Of dreams and conjectures. Review on Zoya Factor, The - Anuja Chauhan

Do you remember when you were that twenty something? You

know, you got your first job and it fascinated you beyond your expectations!?

And when you first got praised for something you’d done, your confidence knew

no bounds! You believed you could take over the world! Well, looks like Anuja

Chauhan never grew out of that phase.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against dreaming big. And

by some stroke of good luck Anuja’s big dream does seem to have come true. But

I must admit to experiencing a keen sense of disappointment as I read along.

It happened after the first couple of pages actually. When I

read, I want to be intellectually stimulated. I want the words to gnaw at my

imagination and paint real life pictures for me. But sadly, the beginning of

the book could boast of no literary benefits whatsoever. It made one thing

clear though, like the one-liners she had crafted for Pepsi **Yeh

Dil Maange More andYehi hai right choice baby! **The hinglish would

continue throughout the book. Which incidentally would have been the only value

addition blatantly obvious.

Drawn from her experience from working as a client servicing

executive for Pepsi, Anuja sketches the character of Zoya. Zoya is an MBA who

has landed herself the perfect job with the biggest agency in the country. She

is young and enthusiastic and so not fond of cricket.

But being born on the same date and day as that when India won the

World Cup, she suddenly finds herself playing the role of the lucky charm. This

forms a very witty plot line for the entire story. But the monotonous execution

of the same recurrence makes you want to flip through a couple of chapters and

roll on.

The very predictable love story of Zoya and the Cricket

Captain of the Indian World Cup team 2011 Nikhil Khoda, goes through some

forced climaxes as it hits realization. The only highlight of the modern day

dream love story is the light it sheds on the possible politics which

overshadow critical decisions of the sport.

Very mediocre language keeps the story spinning and at one

point you perhaps want to scream and say, **ok so I know this happens, you don’t have to

tell me again and again, can we please move to what happens next?*

It’s a decent plot line and you could amuse yourself with

the amateurish writing on a travel. But for a read which entices you, you

should perhaps wait for Anuja to grow up…