What would you do if your sleazy boss ran his hands all over you and then blamed you for not doing your job well? Well, I just packed off on a road trip! Just me in my old jeep, Iqbal Mastani, we travelled all the way from Delhi to this little guest house up in the mountains. I met people I had never known (cute boys who taught me how to fish), did things I would have never done (sleeping drunk in a cold balcony) and somewhere in the middle of that, fell in love!!!”
Well, there are no prizes for guessing. ‘My Way is the Highway’ is a book about a young woman (on the wrong side of 25, as the author puts it herself) who hates her boss, uses cuss words liberally, frustrated with her professional life, sets off on a impulsive road trip - and ends up meeting new people and doing new things! And the plot is quite predictable, such as getting drunk, meeting strangers and falling in love (we said predictable!) So, basically we can add this book to a chick lit book lovers’ collection rightaway. Though most of the things protagonist Mansha Sharan aka Manki does, are the things you would have loved to do yourself, like slamming the door on your boss’ face and walking out, go an a impulsive road trip without really knowing what is in store for you. Hence, you can live your dream through his book. But, what Manki does is quite hard to believe, such as ditching work and important stories, avoiding incessant work calls, considering she is an ambitious Delhi girl who happens to be a hardcore TV reporter.
The book does start on a racy note and has a happy ending. But, somewhere in the middle, it gets a little boring, when she meets ‘cute’ Delhi boys whom she goes camping with (not a very good idea otherwise, if you are a girl on your own in a unknown place, with no contact with the world outside. Well, this is a story. Damn the practicality!), who teach her fishing and of course eventually falls in love with one of them. Having said that, there are sparks of potential in her writing, with a linear narrative and the bratty character (synonymous with a fauji kid) is likeable. She’s funny while she digs deeper into people’s psyche while talking to them (all in her mind). Not to forget, her penchant for naming anything and everything. She calls her jeep ‘Iqbal’, her Maruti 800‘Dugg-Dugg’, her phone ‘Ting Ting’ ( annoying at times) and her insane capacity for alcohol, coffee, tea, cigarettes and omlettes! The ending is quite what we expected. But, don’t we all like happy endings. Just like our Bollywood movies. Hence, this one is definitely worth a read!
This is author Urvashi Gulia’s first attempt at writing a novel and she is a journalist and an Army Officer’s daughter, that is the most obvious similarity with protagonist Manki.
