My Wife’s Diary

Reading someone’s personal diary,  written without any inhibition,  is always a fascinating thing to do which needs a lot of guts as you are about to invade the diarist’s private and secretive life. Well this is what I felt when I started reading the book My Wife’s Diary by Deepanshu Saini. 

Plot

As the name of the book suggest a woman’s diary comes in the hands of the husband and who out of the curiosity started reading it and along with the husband even readers of the book embarks on the journey which the diary is all set ready to take us. 

The diary was written when the diarist Pournima was undergoing her post graduation programme in Psychology . It is about her falling in love twice and suffers heartbreaks when she found out that her so called boyfriends are only interested in her body.

She ultimately do have sex not with a man but with a girl under the most bizarre circumstances. This doesn’t mean that she is a lesbian. Pournima stops writing diary after that only to write again after a year in order to inform that she is about to get married.

Weak and Repetitive Plot

The book is of course written in the diary format. It has been deliberately written in the most casual way. Well this is the way any ordinary girl would write her diary.

But the story which the diary tells is not that impressive. It is all about her love life and boozing. I don’t understand why can’t books be written without mentioning alcohol. Is it such a great habit to drink and smoke that writers so openly flaunts in their stories.

Pournima fells in love twice. The same kind of love story and betrayal was repeated twice in the book which makes the book repetitive and predictable to read. 

She furiously rejected any sexual advancement of men but end up having sex with a girl. What kind of logic is there I failed to understand. Was it due to high after consumption of alcohol which enable her to do so. It just doesn’t fits in my wits.

Respite From Love Life

Then there was Raghav’s episode whose case was given to  Pournima to study and help him with his depression. Though it was just a ordinary case but was written in such a manner that it is a very complicated case and Pournima has to use all her intellect to solve it.

In spite of that, it was a good break from the continuous reading of her monotonous love life. More such cases should have been included into the diary. It would have given the diary a realistic touch and that there is something more in Pournima’s life apart from boy friends. But author seems to be content describing just her love life.

Not Enough Space For The Husband

Also Pournima’s husband Aniket finds minuscule presence in the book whose character has the ability to infuse strength in the otherwise weak plot. His feelings and melancholy was depicted in the couple of pages and that it the novel ends. 

I was eagerly waiting to know the reaction of her husband after reading the diary and how the author concludes the novel but was left high and dry at the end. There should have been more written on Aniket’s reaction which would have taken the novel to different level. An understanding and emotional conversation between Aniket and Pournima could have been a fitting end to the novel.

The Verdict:

The concept was great but the plot was weak. It could have been a great novel if handed with more dexterity.