BOOK REVIEW OF- Wedding Pickle

BY Neha Sharma

· Paperback: 270 pages

· Publisher: Grapevine India (10 January 2018)

· Language: English

· ISBN-10: 9381841373

· ISBN-13: 978-9381841372

THE TITLE-

In all things in this life, we are told “It’s okay if you don’t make it the first time!”, “It’s fine if you don’t get it right the first time, just try again and again!” We are told this in learning how to ride a bike, in learning how to bake a cake, in solving our math equations…in everything. Except marriage. Why are we all expected to get such an enormous and weighty thing right, the very first time, and if we don’t we’re considered as failures? The title is absolutely perfect keeping the plot at the backdrop. The title also brings out the fact of Women independence telling us that Those who tell you that ‘true love’ is never giving up someone you are in love with are insecure and competitive. Their description on love is based on their needs. Selfish needs. While women who are confident, their spirits fulfilled by themselves know that a ‘good bye’ doesn’t mean they never loved you. They realizes that letting you go is what God needs them to do, because both happiness: yours and your lover require taking different journey for spiritual growth. These kind of women show you what ‘real love’ is. And you don’t want to catch them still? Win a battle for them? Even after what you have learnt? For God’s sake, these women have endured much. For battles she fights alone, they deserve LOVE.

I loved the title and I feel it is apt for the book.

REVIEW OF THE BOOK-

The book is a very powerful and a motivating one too. The latest demographic indicators provided by the health and family welfare ministry reveal that the national average age of marriage for girls was 20.6 years in 2008, up from 18.3 years in 2001.

The data reflects a progressive change in attitude towards the girl child over the last three years. In 2006-07, a National Family Health Survey-3 had reported that more than 50% of women in India were Married off before 18. In comparison, men got married at a median age of 23.4 years. But is that all we need?

Where does the educated woman, who is professional, has a say in the career she is pursuing but is thrown into the supposed holy institution? So how logical is it when you educate a girl and then get her married off, without her career even setting on track. Why that is a man has to be professionally stable before getting married and the same doesn’t apply for a girl? The campaigns across the country are yearning for the girl child to be educated but then she is married off under the emotional turmoil of several parents. So you educate a girl to be successful housewives and not successful entrepreneurs? The reason of getting professional education is to get a good groom and then marry your daughter off.

I am not in any way saying that marriage is the end of a professional career, but what if your partner prefers you more as a housewife than as a successful lawyer? So you study engineering and then make all that studying to use it for cooking some delectable food?

There is nothing the legal implementers can do about the present scenario. The folly lies in the mindset of parents and more importantly the society. A girl is termed unhappy in life if she is unmarried till 30. The society in general does not look into professional life of a girl. They care about how well settled in her married life she is. It is a very redundant philosophy.

Avni, Roshni, Kriti has proved to us that Men, who say he wants a strong, intelligent, truly independent woman who wants you rather than needs you, who inspires you, who pushes you towards being yourself, who can stick by you through the hardest times, and who can be your rock through life’s obstacles.
But you need to know that a truly strong, independent woman does not walk through life with her heart wide open. She has had to put up walls to block toxicity to obtain her strength. She is sceptical and always on alert from a lifetime of defence against predators. She is going to be a bit jaded, a little cynical, and a little scary because those qualities come with the struggle of obtaining that strength that gravitates you. She is going to doubt and question your good intentions because it has become her adaptability instincts that have allowed her to thrive.
She is not a ball of sunshine. She has flaws. She has a past. She has her demons. She knows better than to just let down her barriers for you simply because you voice a desire to enter. You have to prove your right of entrance. She will assume the worst of you because the worst has happened. If you want her to see otherwise, prove her wrong.

RATINGS-

Overall I would like to rate the book 42 on a scale of 50.

4 stars out of 5

1. Originality of the plot and sub plots- 9/10

2. Net emotions in the story- 8/10

3. Usage of words and phrases-8/10

4. The title, cover and the illustration-8/10

5. The net impact on the readers- 9/10

Reviewed by-

Sayan Basak