Book Review: Never Mind Yaar by K Mathur: 3 Friends, Poor-Rich Love, Communal Issues And Mumbai

Years back we had management training with a theme – how does it matter. Never Mind Yaar by K.Mathur is almost on the same lines in this debut attempt in fiction genre. Mathur has taken four youth in a college environment to project her plot. Lead characters in Never Mind Yaar are Binaifer Desai, Louella D’Costa, and Shalini Dayal. All are the new entrants to first year in Mumbai’s prestigious and one of the oldest college - Gyan Shakti College. Binnaifer and Louella get surprised and happy to see each other in the college on its opening day, as both had done their studies in the same school. Both of them had a small interaction with one of the most beautiful entrant in the same class – Shalini. The fourth main character in Never Mind Yaar is Bhagu – a student activist who falls in for Shalini having love at first sight.
The story of Never Mind Yaar is about Mumbai having a big heart to absorb different cultures within its heart with same love and warmth. Shalini belongs to a Hindu family, Louella is from a Christian family and Binnaifer belongs to a Parsi family. Having so many cultures in Mumbai is a drawback too, as it becomes culture and religion sensitive thereby giving space to conservatives and modern both together. As far as good part is concerned, reader gets an insight of various cultures (Hindu, Parsis and Christians in this case). This 214 pages novel is about the friendship of three girls and love in between Shalini and Bhagu. Bhagu is a student activist who is very clear in his mind about the current situation of the country and how youth can play a positive role in handling this situation and holding them becoming worse.
If you are able to cross the initial hurdle of 40-50 pages which are very slow and less constructive, you will start liking the story as it gradually moves on further. Bhagu falling in love with Shalini who belongs to an economically high stature family, faces a real life hurdle with a constraint of Shalini’s family not accepting this relationship. Shalini’s grandmother Mem is a good entry in the story. The later part of  Never Mind Yaar becomes more interesting and you would like to check the end of this story. Author has tried to touch economical differences and political & communal scenario that has large impact on personal life of each individual of out country.
There are many shortfalls in this book. As far as cover ofNever Mind Yaar is concerned, it is very basic, simple and comical – overall not too impressive and eye catching.  Another drawback of this book is the too small font size that is painful to eyes and becomes a major factor to mar interest of the reader. Third drawback is the style of writing of K. Mathur. It is not at all connecting to its readers and gives an impression that it is a text book. The content looks to elaborative and extrapolated that it clearly seems the constraint writer had in mind to overcome the minimum words limit to complete a novel. That makes it a very slow read and probably becomes a burden for reader to carry on with boring parts of the story.