The most striking aspect of Diksha Basu’s new novel Destination Wedding , as well as her previous book The Windfall , is how sympathetic sh...
The most striking aspect of Diksha Basu’s new novel Destination Wedding, as well as her previous book The Windfall, is how sympathetic she is to her characters, almost all of whom are affluent in varying degrees. Since money, class relations, and the perception of wealth are pivotal themes in both novels, her sharply observed characters in a comedy-of-manners setup could immediately invite judgement.
But Basu is never judgmental, only critical, and that too with the deftest of touches. Her criticism does not stick out as being written from a sense of moral obligation to the reader. And this makes her writing exceptionally humane. Basu’s characters are intelligent enough to introspect about their privileges, and even when they are not, she doesn’t make punching bags out of anyone.
The destination of the title is Delhi, where a host of expatriate Indians, and their foreigner friends and lovers, congregate for the wedding of Shefali and Pavan, whose nuptials inevitably cause everyone around them to take stock of their love lives. The heroine is Shefali’s cousin, Tina, a 32-year-old streaming network executive from New York, perpetually on the hunt for an Indian reality show subject, that is not “Born into Brothels. A thousand times over” or about “poor children with bright smiles for...
