“Any woman is only as strong as she chooses to be“, this quote pretty much sums up the entire theme of The Blue Phoenix by Chethana Ramesh. It is the story of many middle-class girls, and talks through its story about their inhibitions, insecurities, and fears of their day-to-day life. It can also be considered a story for all, any gender,  who find themselves too simple in the sophisticated group of people or society.

This is one such story of a plumpy, simple, and confident girl, Neela, who is brought up in a  South-Indian family, and is therefore mired in those traditional values. She works with a marketing agency as a sales executive, but her world changes when this handsome hunk Ashwin, her boss, falls for her. Her happiness knew no bounds as she secretly admired him; like most of us do in our actual lives for such people, but may or may not be fortunate enough to interact with them.

Ashwin, however, is narcissist, and is capable to get any girl on her feet with his good looks, money and influential position in the professional world. For him, it was not more than proof of his charisma and worth, when Neela increased one more count of his flings. 

The story is set in Bangalore, and progresses with subtle and Vivid Descriptions of its places; if you have lived in Bangalore, then you should relate to the mentioned places, roadways, parks, temples, markets and what not.  The beauty of this book lies in these vivid descriptions of anything and everything, which is not so common in Indian novels, be it the thoughts of characters, or the surrounding places.  Author has presented Neela’s inner conscious as Devil, which is unique, humorous and intelligent. I also appreciate author’s efforts to think and decide such correlated names of its major characters, Neela and Ashwin, with its theme. You would get it when you read it. 

However, these descriptions up to a certain extent have overshadowed the central plot.  Coming to that, whether Neela, being a middle-class girl, will unite with the narcissist, rich, unempathetic Ashwin, or is there something else in store for her? This book deals with such struggles of an urban middle-class girl, and her traditional south-Indian family. 

On the whole, read the book for its vivid descriptions and elegant narration.