Meghna is an out and out entertaining book. A Bollywood style rom com with a cute, innocent heroine, suave and wealthy hero, a scheming mother, lusty colleague and a sexy trying hard to be wife, vamp. Sundari Venkatraman has cooked up a masala story with a flavor for all pallets with her latest book Meghna.
Rahul and Meghna have always had this connect since their teens but since Meghna was much younger, Rahul did not think much about it until later, when he was being almost badgered to get married and his mother made his match with a socialite who he wanted to avoid like plague.
Interestingly, Rahul though self-assured and a confidant man is scared of commitment. It is only when his back is against the wall that he plans to move to Mumbai to connect with Meghna again. She on the other hand has never forgotten Rahul and is immediately drawn to his charms. After a few hiccups here and there they finally manage to be together in the end.
The plot is a fun, happy go lucky one that is interspersed with playful fights, loving family and caring friends. From the word go it is a cheerful story. If anyone is looking for a serious read with a message than Meghna is surely not that book.
The plot doesn’t require characters to go through changes and evolve neither is there a need for a sermon or a moral at the end. This is no Aesop’s Fable. To underscore again, it is a lighthearted and blithe short novel that is meant to cheer one up. You read Meghna exactly why you would want to watch a bollywood flick , to relieve yourself of the days anxiety and angst.
The conundrum of the book, in my opinion, is that the lack of any strong message is at once both a positive and the negative. While the readers might feel disconnected with the story at large they would in their minds be transported back to those times when they themselves were footloose and fancyfree. The biggest negative of Meghna is that all knots disentangle without much turmoil and uproar.
The best part about Sundari Venkatraman’s writing is unlike many self-publishing authors she has carefully edited the book and the grammar and language is well weaved in making Meghna an expressive and lucid read.
It is a perfect book for a breather after a hard day’s work.
MEGHNA
by Sundari Venkatraman
The Blurb
The young and dashing Rahul Sinha lives in England with his
parents, Shyam and Rajni. He is an only son of the rich banker. Rahul is totally attached to his father but
does not care for his mother. Read the book to find out why….
Rahul is exulted with his efforts at work paying off and plans a
holiday with his best friend Sanjay Srivastav who lives in Mumbai with his wife Reema, kids Sanya and
Rehaan and most importantly, his sister, Meghna. Rahul recalls meeting Meghna just before they parted
six years ago.
Meghna
works for a website and also teaches modern dance as she loves it. She’s thrown for a toss when Rahul
comes visiting. She had thought he had forgotten them.
But how could Rahul do that?
Sanjay’s his best friend and Rahul had always treated their home as his own. Sanjay’s mother had been
more of a mother to Rahul than his own. Rahul had stayed away after moving to England or so Meghna
believes.
Thus
begins the story between Rahul and Meghna, the teasing, the flirting, the anger, the tears… …will they find love?
A FRIENDLY
WARNING: This book has been written only for the purpose of Entertainment, Entertainment,
Entertainment! If you are looking to learn something or improve your lives after reading this work, then
this book is not for you. I am not trying to get into competition with the Author Biggies of this world. I
wrote this simply for the fun and joy of it. One thing I can promise the reader though: Well
proof-read, perfect
language that I feel is very important for every book that’s written in any tongue.
Yours truly,
Sundari Venkatraman
Buy @
Amazon.com | Amazon.in | Amazon.co.uk |
Meet the
Author
The Author’s
Thoughts
Even as a kid, she
absolutely loved the ‘lived happily ever after’ syndrome as Sundari grew up reading all the fairy tales she
could lay her hands on, Phantom comics, Mandrake comics and the like. It was always about good
triumphing over evil and a happy end. Soon, into her teens, she switched her attention from fairy tales
to Mills & Boon. While she loved reading both of these, she kept visualising what would have happened if there were
similar situations happening in India; to a local hero and heroine.
Her imagination took
flight and she always lived in a rosy cocoon of romance over the years. Then came the writing – a true
bolt out of the blue! She could never string two sentences together. While her spoken English had
always been excellent – thanks to her Grandpa – she could not write to save her life. She was bad at
writing essays in both school and college. Later, when it was time to teach her kids, she could manage
everything from Science to Mathematics and History & Geography.
When it came to
writing compositions, her kids found her of no help at all. All this changed suddenly one fine day in the
year 2000. She had just quit her job at a school’s office and did not know what to do with her life. She
was saturated with simply reading books. That’s when she got home one evening after her walk and
took some sheets of paper and began writing. It was like watching a movie that was running in her head –
While she felt discouraged
when publishing did not happen, it was her husband who kept encouraging her not to give up. There
was no looking back after that. While publishing took a long time happening, Sundari continued to write
novels and then short stories. Her luck turned when Indireads approached her to write for them and
Double Jeopardy was born.
Now it’s all
about self-publishing her books on Amazon. She has published The Malhotra Bride (2nd Edition) and Meghna
so far while planning to publish her fourth book – The Runaway Bridegroom – in September
2014.
You can stalk
her @
ahana mukherjee 
Hi Ahana,
Thank you for that lovely and detailed review of my book 😀
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