@25-Cross Roads

by Shipra Tyagi

Samaira Verma is a local beauty pageant winner and works in an MNC. She finds her life being controlled by her orthodox grandmother while she silently mourns the loss of her mother. Badi Maa loves watching Balika Vadhu and has conveniently branded Samaira as Ghar ki Izzat. Her office is full of eccentric characters. Few catty girls, an over affectionate colleague and her shady boss Aditya; whose antics during the day, have her Google Search ‘traits of a serial killer’ in the night, keep her on the edge. She feels like an ‘Alice in Chor Bazaar’. Her best friend, the snobbish Lavanya Rathore is trying to skirt her family's wealth and etch an identity for herself. Lavanya’s boyfriend Anirrudh, a brilliant IAS officer, is tad too obsessed with his job but a little lonely in the dusty towns of Haryana. On the cross-roads of life, will these twenty-five year olds find solace? A journey of friendship, love, betrayal and choices.

ebook

First published March 1, 2018

Reviews

[Srilakshmi Indira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ebook shared by Author for review..

Book deals with contemporary life of an Indian Girl. We are so busy in celebrating women's day at office, social media, TV channels which have really lost the essence of Women Empowerment. But, status and treatment of girl remains same at her home.
I specially liked few lines from book...
"Beti paraya dhan"
"At the cross-roads of life, one has to make a choice. It is inevitable"

I couldn't control my laughter specially when I read this:
"A social transition from 'Ishq wala love' to 'EMI wala love'! "

A beautiful Eye-opener which stands with freedom and dignity of a girl breaking the stereotypes and chasing her dreams:)

Thanks to Author for the opportunity :)

[Neha · Rating 4 out of 5]

As this is Author's first book, congrats! i read it in one sitting!
All the Positive points:
The books was a quick read and easy to get into.
As I read over 1000 books by English authors already, I was kind of expecting something bland as I don't like chetan bhagat's books, but it surprised me as it was very relatable.
I was able to picture it all and get into the scenes.
Even though we all know how it is, still it gripped me till the end.
I loved how the leading lady was so confident about her looks and males were vying for her instead of other way round which is a trend now a days. It was refreshing.
The writing and tone was also very gripping.
Also generation gap issue, something most the Indain youth is facing, was also portrayed adequately.
Romance was so desi... So relatable.
Although more character description of people involved in story won't hurt.
The aspect of friendship is also relatable as now a days friendship is also selfish and selfless wrapped as one.
Driver Bhaiyya was fun too :)
Only part which put me little off was the change in scenes and less character details.
Looking forward to read more from this author.

[Yedhu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading the book. It’s a simple story, told from the perspective of a female protagonist. She represents the Indian girls we see in our every day life. Her struggles and confusions are narrated in a sarcastic way, with a few notable lines:

Latching myself into the seclusion, I marvelled at society’s ways of cocooning a girl into marriage.

Her ‘Sanskaars’ became my battle scars.

There is no better way to explain the situation in a family with a girl in her 20’s. The story takes us through the people in her life, friendships, betrayals, troubles and happy moments.

This is a quick read. I finished it in two hours. I would definitely like to read more from the author.

[Ipshita · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the writing. It is a good effort for a debutante. However, I think the story could have been better put-together. At times, it felt that the plot was all over the place and couldn’t focus on any one thing. Such as, it raises several prevalent social issues but doesn’t really dwell on how they should be handled. There are also a lot of scene jumps that felt jarring and disrupted the flow of the story. For the longest time, I could not find any point to the story as it felt like we were being given every day accounts of Samaira’s life. Several insignificant scenes and details are mentioned that I felt added nothing to the plot. And, most dialogues seemed amateurish like one would find in a typical American young adult film or in Hindi soap operas. In short, these kinds of dialogues retracted from the plot.

Also, some of these unnecessary details are focused upon while things of more relevance are skimmed over. Like the dresses and accessories of the females are more precisely described than what kind of jobs or projects they’re involved in. Adding to this fact, I felt most characters (except Samaira) are presented rather unfavourably. The supporting characters are excessively caricaturised which may have been to provoke and satirise social issues, however, the overall effect mostly reflected a clumsy effort on the author’s part. I just could not appreciate the characters being described in relation to foreign celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Meghan Fox and Ryan Gosling (Firstly, what’s so lacking in our desi celebs? Secondly, this is a classic example of cutting corners by introducing a stock figure and glossing over the definite details).

