10 | January | 2014 | One and a Half Minutes

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Blurb View:

Her heart fluttered when she heard the sound of the key turn in the lock. She quickly adjusted her maroon silk sari with the yellow border, the one that had caught his eye, and waited eagerly for his footsteps. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven… Yes, exactly seven steps before he stopped, hesitated for a few moments, then removed his shoes one by one and arranged them neatly side by side on the shoe rack. She smiled. He had been mindful of taking his shoes off every day now. “I am not used to it, but I will if you want me to. It’s probably a good thing to do anyway.” As he settled down, he would pick up the TV remote and, without looking at her, would say in his smooth baritone, “So how did you spend your day, anything interesting?” Shaan Ahuja found himself bowing to tradition and agreeing to an arranged marriage to the beautiful Ruhi Sharma. He went through the motions but had no intention of carrying through on his vows. His last foray into matters of the heart with an American girl had left him scarred and unwilling to try again. Thoroughly disillusioned and disgruntled he wasted no time in making his intentions clear to Ruhi on their wedding night. But, he was completely unprepared for what his new wife had in mind.

Review:

Just when I had thought I had enough of Romance novels in 2013, another one came to me as the first book to be reviewed in 2014. I don’t know if it is coincidence or serendipity that the more I wanted to run away from Romance genre, it keeps coming back to me to usher the new year together. I’m not sure which genre the others have put this book into, but when I read it to the entirety, I would definitely term is as a Romance novel.

Author Simi K. Rao had me into a little surprise when her first chapter introduced the protagonists as Punajbis. Now, I’m strictly not a racist/provincial here, but being a writer myself, I know that most authors stick to their comfort zone in their debut books. Simi has managed to inculcate the perfect Punjabi flavour to her protagonists. The story is a racy, passionate, fierce, often violent, and completely on-the-edge romance. It is that kind of romance which most people are afraid of since its a little too much to handle.

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I am not much of an interior decorator by nature. I have always dreamed of great interiors while living in rental places. In fact, I still do as I don’t ‘own‘ a home as yet. Having a couple of rooms to stay at my parents’ or in-laws’ place is not what I call home. Those are pieces of architecture that they have built spending their money, sweat and often blood – decking them up in their own styles. I can add bits and pieces to those rooms in order to claim them as ‘mine‘, but they aren’t really so. I believe in creating a home at the rectangular box of an apartment where I live each year. I have this plan of a dream home which I have chalked out putting puzzle pieces of blueprint together and adding my own touch to make it my home, our home.

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Asian Paints has been a part of our childhood as far as I can remember. It has been the epitome in the paint industry of India touching our lives in some way or the other. In our friends’ circle, whenever we have a doubt about any hue/chroma/value, the parley always leads to , “Ab Asian Paints ka shade card laaun kya? (Do you want to verify from an Asian Paints shade card?)” . It is heartwarming to find them catering to customers like us in more than one way. Asian Paints Home Solutions sounds perfect for people who are venturing into building a home for the first time. I would look forward to asking for their help in choosing the colour, theme, texture and paint protection requirements when I build a home for my family.

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