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vani_in_wonderland_'s review
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
3.0
Irrespective of how much I pine for fictional men, fictional is always the keyword there.
Haven't we all heard or said something on the lines - That just happens in the movies/books; real life is different.
For this particular reason I wanted to read this book, for the reassurance that it isn't just in fiction. Such love stories happen in real life too!
In 'Like Fine Wine', Syeda Imam writes about nine such couples that met in different encounters, some puzzling, some curious but not at all usual. To take a few names, it has the story of the superstar actress Sharmila Tagore and cricketer Tiger Pataudi, chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand and Aruna Anand, Prince of Kashmir, Dr Karan Singh and Princess of Nepal.
The experience of reading the book was rather lukewarm for me. Maybe I had set up my expectations too high, Guilty!
Where I expected some giddying romance, the book rather felt like a bio piece written on the couple. In often stories, almost half the chapter went in with one individual. With the lives they had, it is much deserved but that wasn't on my mind when I picked the book. Also, I would have appreciated if the language used was a little less complicated at times.
That being said,
There are some stories, some lessons on love and partnership in these pages that I will take forward with me and cherish for long. Leila Matkar's qisse and afsaney are something that added to my understanding of intensity of love as an emotion. Meera Ali's unrelenting love for Muzaffar that she eloped to marry him. Mumtaz's teasing ways that bewitched Uma and they ended up finding their purpose in life together.
Their stories might be a little eccentric but they do have the sense of realness in them.
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