Mingling, yet single
50 Cups of Coffee. The Woes and Throes of Finding Mr Right by Khushnuma Daruwala. Published in 2017 by Penguin Random House India Private Limited, 7th floor, Infinity Tower C, DLF Cyber City, Gurgaon 122002; website: www.penguin.co.in. Pp: vi + 196. Price: Rs 250.
50 Cups of Coffee is a non-fictional, hilarious take on author Khushnuma Daruwala’s (pictured) friend’s attempt to find her Prince Charming.
Dating is increasingly more complex and daunting, especially for those who want to find a partner within our small Parsi community. 50 Cups of Coffee is a realistic account of the trials and tribulations that all Parsi singles, especially women, go through to find their soulmates.
While on a sabbatical, Daruwala decided to document her friend Dia’s hilarious adventures on the dating circuit, which ultimately led to writing 50 Cups of Coffee. What sets this book apart from other run-of-the-mill romance novellas and novels, is the fact that it is a real-life account of the dating scene in India for a woman in her 30s.
Daruwala’s writing style is not at all preachy, but tongue-in-cheek. The book does not give advice to other singles in the dating pool, but merely narrates the different experiences that Dia had with various "potential suitors.” Dia goes on 50 dates, and meets a variety of men, right from the quintessential "mama’s boy” — who is willing to get married in the coming year, but refrains from doing so because "it is a leap year, so mummy will say no” — to the always unavailable guy, who is either "caught between unreasonable clients, inefficient staff and the neighbor’s toddler who doodied on his doodles,” or jet setting halfway across the world.
When Dia tries the matrimonial sites, she faces new challenges, such as people not writing their real names, or posting "a pic from which he has oh-so carefully cropped out the girl he is snuggling up to, cheek to cheek,” hoping that no one will notice.
Dia’s character undergoes a noticeable shift as the number of dates keep increasing. While divorced guys were earlier off the dating charts, as she approaches her late 30s, Dia gets ready to go out on dates with them. Traits that she earlier found repulsive in a man (too creepy, or too forward), are now tolerable (she convinces herself that she was being too critical and too prudish).
The characters in the book are real and believable, which is visible towards the end of the book when Dia’s best friend Poppy announces that she is getting married. Dia feels upset and distraught, as she has not yet found her "knight in shining armor.”
The book, however, ends on an optimistic, yet realistic note, and does not offer false consolation to the singles out there, but a message of hope and independence.
At the end of every chapter, Daruwala shares some pearls of wisdom for the unsuspecting single. Her advice ranges from "Early bird catches the worm. True. But slow turtles win the race,” to "Rapid lowering of expectations increases exposure to scum.”
The target audience of Daruwala’s book seems to be Gen Y and Millennials, as it is unlikely that anyone before that will understand the references that she makes to pop culture, such as Sex and the City and He’s Just Not That into You. It is here that Daruwala has missed out on certain sections of society that might otherwise have enjoyed her book.
The writing style is also modern, light and breezy, and does not have any structured plot, which is again something that might resonate well with the youth, but might be a little too random for some of the older readers.
NATASHA DEBOO
Poona-born Deboo is an avid reader and has done her bachelors and masters in English and also her masters in journalism and mass communication. She has worked for Hindustan Times, Teach for India and currently serves as an internal communications consultant for Forbes Marshall.