My first MS novel: Unnodu Oru Naal

Author: Muthulakshmi Raghavan

Genre: Romance

Summary:

Our hero, Hariharan, is from a very wealthy family, he runs his own successful business both is India as well abroad. His parents fix marriage for him with a modern girl (Theeba) from a family of equal status. Hariharan is fond of the Indian culture and does not like Theeba's love for the western culture, so he tells his father to stop the wedding, but the father goes ahead with the engagement even in the absence of the groom. Upset by his father’s action our hero decides to visit his friend in the country side for some peace of mind for a few days and leaves without telling his father.

Sowmiya, is born into a very orthodox family in a village and is loved by her parents and two elder brothers. She is completing her final year and is home for the study break. The wives of her two brothers, who are jealous of her beauty and pampering, try to arrange marriage with Sowmi and their respective cousin brothers, who are up to no good. A competition arises of who she will marry when both cousin brothers are invited for lunch at Sowmiya’s house on the same day without the permission of her parents, before things get out of control Sowmiya’s ‘murrai maaman’ Paraman, shows up and states that as long as he is alive no one else is to marry Sowmi. He also states that IF he is to give up Sowmi to another groom then he must be more intelligent, wealthy and good hearted then he is! Upset that their plans were ruined by Paraman, both of Sowmi’s sister-in laws tell their cousin-brothers to kidnap Sowmi and marry her when she leaves for school the next day. Sowmi manages to escape from them and run into Hariharan.

 The rest of the of story is about the encounter between Hariharan and Sowmiya and how the one day that they spend together changes their lives.

My View: I thought this book was well written, I really liked the village slang that was used in this book, it also takes us into the intimacy and innocence of villagers, which I enjoyed most. It was well written; I thought it was more like Uma Balakumar’s books then Ramani Chandran’s.

Please let me know if anyone has read this book or recommend any other books by this Author.