By Nisha Susan
1. In a world of stoic Indian prose holding up its dignikutty by being colourless and odourless, Anuja has frequently memorable turn of phrase. Observe the title of her third and newest novel.
Now try and improve on the word ‘Pricey’.
2. The woman has many levels of humour. Situation, one-liners, gags, man-hits-tomato-cart and just beautiful knee-deep absurdity.
3. Her plots are getting better with each book. The Zoya Factor was a bit of a one-gag-book (girl born at the exact moment that India won the World Cup in 1983 grows up to be lucky mascot for the Indian cricket team). Battle for Bittora‘s election backdrop was fun. Those Pricey Thakur Girls has a plot we can’t tell you in one sentence.
4. In Those Pricey Thakur Girls Anuja writes about the 1980s without fetishising it. Mentions of cheese-cube-on-toothpick stuck on capsicum halves and other terrifying cocktail snacks from the era are fleeting, not adoring. As they ought to be. Some of us were there.
5. She’s the only chick-lit writer we know we would still read if she cut out the romance bits from her books. After three books we are inclined to beg her editors: Don’t make her write romance. She’s really bad at it. Let the woman do the comedy she’s superb at.
6. She has a secret and very serious fan club among feminist academics (we are looking at you, lady).
Bonus: Those Pricey Thakur Girls has a sequel. Hurrah!