength for another young life that blossoms amidst it all.

So if you are looking for some laughs, you won’t find them here. If you are looking for some serious reading this would hardly serve. What best describes this book is ‘a coming of age story’. It covers hardly two years in the life of the protagonist but those two years are a window into the shaping of a personality that would endure. It is a beautiful book that makes you believe that maybe inspite of it all, Life is really perfect, if we let it be!