Delirium
by
Soumya Aji
A Harper Collins Publication
A Harper Collins Publication
Sports, Love, Steroids... Will love win?
The story is narrated in first person by Anjana Narendra. Anjana is in her early thirties and works as a journalist with National TV in their Bangalore office. She’s a go getter and is crazy about cricket. While trying to interview cricketers, she comes face-to-face with the Indian team’s vice-captain Avinash Katagi who’s also from Karnataka. They hit it off from the first meeting, despite his being a few years younger than her. And there is the small impediment – she’s married to Narendra.
She decides to forget him and get ahead with her life when her boss Mangal sends her after the cricket team to get a story on some of the members being drug addicts. Unable to get anything out of Avinash, Anjana chases a few other cricketers when one of them agrees to give an interview on the promise of anonymity.
All hell breaks loose when the interview is relayed on National TV. What begins as a scoop of the year, takes on the makings of a nightmare for Anjana as the BCCI calls her for an interrogation. Unable to shake her up, they decide to threaten her company. Will the bosses let her continue in her job? And what about her relationship with Avinash? Is it worth breaking her marriage? What about him? Does he love her or is he just using her?
Delirium hooked me from the word ‘go’. Well thought out storyline, excellent narration and very real characters – the best combo a book could offer. And do not forget the apt title and lovely, colourful book cover.
SPOILER ALERT!!! – If you haven’t read the book , please do not read beyond this point.
Anjana is an independent woman who has always had her own way. She loves her job and is adventurous too. One is not surprised that she has an affair with Avinash, especially as she falls in love with him. She has a good relationship with her husband Naren, though it’s more of buddies than of a romantic nature. Naren is too nice to add much spice to her fun-loving life.
Anjana is a powerful character who I could so relate to. The author probably based a lot of her mannerisms on her own experience as a journo. Kudos!
The scene I liked best was when she takes on the BCCI:
‘I am willing to swear an oath that Avinash Katagi was not my source. I have never discussed drugs or any cricketing matter with him. But I cannot tell you who my source is; that would be completely unethical.’
The board looked grim. I continued: ‘I will not give in to blackmail. I want to tell you all that it is against every journalistic ethic to reveal a source who has trusted you to keep his name under wraps.’
Then I fired one last salvo. Why should they be the ones to do all the firing? ‘I would also like to tell all of you respected board members that if you go ahead with your plan to suspend Avinash Katagi, I will call a press conference and say on record that his suspension is the blackmail tactic you tried against me.’
There was a stir in the room. The asses hadn’t thought that I would strike back. I continued, ‘I will tell my media friends that you tried to force me to reveal my source. I will tell them how you are aiming to destroy an innocent man without any proof, merely as a means to your ends. Then we’ll see who is right and what the country says.’
Avinash is real too! His relationship with Anjana that comes under question again and again – is so probable. As we read more and more of the book, we get to understand why he is what he is.
The affair and love scenes between Anjana and Avinash have been handled very well. It would have been so easy for them to slide into a sleaze fest. I must congratulate the author for presenting them with class.
Ratan Ghadge, Kartik, Mangal, Junaid, BCCI members, other cricketers, the hotel clerks, the taxi drivers and many other little characters that go into making a story complete, have all been fleshed out perfectly – not too much, not too little.
What happens in the end? Well, the story has no end per se. It makes the reader reach her own conclusion about what happens to Anjana and Avinash and I think that’s the best way the novel could have ended.
VERDICT: I am so glad that I got my hands on Delirium by Sowmya Aji and got an opportunity to read and review the book.
Disclaimer: I received a PDF copy of Delirium by Sowmya Aji from The Book Club in return for my honest review
I was addicted.
To him.
Anjana Narendra just can’t keep her head straight when it comes to the nation’s heartthrob, cricket vice-captain Avinash Katagi. The mere sight of him sets the heart of this thirty-one-year-old television journalist pounding, and fills her stomach with butterflies. He seems smitten too – taking her out for romantic walks in the botanical gardens, appearing by her side when she has a road accident, knocking on her door in the middle of the night. Even as Anjana is swept off her feet into a whirlwind romance, the reporter within her sniffs out the biggest scoop of the season. All too soon, she is neck-deep in trouble with her bosses and the cricket board, struggling to make sense of the sordid world of steroids and celebs. Will Anjana give up the delicious young man she is hooked on to? And does she even want to? Sinful and alluring, Delirium is a heady cocktail of intrigue, temptation and betrayal.
Meet the Author
I love day-dreaming and my close friends in this endless activity include Hamlet, Howard Roark, Absolem, Miss Marple, Elizabeth Bennett, Katniss Everdeen, Holly Short, Sirus Black, Gimli and Septimus Heap.. occasionally, Saphira also :) Otherwise, I am a serious hard-nosed print journalist who writes about politics, social issues and culture.
I've spent most of my life reading and writing. I also love movies, dance, theatre, music, trekking, yoga. I tried my hand at Russian and French and remember Rooski Izink Nimnoga and je sais un peu de Francaise (I bet I got that wrong); but the latest language I picked up, Spanish, is very close to my heart, as I want to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Yellow Butterflies in Espanol. I speak, read and write three Indian languages - Kannada, Hindi, Tamil - and my masters is in English, so I obviously love language and communication.
I also love knitting and I hate cooking :) I'm trying very hard to be good at a new job - parenting - to my three-year-old, but boy, is that the toughest job!
I've spent most of my life reading and writing. I also love movies, dance, theatre, music, trekking, yoga. I tried my hand at Russian and French and remember Rooski Izink Nimnoga and je sais un peu de Francaise (I bet I got that wrong); but the latest language I picked up, Spanish, is very close to my heart, as I want to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Yellow Butterflies in Espanol. I speak, read and write three Indian languages - Kannada, Hindi, Tamil - and my masters is in English, so I obviously love language and communication.
I also love knitting and I hate cooking :) I'm trying very hard to be good at a new job - parenting - to my three-year-old, but boy, is that the toughest job!
You can stalk her @
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