reviewed by nikhimenon@gmail.com
Set in the mid 80 s, Abhijit Bhaduri's Married but Available' (a sequel to his 'Mediocre but Arrogant' which was set in a B school campus) tells the story of twenty something Abbey who is a fresh graduate from one of the fancy B schools of the Country.The misadventures in the first decade of young Abbey's working life is what this book is all about.To spice up the proceedings a bit,Abhijit also throws in a 'broken marriage' angle(which i think was the worst part of the book)with little success.The basic problem with the book is it's protagonist Abbey himself who comes across as a weak and idiotic guy who fails to make any impact in the minds of the readers.Abbey's solutions for most of his issues,'the snake breeding scene' ,for instance are out right ridiculous . His encounters with the worker's union falls flat, so does his supposedly' love making scenes with his wife Ayesha and his lover Keya.About the female characters,the least said the better.To further irritate us,there is Captain Soboty,the protagonist's mentor who appears every now and then with preachy lines.The author tries too hard to become yet another Chetan Bhagat(apparently chetan's only first two books had got released when this one came out) with cheesy lines thrown in at regular intervals.Unfortunately (for him and the readers!) they end up being anything but funny and only serve to slacken the pace of the narrative.
The positive aspect of the book (and probably the only one)is the decription of the small township,Balwanpur(where Abbey gets employed initially ).All said and done the book is an easy read with nothing much literary about it and you can probably make use of it to kill one boring sunday afternoon.
Bottom line: Mediocre. 2/5
