(originally posted on December 20, 2008)
Did I ever have fun reading this debut novel by a young wunderkind who wears his talent with gossamer-like ease. Poor Rakesh Ahuja may be a government minister in New Delhi, but he can't seem to stop reproducing - his wife is about to deliver child number fourteen - or be vexed by the circumstances leading to the end of his first marriage and the beginning of the next. Meanwhile his eldest son is an awkward teenager struggling with sexual impulses and finding his way in often side-splitting fashion. Mahajan has much to say about contemporary India, but his thoughts on more universal topics like sex and family is why this debut is gold.
