WRITING STYLE: 3/5
RELEVANCE: 3.5/5
ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3/5
Many say that “Marriages are made in Heaven” but very few realise that marriages are run on Earth.
The West and the East both have a very different approach to marriage.
While the West is keener towards individual comfort and tastes, marriages in East involve families and often placing family before self.
Today’s world is fast-changing, though, today’s marriages are fragile and fickle. Today’s youth have more urgent and self-centred needs. They are unwilling to adjust and unable to commit.
7 Vows of Marriage approaches a very relevant topic from a very different angle.
While educated and urbanised Indians today talk about female equality and female rights, this young author takes a slightly different approach. Her thinking is traditional and still relevant.
While most women today find it difficult to cope up with their in-laws, this young lady stresses on the need to do so.
India is a very different country and no matter how hard we try to ape the west and shun our traditional way of life, we cannot discount the benefits of family and Devika Das, in 7 Vows of Marriage, voices her thoughts on the same topic very effectively.
This book is more like a lengthy essay and less like a book. It is all but 35 pages of the author’s thoughts on the institution of marriage.
She presents some really compelling and unconventional arguments but does so with adequate explanation and relevant examples.
Though the thoughts are coherent as a whole, in a book they are scattered in a random way. This is a little troublesome for the reader but it does not take away the focus from the topic at hand.
I really liked the way the author has quoted so many examples from her own life which are extremely relatable and convincing.
I also liked the fact that for a change a modern woman has taken a stand for the conventional woman and her ways. It is a relief to know that there are people who still stand for good olden ways.
I liked the book more for what she had to say than for what it offered in terms of writing style and entertainment.
Overall, 7 Vows of Marriage is a decent book (more like an essay like I already said) and it should not hurt to give this young author a chance to get her opinions heard.
I recommend this book as a good read not for the author, not for me but for the sake of our increasingly (becoming) decadent Indian society.
Please see my YouTube video review as well