I Also Slept with Rashmi Verma | Love Thon | Book Review

PLOT: 2/5
CHARACTERS: 2.5/5
WRITING STYLE: 2/5
CLIMAX: 2.5/5
ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 2/5

My musings

When I first glanced at the book, I Also Slept with Rashmi Verma I wondered at its strange title. Going by the cover it didn’t seem like an erotic read. It actually looked like a book that talked about women, their struggles and their issues.

Alas! How wrong was I in my perception and how brutally shocked I was when I started to read what was on the inside? Read on to know more about my thoughts on this book and about my experience of reading it.

What to expect?

Expect a book that is a short read. Expect a book that takes you through a college campus life full of partying, drugs and sex. Expect a book that has a language that uses a mix of Hindi and English to give it a definite local flavor.

What is the story like?

The story of I Also Slept with Rashmi Verma is based in a New Delhi college campus where the author is hopelessly in love with a girl called Rashmi Verma. She is shown as a loose character who just about sleeps with everyone except the author.

While the author tries in vain to woo her to his bed, we are introduced to a rather eccentric bunch of characters who adorn the campus and add to the variety and spice of campus life.

Sex, drugs, and debauchery are what forms the core of this book, with stories narrated about different characters in separate chapters.            

Let’s talk about the writing style

Right from the beginning, the narration and the overall planning are quite chaotic. There is no clarity of thought as to what the author wants the book to be. Is it about Rashmi Verma or is it about campus life?

It would have been much better if the author had focused on either one of them because the way I Also Slept with Rashmi Verma turns out, it can only be called a “khichdi” of sorts.

What I did not like at all?

The blatant objectification of almost all women characters is what put me off the most. One cannot help but feel sick at the crass comparison of a voluptuous woman to a dairy farm. I Also Slept with Rashmi Verma is full of vulgar descriptions such as “one bloody oomph chick”, “bhand girl”, “she was hot and spicy just like Domino’s pizza” etc.

Dialogues such as the one below often find their way into the book.

“Man, what a girl! Who do you think will bed her?” Verma asked “let’s take turns, she could take us all. Man, she is one hell of a busty girl.”

“Bas ab aur intizar nahi hota yaar chal lets just grab her right now, she is amazing, she is so Waoo! Zazoo Zazoo Zazoo ke Sthan.”

As if that is not enough, there is even an utterly absurd poem about a supposedly slutty woman that the author is in love with and wants to bed as soon as possible. Here are some extracts from the poem.

If this isn’t sick! I don’t know what is??

What could have been better?

The editing of the book is quite off the mark. Sometimes it is the names and the spellings, other times it is the sentence construction that gets to you as a reader.

Are the characters good?

The characters of the book are a mediocre bunch. I just could not digest the fact that almost every character in the story is about drugs, debauchery, and sex. Women characters have specifically been portrayed in an extremely obscene way.

Let’s talk about the climax

The climax brings some respite because, in the end, we get to see the other side of Rashmi Verma, and finally, she gets the much-deserved humane treatment. But, even then, it is not enough to get rid of the unpleasant taste that the rest of the book leaves in your mouth.

It all boils down to the entertainment quotient

I Also Slept with Rashmi Verma is a book that attempts to humour and entertain the reader in just over 100 pages but, in the end, I can’t ignore the fact that it is written in bad taste. It not just portrays women in poor light but objectifies them blatantly leaving a sour after taste. This is a book definitely not for a reader like me.

The final verdict

I would say skip it!

Pick it up if

• You enjoy books that are more erotica than anything.

Skip it if

• You can’t stand books that objectify women.
• You can’t stand books that are shabbily written and poorly edited.
• Reading about sex and debauchery is not really your scene.

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