Those Pricey Thakur Girls by Anuja Chauhan

Those Pricey Thakur Girls is not chick-lit, well not at least according to me. It is fiction, popular fiction if anything else. It is also Jane Austen in Delhi, or rather hints and traces of Pride and Prejudice in Delhi in the 80s and just by that you should know that it is a romp of a read. At the same time, Anuja Chauhan touches on the political and social issues of those times, however does not let the novel dwell on it too much.

The setting: Hailey Road in Delhi. The family: But obviously the Thakur clan. The characters: Justice Laxmi Narayan Thakur, his wife Mamta Thakur, and their five daughters, who are named alphabetically from A to E. Each daughter has her own eccentricities. Each daughter comes with her own opinions and way of living. Amidst all this is the fourth daughter Debjani, who essentially the story is about, of how she becomes a news reader on DeshDarshan (a tongue-in-cheek but obviously on the national channel) and the appearance of Dylan Singh Shekhawat (her fathers closest friends son) and but obviously the tone of the book is set of misunderstanding, of romance and of whether or not they will get together.

The Indian families in the book automatically provide for so much fodder for humour and sarcasm. The characters are well-etched interlinked families in a growing metropolis. The book is a fantastic read.

Descripiton
In a sprawling bungalow on New Delhis posh Hailey Road, Justice Laxmi Narayan Thakur and his wife Mamta spend their days watching anxiously over their five beautiful (but troublesome) alphabetically named daughters.

Anjini, married but an incorrigible flirt; Binodini, very worried about her childrens hissa in the family property; Chandrakanta, who eloped with a foreigner on the eve of her wedding; Eshwari, who is just a little too popular at Modern School, Barakhamba Road; and the Judges favourite (though fathers shouldnt have favourites): the quietly fiery Debjani, champion of all the stray animals on Hailey Road, who reads the English news on DD and clashes constantly with crusading journalist Dylan Singh Shekhawat, he of shining professional credentials but tarnished personal reputation, crushingly dismissive of her state-sponsored propaganda, but always seeking her out with half-sarcastic, half-intrigued dark eyes.

Spot-on funny and toe-curlingly sexy, Those Pricey Thakur Girls is rom-com specialist Anuja Chauhan writing at her sparkling best.

About the Author

Anuja Chauhan wrote ads for colas, chips and chocolates for seventeen years before deciding to do something healthier for a living. She now writes novels, movie screenplays, news articles and her children's Hindi essays. Her bestselling novels The Zoya Factor and Battle for Bittora have been optioned by major Bollywood studios. She lives in Gurgaon with her husband Niret Alva, two helpers who bang the doors a lot, a Lhasa Apso who thinks he is a German Shepherd, and three adolescents who give her attitude.