Review: Tell Me A Story by Rupa Bajwa.

Book: Tell Me A Story

Author: Rupa Bajwa

Pages: 214

Read On: Paperback

How Long It Took Me To Read: 2 days

Plot Summary: Set partly in the small, buzzing town of Amritsar and partly in New Delhi, this is the story of Rani, a young woman in contemporary India. She enjoys her work in a local beauty parlour though her lower middle-class family lives in a state of constant struggle–to make ends meet, to hang on to their dreams, to keep their fragile lives from collapsing.

As their financial troubles escalate, so do Rani’s sister-in-law’s taunts, brother’s frustration and father’s resignation. Random events happen that affect each of them, changing their lives forever.

Tell Me A Story displays remarkable clarity and depth in drawing up the real semi- urban living in India. Fragile and touching, it reminds us of how thin, tenuous are the connections which bind us to our illusory, sane-seeming lives.

General Thoughts: Sari Shop by Rupa Bajwa is a fairly well-known book and I have heard really good things about. This book has a few mixed reviews on Good Reads, saying Sari Shop is a better book, I enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading Sari Shop. 

Things I Liked: 

1. I loved the setting of this book, a lower-middle class home in Amritsar was depicted very well and it came across as very real. 

2. The characters in this book were nicely written. Rani especially seemed like a living breathing person. Her hopes and aspirations and her little joys were so relate-able. 

3. Sometimes it's just nice to read about good people. As much as I can understand writing and reading about flawed, 'real' and unlike-able characters, it does irk me now and again. Seriously. Why can't we just have more books about good people? There are bad people in this world, I know that, but there are more good people in this world of ours. And it is plain nice to read about them and their lives. 

4. I liked the writing- it was simple but beautiful and the popular culture mentions were good too. 

5. Most of all I just loved Rani. She didn't have much, she worked in a local beauty parlour and enjoyed her job. She loved her gentle, kind-hearted and spiritual but misunderstood father and her little nephew Bittu. She enjoyed the little joys in life, street-food, cheap costume jewellery and film magazines. She loved Shah Rukh Khan and like nail-polish. She finds her joy in small things. She has hopes and dreams and is a good person. I really liked her and rooted for her. 

Things I Didn't Like: 

I did overall enjoy this book, Rani and her family and even their financial troubles made for a very captivating read. But the last 50 pages of this book almost seemed like it belonged to another story. 

For various critical reasons, Rani has to leave her home and move to Delhi. In Delhi we are introduced to a few new characters and see Rani interact with them. 

The Rani in Delhi is miles and miles away from the girl we knew so far in the story. I do understand the changes she underwent and the new person she became, I just didn't get along with this version of her. 

I also wasn't a big fan of resentful Rani grew of the rich people she met in Delhi. How she reacted when she saw them order food for 550 bucks and spend 18,500 on parties. I am really against people grudging others their wealth. And how you spend your money should not be anyone else's concern.

The new characters had no space or scope to grow in just 50 odd pages and I just didn't connect to any of them.

Rating: 3.5/5