The Marriage Bureau for Rich People

 

I picked this book on a whim. I usually go to the library with Angel and she doesn’t want to leave the children’s section even for a minute, so I have to coax her to accompany me to the adult section where she is very impatient and wants to go back to her area of interest (pun intended).

I loved the cover of this book (yeah, I am naïve like that). Reading through the covers, I got to know that it is about weddings and is set in a small town of eastern India named Vizag. I had read a similar book earlier named The Wedding Wallah and had enjoyed it so decided to pick it up. I later did some research came to know that it is in fact a series of books where this is the first book and Wedding Wallah was the third installment of the series.

Coming back to The Marriage Bureau for Rich People, it is about Mr. Ali who is retired and interfering with her wife’s daily routine and needless to say, irritating her. He decided to make use of his time and started a marriage bureau with the name of The Marriage Bureau for Rich People which forms the title of the book. We get to meet various characters who happen to be the clients of the marriage bureau. There are two subplots – Aruna, the efficient assistant of Mr. Ali and Rehman, the son of Mr. Ali. Aruna is the girl next door very likeable character, her friendly relationship with her sister, how her father does not want to get her married as she is the sole bread earner of the family, how her love story with Ramanujam (the client of the marriage bureau) unfolds and how they overcome the family and caste barriers. Rehman is the maverick son of the old couple who cannot stand injustice. Even though he has an engineering degree, he doesn’t have a full time job and he is more into protests for the rights of the farmers much to the dismay of the couple.

The author has touched some social causes which are prevalent in the Indian society like –

  -Divorce
  -Divorcee remarriage
  -Dowry
  -Inter caste marriage

The story is quite simple and written in a simple, lucid style. The characters are very realistic. I loved the character of Mrs. Ali who is very motherly, grounded, witty and kind. The book has an old world charm to it which even made me nostalgic. There are some places where the author has written detailed recipes which run into paragraphs. There is an Andhra wedding sequence described in detail, so those who are aware of the ceremony will enjoy it.

All in all, it was an enjoyable, nice and sweet read. I will definitely read the other parts of the series.

PS- A book review after a long time it was! I loved doing it. I plan to write about each and every book I read in the future, just to keep a tab of the books I read and keep this blog going!