Flipping through Anuja Chauhans Battle for Bittora is like getting to know aaj ki taaza khabar with names changed in a book form
Flipping through Anuja Chauhans Battle for Bittora is like getting to know aaj ki taaza khabar with names changed in a book form
A lot of what Anuja says in this story will come into perspective if you just glance through the back jacket. She is the daughter-in-law of Congress Parliamentarian Margret Alva, the Governer of Uttarkhand and herself hails from North India. A purist will certainly admonish her for glorifying the rot that has set into the General Elections in India; and being so close to a senior member of the oldest party, her data can only be assumed to have been a tad watered down. 
But it's quite evident that she's well versed with the nation's political happenings through the dailies and other media, as all the good projects happening in today's India are being claimed by her characters during their childhood, way back in 1990s, besides using their current project names. Perhaps that was only to lend the story a contemporary flavour.
The story revolves around the recent Lok Sabha elections, where the electoral battle finds two unlikely opponents, childhood friends who parted right after they just about tasted the forbidden fruit, went around the world, to meet again after years. While one party is determined to extend political legacy of the family, the other extends the feudal background into meaningful work for society. With all sorts of backstage manipulations and scheming in full throttle, the battle ends with one driving other to the parliament house for taking the oath as an MP.
She has done quite a commendable round-up with her plot. If you just substitute names of state, region and parties by their so obvious real names, it would read like yesterday's newspaper. Chauhan keeps the story racy through a series of totally predictable incidents, using the local slang as much as her socialite friends would tolerate and has intentionally and thankfully kept the sleaze out in most parts.
It could well be at par with a typical Mills & Boon story, except for a detailed account of a steamy encounter between the main characters, though she had ample scope to fit it in. A quick read for people who dig the Chetan Bhagat style or the superficial racy genre of novels.
Book: Battle for Bittora
Author: Anuja Chauhan
For: Rs 399
Published by: Harper Collins; Pages 415.
Available at: leading book stores
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