Tina Raja is 30, with kids, and in a marriage that seems to be going nowhere. In the mean time, she finds herself saddled with problems, from leaking pipes to changing diapers, in-laws, a sister forever falling in love and an eccentric best friend. She appears to be a super mom with ten heads and ten hands, except that she is also drowning in an emotional cesspool, on the one hand missing her husband Vik, and on the other forever in search of a companion...and mustard seeds. Jane De Suza's Happily Never After is about what happens after marriage.
The book leaves you in stitches for its sparkling humour. And the characters are so real, they seem like your friends and family. You'll even find a little of yourself, especially if you're a woman, in Tina who tries to keep it all together, while desperately trying not to ignore her own needs.
"The idea for the book came from stories women exchange over coffee,” says Jane, as we chat...over coffee. “There’s a huge unburdening of your soul. You realise you are not alone. Women have a huge stress of families, job, broken pipes and leaking kids’ noses. I am hoping the book assures people that everyone is in the same boat.”
For women who hold it all in, always putting the needs of others ahead of their own, Tina comes as a breath of fresh air.
She doesn't pity herself, and knows how to have fun even though she is in one crazy emotional roller coaster. Jane nods in agreement,
"Tina is not whiny. She’s like a patchwork quilt of foibles and fantastic points of a lot of women I know.”
But is not just Tina that stands out. The other characters have their moments too. "My books are character centric rather than driven by plot. The lead characters are strong and very three-dimensional. My favourite character is Ryna. She’s trying hard to be a grown up kid, to be loved. Neither her mom nor her dad is aware of that. Ryna comes from me. As a child of 10 and 11, I was full of angst against the world."
In our hectic, urban lives, are the rules of marriage changing? "I never write from a moral point of view,” stresses Jane, “My insights are that the rules of marriage are changing. A woman has every right to pursue her career and not feel guilty about that. A woman owes it to herself to go for her dreams. Not to live through her kids or role as a wife."
But the juggling of chores primarily becomes a woman's job. "It’s happening all around us and yet we don’t find it unfair. The carrying of everyone else’s burden on their shoulders. The timetables, food needs, emotional needs. It’s only when it’s put in a book that we realise." The launch, which was held in Atta Galatta last month had women pour their hearts out in a safe space. “It was a closed-door all women only event. 35 women were expected, but 65 women landed up. It was a no-holds-barred discussion on events like affairs, soulmates, dreams.”
Jane says humour helps in everything, from coping to getting a point across. “It can get it well taken. It has to drive home something that people will take seriously,” says the author, who has written the crime comedy The Spy Who Lost Her Head and the SuperZero series for children. “With my very first book, I was told humour writing doesn’t sell. Could you put in romance, horror, mythology? But I’ve got to be true to myself. I’m a humour writer!”
Jane was a creative director in leading advertising agencies and works as a consultant. “I quit my nine to five...no, nine to nine job in advertising. I began freelancing, writing for magazines and blogging, and I kept getting asked when I would write. In my life, there’s always been a flow.” As for the clichéd question of how ideas come to her, she puts that into perspective and adds: “I never have a problem with getting an idea. The problem is in staying power. You’ve got to love the book you’re writing, otherwise it shows.”
Happily Never After is a HarperCollins publication.
