“Right Fit Wrong Shoe” is a Bollywood-style cinematic love story between a handsome boy and a girl next door, Nandini and Aditya. The plot is very predictable and shows the typical chemistry between a boy and a girl set in the small town of Kanpur. Nandini’s family and Aditya’s family are old friends of the family and their mothers are best friends. Their friendship begins with a love-hate relationship, it begins to blossom after the Sarin family becomes neighbors of the Sharma family. The Firebrand Nandini brand is not your typical girl next door. She is twenty-six, passive-aggressive, bubbly, creative, lazy, unambitious, and hard-working. The sultry mermaid unaware of her own sex appeal is like Mount Vesuvius, dormant but ready to explode when the atmosphere becomes scorching hot. Her philosophy of traditional femininity mixed with liberal doses of female empowerment makes her simple life complicated. Nandini’s spirit cannot be trampled or tamed. Aditya dares to face this spit of fire and hopes to dominate her as she teaches her a lesson for some imaginary damage done to her manly ego. This unorthodox fusion of male-female logic is a good light read.

Varsha’s writing is fast, fresh, witty, and peppered with colorful imagery. The exciting dialogues attract our interest in the plot. English phrases, adorned with onomatopoeic words, topped with witty phrases, keep us energized and divided. Human relationships are explored very delicately. The book is like a Bollywood movie with each chapter headed by a movie title. Friendship and the female bond are given equal importance. Nandini and Sneha’s friendship is very realistic in its description. Sneha always knows what is going on inside Nandini’s heart and mind. She pushes her to have a life of her own. Their friendship warms the hearts of many, as it is a true reflection of how women come together and stand up for one another. It is set in contemporary times and reflects society as it is now, where modernization rubs shoulders with space with tradition.

The story begins on a melancholy note from Nandini depressed and dejected, as news of the arrival of the handsome billionaire Aditya to his town, his organization, his family and his life ignites his volcano. As if a chocolate wrapper unwraps expectantly into the intoxicating center of sticky chocolate, Varsha takes us on a maddening crawl into the intricate heart of the Aditya-Nandini showdown. The story that had started with Aditya’s arrival at the beginning of the novel progresses by sliding into a flashback after the first chapter. Before meeting Aditya and Nandini, they have already loved each other and have parted ways with a dark secret that separates them and for which Aditya forces Nandini to pay an emotional ransom. The battle lines are already drawn. The four years that they had been kept apart have been bitter years for Aditya, who has returned with punishment on her mind.

Nandini, the quintessential woman with a marshmallow for her heart and a lot of common sense in her brain, has come forward for a living. She is a very tough and dynamic head of the design team at Ace Advertising Agency. She has been selflessly and tirelessly working for peanuts for the most contemptuous boss who sells the company at the first opportunity, while keeping employees in the dark about it. It turns out that Nandini, on a very depressing day when everything goes wrong, finds himself unannounced, face to face with his new boss, Aditya Sarin. From then on, everything goes downhill for Nandini. Her reputation is on the line, her world is misplaced, her family’s loyalties are hijacked, she slowly dies pretending that all is well with her and Aditya’s mother, while living under Aditya’s scorching hatred, enduring her verbal lash. every day and deftly evading her mischievous torpedoes, designed to break down her defenses and strip her of her self-esteem and her companions. She also has to handle a tight ship from her own department while dodging the slimy advances of her new department head who has his sexual gaze on her. Overall, it’s an entertaining read, making us laugh as we read the witty conversation between Nandini and Aditya. Nandini reveals a woman’s ability to be demure and sensual, conventional yet sexy, down-to-earth and expert at the same time. She is not the one who sits and cries over cracked milk or who wears her heart on her sleeve.

Varsha Dixit credibly builds the portrait of Nandini as a lovable, capable, talented and family oriented person that we need every woman to be. A woman is equal to a man in every way. When taken for granted too many times, misfortunes beset the man who has stepped on her identity. Nandini teaches Aditya what it feels like to suffer. When Aditya sees a Nandini in disguise at a tête-à-tête with a strange man, ready to accept him as her boyfriend if acceptable, the rays of jealousy pierce her heart. Now the correct shoe is on the left foot. Aditya can’t bear to watch Nandini marry someone else while Nandini isn’t ready to give her the time of day. The verbal missiles fired back and forth by the pair of leaders absolutely amaze us. Now Nandini wants to demand his pound of meat as Shylock from “The Merchant of Venice.” Will Aditya get a second chance at love? Will they bury the ax? What is the dark secret that kept them apart? Will Aditya be man enough to handle Nandini’s wild and fearless spirit? To know the answers you must read the novel …

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