You Are Here

By Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan

Well I really don’t know what to say about the book or its author. At a point it seems worth reading, but mostly it is about the regular life of a city girl, working in the media industry, in today’s age.

Arshi, a twenty five year old, works in a PR agency in Delhi. She comes from a broken family; has had a weird break up with her cheating boy friend; is totally frustrated with her job and her “highly disliked” fat (bitchy) boss; is trying to figure out her new beau’s boorish behavior; stays with a room-mate who is in love with a nice boy but can’t tell her parents ‘coz he belongs to a different caste.

The story (if it can be called so) is more about her smoking and drinking stints, meeting people, falling in love, etc. – all that an independent girl staying in a metro away from her family may experience. Though not so typical but depicts a slice of chick-lit life.

The title “You Are Here” makes no sense to me personally. Where “here”? Arshi seems to be living in the moment, enjoying and taking things as they come, not doing any outstanding work in life to proceed towards a glorious future. I’ve had friends who lead a life similar to that of Arshis’ but they have moved on in life to achieve goals (professionally) that they had set for themselves.

There is no real plot or meat here. Albeit sprinkles of humor and good use of language make you go on turning the pages.

The narrative is bold, sometimes conscious, sometimes mindless, but flowy. Meenakshi does grab your attention and gets you curious to read till the disappointing abrupt end. Our society may not be absolutely ready for the Indian version of “Sex and the City” with “fuck-buddies” or umpteen dates that lead nowhere.