![]("/upload/827125/images/746666866E6E92CA.jpg")
Rich men and stylish women. Check.
Lavish club memberships, chilling in five stars and frequent travels abroad. Double check.
I loved Javed and had almost started forming arguments in my head to defend Bubbles dating this larger-than-life hunk, so what if he is a smuggler, when winds turned the page and I realised that I was reading a book!
Unpredictable characters in a typical Bengali elite super-rich society has its own pull. Their tastes overwhelming and their meanness, worth a billion bucks. And then there are the proud, unapologetic women who wouldn't mince words, neither feel any need to contain their bold domination...'bhodrota' (humility) my foot.
Ecstatic reading pleasure floats in when you find the author effortlessly blending regressive mindsets amid rebellious waves, all from behind the pomp of affluence. Every show-off is hysterically hypocritical, bearing stark resemblance to the community in a way that makes you remember identical characters from life. Those that are nyaka (dubious and trying to be humble without meaning it...no, actually nyaka has no translation, sorry!) and paka (oversmart) or bhoda (idiot).
Interesting is the dual age love story of Bubbles and Shreya. Very unexpectedly and interestingly, though Bubbles travels through another era, she is more open about expressing herself while Shreya is caught in blinding ego, compromising understandably to social norms, lamenting in secret, proud in public. The way Bubbles bails out her niece, Shreya, is hilarious. Character of Shantanu Mukherjee, the successful and handsome 'bhodrolok', has been under-utilized, perhaps to make more space for his sulking ex-wife and her loud aunts. But then...Bhodrolok, my foot, totally agreed!
The story takes you back to the times that believe in true love, over the one that gives up too fast. Anjana Basu's book is a crazy breeze. It makes you laugh, it makes you fall in love, it makes you want those designer aunts in family. Read it!
Name of the book : Conspiracy of Aunts
Author : Anjana Basu
The Amazon Link : https://www.amazon.in/Conspiracy-Aunts-Anjana-Basu/dp/9385854836/
Publisher : Readomania