Land of Lime

Indian kids (in America), don’t be shy. Confess, this is what you want your ultra conservative (‘in my time’ ‘when I was a kid’ ‘your grand father was so strict’ ‘and we never got to date or choose careers’) father to say!

Opal Mehta’s father indeed does. Never mind, Opal is a fictional character, and exists only in Kaavya Viswanathan’s delightful new novel How Opal Mehta Got kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life’. At the SFSU bookstore yesterday, I came across this new novel on an Indian girl, whose sole mission is to execute her parents’ plan: HOWGIH (How Opal Will Get Into Harvard). Armed with the family motto, PISS (Positivity, Intelligence, Sophistication, Successs), she has done it all: Cello lessons, science club, leadership workshops, student government and even a six month welding class. But all that and the capacity to put the comma at the right place (something I shall never master) doesn’t ensure her early admission to Harvard and she is completely lost, when the Director of Admissions at Harvard wants to know what she does for fun.

So her parents now come up with a new plan: HOWGAL or How Opal Will Get A Life. To prove Opal is a regular teenager, her parents set three new goals for her: Be popular, get kissed and get wild. The demonic obsession with which the entire family works on this plan forms the core of this light, delightful read. Parents go Jessica Simpson, OC and 50 Cents. Poor Opal has to follow them. Self mockery is something that I liked but don’t know whether Kaavya is a major literary talent, as heralded by many. She surely is a fresh voice, and writes well.

Kaavya Viswanathan is now a sophomore at Harvard. She has gotten an advance big enough to see her through school for the next ten years, and does not require Land of Lime’s endorsement, even if her oval, angelic face and black hair makes me wish I was a sophomore or Junior at Harvard. Speaking of fair, oval, angelic faces, only Aiyar and Ayyangar girls seem to have a monoploy over them. Many of my friends from the land of lime did.