Book Review - Just Married, Please Excuse

Title: Just Married, Please Excuse
By: Yashodhara Lal
ISBN: 9789350292273
Cover price: INR 199 (Currently selling at Rs. 115 on Flipcart)
Format: Paperback
Genre: Fiction
Published by: HarperCollins Publishers India
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I read Yashodhara Lal’s blog on a regular basis. She picks interesting incidents from her own life, describes them vividly, adds her sense of humor and immediately connects with her readers. This is exactly what she has done with the book. It’s a sneak peek into the author’s married life and early parenthood.

I read her debut novel, Just Married Please Excuse, on my Lucknow-Delhi-Bahrain flight. It was perfect for this long journey – fast paced, full of humour and had that extra bit to keep me glued.

The story revolves around the author who is a hot-tempered Punjabi girl and her husband Vijay - a simple Brahmin guy. It is their roller-coaster ride describing their wedding, entry into a new life, settling in a new city, adjusting with in-laws, hunting for couple friends, making investments, dealing with an unexpected pregnancy and handling the baby thereafter.

Sounds mundane? No, it’s not. It is Yashodhara’s way of unfolding things that makes this book heart warming. Be it her discovery of V’s shorter upper body, her attempt at making phulkas and draping a saree or her account of her pregnancy, she keeps you amused. You will feel that all characters are taken from your own life and that you have been in the same situation as her sometime or the other.

Read this book in your blanket on a cold winter evening. You will find the people in it warm and their anecdotes endearing. My favourite line from the book comes from Y’s MIL – Ladne ki kya baat hai, kabhi wo maan jaate hain, kabhi main.

That’s exactly the way things work in my home!