I did not like how Samaira gets introduced in the book. There are unnecessary snippets added to many scenes just to emphasise on how attractive Samaira is; just as she pretends to be unfazed by the several modelling offers while inwardly cursing her conservative family. It hinted at a narcissistic attitude and honestly, started to feel whiny pretty soon.

Samaira’s family members are stereotyped rather negatively where they do nothing but rhapsodise over Ghar ki izzat . I can understand if the author was trying to portray people realistically, but she just made these characters unlikeable. Samaira is also a pushover and people-pleaser (for most of the book at least) which are not impressive qualities a reader looks for in a protagonist. And to attempt a realistic or a social novel, the heroine has to be someone who is willing to face and change the society, not skulk and try to find loopholes to fool her conservative family and fake friends.
Lavanya (Samaira’s fake friend) was back home! So, for a few days, my (Samaira) sentences would be peppered with “Oh Fuck!” every now and then....
I (Samaira) made a mental note of saying, ‘Oh Fuck!’ a few times to appear in sync with Lavie.
The story does improve greatly from page 70 onwards, which considering this book is just a hundred pages long is not much of an endorsement.

I liked the love angle presented in this story, it’s unexpected (read: I got totally blindsided). The author could have utilised (Samaira’s love interest) [spoiler removed at the author's request] . But his character isn't given enough space to flourish which is disappointing because he’s the only reason behind my third star.

There are some characters that do not seem to serve any apparent purpose in the plot, [spoiler removed at the author's request] but still get mentioned at frequent intervals. I wish, instead of wasting lines on such insignificant characters, the relationship between Samaira and her love interest could have been shown in more depth. [spoiler removed at the author's request] I mean that Lavanya girl can be a total villain but without showing any remorse on the part of the protagonists, how can you redeem them? Perhaps, it's only my pet peeve talking as other readers may not be bothered by this.

Syntax errors and other doubts:
Using ‘anyways’ instead of ‘anyway’, ‘Minesota’ instead of Minnesota.
Usually, such beautiful girls had troublesome tales to tell. They usually came with ‘Eve’s curse’ – What on earth is Eve’s curse?
What does bhaand mean?

My thanks to the author for sending me a copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought at first that the protagonist and narrator Samaira was a bit superficial, because she tells us many sarcastic things about family-members, fellow-students, and fellow-workers. But as I saw more of her personality, I felt more sympathy for her.

However, the way she takes revenge on Aditya (even though he is a "bad guy" and deserves it) by exposing his forbidden romance is rather savage. Shortly after, her own shortcomings are revealed too, and she becomes a martyr. Some readers might think that maybe Samaira does not deserve so much pity because it is a case of karma catching up with her. However, I don't think that's what Ms. Tyagi intended for her readers to think. The greedy and undesirable Sharma boy is not a good match (a fact that Samaira's family does not understand). Aditya is just one more person who provides an obstacle to the pursuit of happiness. The right person is waiting in the wings, and circumstances work in such a way that the ending is good after all.

In the novel, there are many Hindi words, expressions, puns, jokes, mentions of movie titles, song titles, advertisements, Bollywood stars, and so on; I had to stop constantly to look these things up. For many readers immersed in Indian languages and cultures (who comprise the majority of Ms. Tyagi's readership, I think), the book is a delightful, fun read; I gathered this from reading some of the Goodreads reviews. Even some male readers liked it which shows that it is not merely "chick lit." The Hindi words, pop-culture references and jokes just add to the fun. For me, this material did not spoil the novel, but it made it a bit harder to enjoy on a basic level. The author is not at all to blame, since a lot of this is just because I'm from another background so I had to work a bit harder to understand what she was doing. But if the author wishes to make this book a little more accessible to Western readers, it might be good to provide an appendix with translations and explanations of some of these words and expressions.

Overall, this is a romance novel, written with humour, verve and feeling, which also provides some pointed social commentary.

[Shrikanth Venne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks Shipra Tyagi for the book. This book is about Samaira who is locked in her own dreams. She dreams big but is surrounded by family which is conserved and back bitching ladies in office and discriminated boss. Liked the dialogue of anirudh "Big fish eats small fish". overall a short and cute story and a good Goodread... 😊

[Pradyota Prakash · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book that had the potential to be more.! This book was sent by the author for review.
First off, congratulations on your first book and a career as a writer.
It is a typical coming of age story peppered with "desiness" and stereotyped characters. It felt as though high school was brought to the mid 20s and reenacted. The characters lacked depth, the story although had a good skeleton, by the time it came to becoming a final product refused to sell us on the story. It felt like a childish fairytale.

