GIDDHA ON MY GULMOHAR BY CHETNA KEER

 

The red and green cover image leaps out, imbued in joy and festivity, replete with a glorious Gulmohar, and a feisty lady dancing the Giddha with fervour. This sets the tone of the book from the very start.

#ChetnaKeer’s #GiddhaOnMyGulmohar’ is a laugh riot from page one, as her vivacious protagonist in her forties, #Lollita, aka Laasyanga Mansingh, (another amusing story there!) waltzes her way across the pages, striving to write a Wannabe Bestseller. Her gang of friends are equally vibrant with exotic names such as Nazaakat Dutt, Rehmat Anand, Ibaadat Thapar and Krrish Sathe. Not surprisingly, her beloved queen cat called Bholi Punjabban aka Iraa Singh, rules her life.

Just when Lollita thinks of crystallising her dreams, the “uncommonest Party Pooper or Game Changer – Lockdown 1.0” materialises, leaving her “caged in the claustrophobic confines of the concrete jungle called condo life.” Her dreams revolve around being a bestseller author and maybe getting to the Booker Longlist. Winning Kaun Banega Crorepati is her other dream.  She puts her best foot forward to help other writers, a case of always being a bridesmaid, never the bride.

Lollita’s tale is one of aspiration, as the fortyish-year-old yummy mummy prances across the fringes of the literary stage, clad in the most exquisite sarees, cocking a snook at ageism. Even when she asks in secret dread, “Could it be that Ageism is coming in the way?” it is merely a rhetorical question.

Lollita’s character is intricately layered. Her implicit love of the classic writers competes with her admiration of the late bloomer contemporary wordsmiths. She is a woman of many parts – columnist, content writer, poet, online shopper, Netflix-aholic, Rumi fan; the list is open-ended. However, what makes her sparkle is her undimmed optimism that makes her face myriad disappointments, each a pin prick on her path to the “gilt-edged gossamer grandeur feeding her day dreaming.”

Chetna Keer’s strength lies in her vivid imagination and her unusual descriptions, which are often contemporary and relatable. She strews her metaphors about with studied nonchalance, using colloquialisms with perfect ease. However, it is apparent that she chooses her words and phrases with care, so that she can showcase them with maximum effect.

As Lollita sets about “to turn Lockdown into the proverbial Lemonade”, she struts her way across the stage to meet commissioning editors and literary agents, descriptions of whom are highly amusing. The author’s literary craftsmanship comes to the fore as she plays around with words, throwing up a potpourri of similes and figures of speech that make her narrative sparkle. For example:

A landscape which “bore more resemblance to the freckled face of a teeny-bopper, where pimples popping from every pore present an eyesore.”

The description of Peacock Lane’s facades, “leading to a cantankerous stairway that croaked like a frog suffering from laryngitis.”

And again, an alliterative marvel:

“A mantlepiece that was a monument to gilt-edged milestones, filtered through memory’s maple leaves mapping faded seasons…”

I cannot refrain from offering an example of the author’s almost Wodehousian sense of humour as she writes about Shock Absorber Lamba dropping himself into a chair. “This plonking caused the cellulite of his lower anatomy to spill out of the seat’s rim like extra cheese oozing out of a Maharaja Mac burger.”

Another classical touch that stands out is the way the author takes the reader into confidence through her usage of the phrase “my discerning reader”.

When Lollita runs into Ruhaan, an alluring blend of Darcy and Antonio Banderas, who is a photographer and Rumi lover, the author waxes eloquent on Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Humphrey Bogart, and their ‘la vie en rose’ moments, turning into the ultimate romantic raconteur. They are two souls in sync during the lockdown:

“When life’s doors were bolted.

When life came home.”

Does Lollita finally have her picture-perfect book launch? Do her dreams come true as alongside the ravishing Rhododendrons, the harbingers of Spring?

“The sight of a scarlet shamiana swathing the valley cast its spell. As much for its suddenness as its splendour.”

Does Lollita get a chance to “rescript her life narrative?”

“Was this the LIGHT at the end of the darkest tunnel of the Tandav that was the Pandemic?”

This book deserves to be read not only for its appealing theme, but for the symbolism, the deep thought and the wordplay that Chetna Keer engages in.

 

#GiddhaOnMyGulmohar #Lollita #DilliHaat #Himalayas #Kasauli