There seems to be no love, peace or happiness as far as the author or even the characters in the nine short stories are concerned. Rituraj Verma’s debut book is specifically an urban tale with urban characters in urban India.
The book Love, Peace & Happiness: What more can you want? fearlessly makes an effort to delve into the realities of life in today’s India. He has tried to address many an emotional issue like loneliness, fear, insecurity, self-discovery, compromise, independence and co-dependency. One such theme that the book deals with : is the issue of infidelity post marriage.
Post Chetan Bhagat, we have been seeing many ‘writers’ from the management sector exploring the world of fiction writing while some have succeeded some are repetitive. The author who is as usual an IITian plus a management graduate and now working as a consultant says he has found his true calling in writing and this book is an act of subconscious expression, amalgamating real life stories with fantasy in a liberating manner. The author says, “The credit for the concept behind this book goes to Mark Zuckerberg’s original idea that people would like to choose how conflict ends in their lives.”
Therefore, Rituraj gives an opportunity to the reader albeit online if you do not agree with the ending in each of the nine stories. One can go for the hyperlink to an alternate ending for every story. If you do not agree with the web endings either, then you can submit your own endings for the stories by writing to the author directly.
According to Verma, one of the concepts that he has repeatedly explored in this book, and one that continues to fascinate him is the relationship of authority that two people share. “And here in India, more often than not this relationship is built between the older and younger members of the same family. While in other cultures an individual becomes entirely independent and responsible for his own choices and decisions since the time he hits majority and this rule does not clearly apply.”
“Your parents are expected to do both - provide you with pocket money and impose deadlines upon you. Your elder brother on the other hand can threaten to break your boyfriend’s legs, and should your man get on his bad side, you are well aware that he will live up to his threat. And it works both ways. Most of us find nothing wrong or uncomfortable in turning to elders in the family for help and advice : be it financially, emotionally or mentally. That’s just the way we are programmed to think and live,” says the author.
All the short stories are centered around people who are seeking the three important aspects of life, that is, love, peace and happiness but encounter a set of problems in the course of their journey of their life. Although the book comprising stories of people who live life, take chances, make mistakes, face disappointment and yet go on makes for a different kind of read altogether but definitely not an interesting read.