Review of When Padma became Paula : Anupama Jain

Humour, as I keep maintaining, is serious business, and we need to get back to laughter, and banish those scowls which mar our otherwise pleasant countenances.
 But let me get down to brass tacks.

 Let me reiterate, that for people swamped by gigantic frowns, for people who have forgotten the art of laughing and those who join laughter clubs in their quest for salvaging those lost grins, giggles and guffaws, this delectable book , indeed has therapeutic value .   Replete with power-packed punches [of humour, thankfully], you don’t want to duck or escape them, at any cost.
  
When Padma Bani Paula is a very real, really engaging story, real dialogues, real situations and real characters who make you laugh and cry with them.  Characters with their warts and flaws, which are as much a part of you as of me.  
 For a debut novel, it is pretty good and very promising too. Its beauty lies in how the author has woven something extraordinary from the simple, ordinary strands of life.
 Exemplifying the dictum that ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’, we have the protagonist, Padma Luxmi, a feisty and spunky, upwardly mobile girl, coming from a conservative South Indian family, slipping, tripping and then getting up, with a bright spark and renewed vigour in her stride, believing that a correct strategy is everything – to find the silver lining. [It could well be a motivational book, masquerading as a novel!]

The book is all about springing back into the maelstrom of another day after life has dealt blows to you, it is all about freedom of choice, and well, it is all about life and its knack of throwing tantrums, and how one deals with those tantrums
After a rebuff, she says, “I’m steel! A steel magnolia!  And steel doesn’t break so easily. I will be back and how!” Well, these words sum up her persona, and to know how she springs back, do grab hold of the book, which I know you will love along with the colorful characters, the modern lingo and the urban settings where the drama unfolds.

 I just loved the usage of some words, like ‘comrades in cacophony’ some similes like a ‘panicky flapping penguin’, and her penchant for alliteration-‘shrilly, solid, sermons’, ‘scatterbrained screen- scorcher’.  

 I really loved Amma - the well- meaning mother with the acerbic tongue.  I gorged on her tongue- lashings, shenanigans and sarcastic reprimands, and her heart of gold.  Amma , Varun , Ditto , Rhea , Pawan – flesh and blood characters all , very well delineated -  enchant the readers , and you yearn for more of them .  
Carry the book with you in the bus, in the train, in the plane, in the cab, for a fun, breezy read.  It will definitely not disappoint you.

 Looking forward to more books from the delightful writer.