Days of Our Lives by Aarti V Raman is her latest contemporary romance, a story of five friends from Thanjavur.
The blurb:
They are the Tanjavur Thunders
Anu, Avi, Charlie, Meher, and Shashi are childhood friends who promised to be together no matter what. But life, and adulting, got in the way and now all they have together is a text chain group.
Until…
Bubbly, protected Shashi Shivaramakrishnan announces her engagement to a reserved engineer, Arjun Seshadri, and her surprise promotion to Mumbai.
Avi and Meher, the happiest married couple ever, are at a crossroads – Meher Raghuman wants a baby more than Avi Sreedhar. Avi’s conservative Iyer parents finally love their daughter-in-law.
Anu Harinandan is a quiet, demure doctor who dreams of going to the US in a few months with a secret no one knows…
Her love for Charlie Thomas, the broken bad boy, the vagabond of the group who has, more or less, disappeared for the last ten years.
When Shashi convinces Anu to move into a flat in the same complex as Meher, Avi, and Arjun, the Tanjavur Thunders reunite for a rocking three months. And the *galaataa* fun really begins when Charlie also comes down for their reunion.
But the Thunders are kids no longer. And adult relationships come with their own baggage – secrets, lies, heartbreak and more.
Can these five friends survive their reunion without losing themselves, or each other?
The story:
Thanjavur Thunders: Five friends, Avi, Meher, Anu, Shashi and Charlie.
Arvind Sreedhar, Avi, is the son of a generational farmer. And Meherunissa Raghuman belongs to an orthodox Tamil muslim family. Avi and Meher have known each other since a long time and Avi had declared, at the age of eighteen, that he would marry Meher. Married for three years, Avi and Meher are a happy. Avi works for a multinational company and Meher is pursuing her PhD. Avi’s typical Iyer parents do not like Meher much, and even her parents do not like him, but Avi loves Meher more than anything in this world.
Anu Harinandan’s parents wanted her to be a doctor and now she is doing her post-graduation in Mumbai and she wants to go to the US for further studies. She loves Charlie Thomas, who is a part of their group but has not made an appearance for the last ten years. She is goal focussed and he is unpredictable.
Shashi Shivaramakrishnan, an only child, is the apple of her parents’ eyes. An MBA from IIM, Trichy, she works in a bank and lives with her parents in Vizag. She is due for promotion and that would mean moving to Mumbai for probation. Her parents are very protective and would not allow her to go to Mumbai alone even though her three best friends, Avi, Meher and Anu live there. So, she gets engaged to US returned engineer, Arjun Seshadri.
Charlie is an unpredictable friend any one could have. He is also Shashi’s cousin. Both Charlie and Avi are Shashi’s older brothers in a way.
Five friends, three couples and many different issues.
My take:
This is a story of friendship, family, love, understanding, marriage and also the stresses that come along with it.
The realistic and relatable characters have been developed beautifully, and as the story moves along, the layers keep adding to them. The friendship has been beautifully described and the conversations between the characters are realistic. The friendship between the girls and even that between the five of them is worth reading.
The language is simple, and I enjoyed how she had interspersed the conversation with commonly used Tamil words, but as I do not follow the language, I had to keep going till the end to know their meaning, so as to enjoy it more. So maybe, if the author can add the meanings of the Tamil words as a footnote on the page where the word is mentioned, it would make it more enjoyable.
I loved the narration and the fast pace of the book, as it moved from one friend to another.
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