Shipra Tyagi is a wonderful poet and I loved the idea of writing some parts of the book in poems. She is witty and the bones of the story connects to every young person of India. The new age girl who wants to have an equal say on the dinner table and at the board meeting. The new age India who is no longer afraid to go after what she/he believes in.

The poems and the humor are the only highlights of the book. I can see seeds of potential in her writing and I wish her all the best in her future projects.

[Avi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was given an ARC by the author for an honest review and I wish it could have been a better one. To start with the positives, there are the bones of a good story here. The entirely unedited look at a cross-section of Delhi rings almost eerily true. You can imagine many of these characters existing and knowing them in your personal life as well. However, the author paints with a broad brush with no nuance. The married women exists in neat bundles of chudas and coloured hair. Single women with convent educations say f**k and those from small-towns don’t. There is the possibility of exploring the many complexities of existing in today’s India- but the books veers into an almost childish tale of love and revenge. This author should be applauded for the courage to write and self-publish but clearly, there is a lot of room for growth. I look forward to reading her next and seeing what she does with it.

[Sreevatsa.haritasa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got this eBook from the author in exchange of an honest review.

To start with, The plot is simple and can be related by the reader as its a story of a girl and her life in her 20's. The plot is short and a quick read through.

The struggle of a girl who looses her mother in her early childhood and an orthodox family which becomes a block in her dream and her way of life. The way corporate politics work in MNC's is naturally narrated.

The way friends will be missed as professional career starts and how a Girl will be forced to marriage as soon as she steps into 25 is said as it happens in real life. The way the lead of story goes ahead and achieves her dream and leads a life she wished for is the happy ending which makes girls of this era think on their goals.

Overall it was a nice plot. Thanks to author for sharing her work with me for review.

[Bhuvan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review for the copy, given by writer:

I think it's her first attempt and I should say she has well written.

At first, I wondered whether this is a novel type story or just the collection of best moments of a girl's life. because it was keep on switching to various places in and out.
it took nearly 50pages to settle.

Second half of the story was progressing well. And the characterisation was pretty good.

I don't know why, but at the end it gave a typical indian novel feel.

but overall it's a good try.

[Gunjan Mittal · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some books which grab your attention from the very beginning; this was one of them. I read this in one sitting.
This is a story of Samaira who lives with her orthodox family but she wants to work and make a name for herself.

The story is simple yet gripping. The writing style is good and makes it easy to read.

Read the complete review on my blog - https://wp.me/p9jhDF-14O

[Shalini Choudhary · Rating 1 out of 5]

It felt like I was reading a diary of a teenage girl who’s stuck in a 25 year old’s body. That says it all.

[Rohit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Requested to review an advance copy.

Thanks for sharing your effort with your us. It takes a lot of courage to bring your work into the open for feedback. It was an enjoyable brief read. While it is not presented in the polished, subtle prose as some earlier reviewers have commented, I liked the story very much. In the spirit of honest feedback, I have some comments below. Hope it comes across as constructive.

The underpinnings of a patriarchal (badi matriarchial actually) society on the modern aspirations of a youngster make for some thoughtful observations. The author stays focused on a YA treatment of the story, which works at easy readability but robs the novel of some depth. Somethings feel too breezy at times. For example, the office environment is portrayed in a surfacial manner. Given the ample time someone would be spending there, an almost complete emotional vacuum except Mishti maybe, is unimaginable. I also wished some of the characters had more depth, the loss of Samaira's mother for instance seems unexplored. Her father only gets a passing mention too. Anirudh's life as an IAS would have provided some backdrop to bring in socio economic aspects of life. Lavanya's and Jiya's characters too could have been multi dimensional.

While this may work as a brief read for a younger clientele, I hope in her next work, the writer addresses a wider more mature audience.

[Bella · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book tastes like sweet lemon tea. refreshing! enjoyed reading it. a story of a caged bird who finally flew in the sky... good humor, great mockery on the male dominant Indian society... blend of new generation vibes, dreams and love... could become the next Bollywood movie... loved the ending.... no matter what we do... society will judge us... so forget the opinions of society and live your life.... great message portrayed... I got inspired to do some doodles for this book. you may find it on Instagram #25crossroads...

[Naveen N. Bhat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finally picked up this author's first novel. Like I admitted to the author in person, it seemed more auto-biographical than anything, but that's just my assumption/opinion. I quite liked the random poetry peppered in. My favourite is the one on p. 70. I hope the author keeps writing. There is potential here.

[Prajna G.S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice read for those at Cross Roads of life... The dilemmas, confusions, fear, cravings, love at cross roads are all well reflected in the book.