A Review.
Book 2 of 2018 : Mrs.Funnybones.
Author: Twinkle Khanna
It was mid-February already and I'd only read
two books until then. I know that sounds pathetic, but then, I did read 2 books
in a row the previous day. And this is exactly the kinda light reading I pick
up, in between reading hardcore thrillers. Breezy books allow our minds to 'cool-off' from
the hard, gory, suspense that churns the grey cells into mush within the skull.
I was halfway through a thriller by Dean Koontz
& picked this one up, to allow my haggard brain to recoup.
The first thing that hit me when I began to read Mrs. Funnybones,
was that I'd read some of it before. I then remembered that I had indeed come
across the same paragraphs in her newspaper articles already. I realized that the book was
probably a compilation of some of her articles that were published on her columns in the Times.
I had the pleasure of listening to Twinkle Khanna speak her heart
out at the Bangalore Literature Festival and she did repeat some beautifully
rehearsed portions of the more humorous parts of her book. She began with her signature
introduction of herself including her family & pets, and her whole chat with Darius
Sunawala was interspersed with portions from this book (although she was there
to promote her next book 'The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad').
What strikes you the most about her is the candidness and
lack of decorum, so to speak. Here is one star who blatantly refuses to be politically correct, and that in itself a breath of fresh air in an industry filled with spineless bimbos. She has no qualms about mocking the quirks of
society, her family, especially her own superstar mom and true to her name, all of this is woven with dry
humor and irrepressible wit.
Mrs. Funnybones is a book that most Indian women would connect to,
even as they nod vigorously, smirk, giggle or burst into outright laughter at
some of her observations and anecdotes.
One has to remind oneself that she is talking about the star
Akshay Kumar, when she brazenly refers to him as the 'man of the house'. Or
that this woman who discusses everyday problems like any other middle class
housewife is actually a Bollywood star. So, a superstar's wife faces almost the same trials and tribulations as does an average Indian
woman...or so Mrs.Khanna would have you believe. Food for thought indeed.
There are instances in the narrative that makes you do a
double-take. Like the part when she claims to have taken her baby to the loo in
the airplane to check on a soiled diaper. Really? And we thought our stars
hired a fleet of maids for such mundane things such as changing baby diapers.
The portions where she points out the futility of fasting for the
husband on Karva Chauth takes on a note of wry humor when she backs it up with
research data. And yet, one cannot help notice that she appears to follow all
the said rituals that she vehemently scoffs at.
Lemme
tell you what I found most hilarious/bang-on/profound in Twinkle Khanna's
debut offering.
The Hilarious:
A
wise woman keeps her hands firmly in her pockets & does not accidentally
unzip anything, including her mouth.
The Bang-on:
Box people who undergo liposuction & claim
how they lost all their weight just by eating three healthy meals & two nutritious
snacks every day.
Box people who post minute-by-minute updates on
Facebook depicting every detail of their December getaway. There are only so
many 'Gee my life is wonderful' statuses that other people can bear.
They won't arrest scores of men who publicly
unbutton, unzip, pull out their dangly bits & proceed to urinate on a wall
right outside the police station, but for reasons still unknown to me, opening
a single top button has become the crime of the century.
The profound:
We come from darkness, live for a short while in
a blaze of light & sound and go back into darkness. Yet day after day, we
go on pretending that we and our loved ones are immortal.
..trying and holding on are complicated &
challenging things, but the most difficult thing in life is to love fiercely
& then let go.
***
I'm rather relieved that the plagiarism
specialists of the tweeting community have not copy-pasted these lines as much
as they'd be expected to. I hope these quotes don't end up on Twitter as
'self-made quotations', as much as Paulo Coelho's words do.
There's
a lot more to glean from this book, but I figure Mrs.Funnybones may prefer that
you buy her book, instead of reading it all here for free.
*****
Photo: Chethana Ramesh
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