A paean to urbane love

A debut author weaves a tale of love set in the IT hub.

Nowadays, there’s a spate of ‘rush-through books’. You pick them up at random. Go through cursorily and forget. But even in this haze of perfunctory titles, a few books stand out. Gayatri Chandrasekharan’s ‘Bangalored’ is one such. Love is an eternally relevant genre of writing and books, as well as classics based on love, have always been lapped up by the readers. Set in Bengaluru, the IT hub of India, Gayatri has delineated a perfect pen-picture of urban and urbane love between an Englishman, James Rutherford, and an opinionated Indian girl, Radha Iyer.

India’s Silicon City is tailormade for cerebral love that has sapiosexual elements of passion, intellect, and individuality. The readers can discern a sort of fastidious finesse in the writing. On the flip side, this ‘elitism’ may also alienate readers from small or two-tier cities. All art is an autobiography is now a hackneyed statement. Yet, repeating and remembering this, one may be tempted to equate Radha with the author. But that could also be an intentional fallacy or a far-fetched conceit.

Gayatri’s profound love for the classics and admiration for literary greats like P G Wodehouse, Somerset Maugham, Jane Austen, among others can be attributed to her classical style. Quoting them profusely to drive home her point is indeed commendable. But at times, a plethora of quotes from the greats may smack of pedantic pontification. Every chapter begins with a meaningful quote and even the Epilogue has one. This is an overdose of quotes, however germane they might be to the plot and flow of the story. All in all, a decent effort by a debut author.