Book Review: Her Secret Husband by Sundari Venkatraman

“Her Secret Husband” is the third book in the “Marriages made in India” series. Having read five of the ten books authored by Sundari Venkatraman, I must say her writing has gotten so much better. This is really difficult for someone who already was a really good writer. But now her story moves seamlessly, through time and events.
The story very nicely brings out the fact that people see what they want to see. Ruma’s mother looks at the boy she has chosen for Ruma and thinks that they make a lovely pair. Dadima looks at them together and feels disgusted . The poor father just buries his head in the sand and notices nothing.
Her characters are well fleshed out. Whether it was Ruma, or Lakshman or Ruma’s grandmother, Sundari made them come alive. Though the series is about the Maheshwari family, it is Ruma’s character that had me hooked.
She comes from a conservative family that believes in arranged marriages and women not working after marriage, yet, she is a feisty young woman. She is not someone who sits quietly and lets life take its course. She is assertive and confident enough to make the first move, first by taking the first step towards ending the distance between them, by visiting Lakshman in his home town unexpectedly and then proposing marriage to him.
But there was one paragraph that made me fall in love with Lakshman.
“They walked to Om Book Shop where Lakshman insisted on buying every book she browsed.
“Laki, are you mad? I don’t need so many books.”
“I need to buy them for you,” was the quiet reply.”
Now that is what I call hero material!