WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5
RELEVANCE: 3.5/5
ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5
It’s not easy to be a woman. It’s not easy to be a working woman. It’s not easy to be a single and working woman. It’s not easy to be a single and working woman living alone in an alien city.
While you may find some way out for the first three statements but how to cope up with life when it is the fourth statement which applies to you.
Well, I am no agony aunt but I sure can refer you a book which will make you feel relaxed and calm, rejuvenated and enthusiastic, strong and steady, happy and cheerful about being single in a city.
In a nutshell, it will tell you what to expect and what not to expect when living alone as a single working woman in a city, but it will do so in its own special way.
Single in the City by Sushmita Bose is actually a collection of articles which she once wrote for Hindustan Times, a newspaper which she then worked for. The themes of all the articles thus compiled in the book revolves around the same concept – being single in a city.
In the articles, Sushmita writes about everyday life and experiences in the alien city of Delhi (she had just moved from Kolkata, the only city she had lived in so far). Her writing makes good use of the everyday experiences she comes across and the people she meets at the office, at the colony, in public etc.
Full of candid humour, she anecdotes about her previous life, and about how she is blending in the previous with the present.
Though the book is essentially on Delhi, she does mention a lot of Kolkata and all about Kolkata including the language, the fish, the other favourite dishes, the guys, the Delhi’s own Bengali kingdom Chittaranjan Park and a lot more.
Also commonplace in most of her articles are the mention of many relatives and close friends including the mom who frequently visits, the uncle who respects privacy, the brother and sister-in-law who live just across the border in Noida, and the always-to-the-rescue friend Tiger.
The book is quite interesting as it is indeed intriguing to discover the world from the author’s point of view.
On my part, I could easily associate with the author as at the start of my career I too was a single girl working in Delhi, and Delhi did offer me (just like it did to the author) my own set of joys and elations, and a lot of memories to cherish forever.
If not anything else, it does prove one thing to me that there is indeed joy in living that kind of life for at least some time in your life. If not, then as a woman or a girl you are surely missing out on something big.
That being said, I would recommend this book to all the single working ladies. It will help you discover the joys of singledom and financial freedom and know what all is there to know about living alone in a city.
So how did you like the review? Please do let me know by dropping a line below.