Being a weekend I had time to read the novel “Losing my Virginity and other Dumb Ideas” written by Madhuri Banerjee (madhuribanerjee at Blogspot) and published by Penguin India. Needless to say what caught my eye was the first part of the title, which was probably inspired by Richard Branson’s book “Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way”. For a first-time author, good work by Madhuri, best wishes to her.
The Protagonist in the novel is a young well educated, 7-language speaking, attractive 30-year-old girl “Kaveri” living in Mumbai and doing freelance translation at foreign consulates & for visiting dignitaries. The story starts off interestingly with Kaveri worried about being a virgin for too long, but mid-way into the book the story gets lost in the direction it is going. It strays into reality TV, tour guide, then into New York and Barcelona, ending kind of abruptly.