Operation Mom by Reenita Malhotra Hora: a review

In the cover is something that all teenage girls would love to see and which would surely act as a catalyst in attracting girls of all age groups to itself giving the readers a very chirpy vibe from it. Specially the title of the book ‘Operation Mom’ and the sub-title of it ‘How I got my mother a life… and a man’ by Reenita Malhotra Hora gives in a very enthralling and perky side of the content of the book making the readers eager to read the book.

According to the back cover- When you try to set your mom’s life right. Be prepared to have your own turned upside down. Seventeen-year-old Ila Isham has serious problems. There’s the angst of being an Ali Zafar groupie, for one. Then there are the extra layers of fat she owes to her Punjabi roots. Add to this, parents who have separated; an enthusiastic best friend whose idea of variety is dating three guys at the same time; and her mom’s best friend, Aunty Maleeka, whose good intentions and savvy ways throw up more problems than solutions- and Ila’s got her hands quite full. When her mother flips out over her plans to stalk Ali Zafar, Ila decides she has had enough and sets out to create a few distractions to keep her mom busy. With a little help from BFF Deepali, Aunty Maleeka and Dev of the inviting chocolate-pool eyes, Ila will have to brave everything from Lagaan.com and OKCupid profiles to meeting handlebar-moustache colonels and middle-aged psychos, as she tries to set up the perfect parent trap for her unsuspecting mother.

When the book started on the note of the conversation between Ila and Deepali, I was truly transferred to my school times when I used to do the same thing! What to do and what not to do in the summer vacations have always been a matter of huge discussions between me and my friends and seeing Ila and Deepali do the same made my day at first glance of the book.

What I felt after reading the first few chapters was that the authoress was trying to unnecessarily stretch them but when the actual ‘Operation Mom’ commenced in the book, I started to like the book from then on and the book, in itself picked up speed on its own which was same throughout the book.

The authoress has done a good job in penning down the feelings and the thoughts that go on in a seventeen year old teenage girl’s mind and heart to perfection. The book has shown friendship to a wonderful level. How a child sets her mom up with blind dates after herself testing them on online dating sites is worth reading.

What I felt bad about the book was that at times it felt too girlish as if it wasn’t made for boys to read. At places, there had been places where I had to read and re-read a line till I could grasp the literal meaning to it which might be a problem regarding the pace at which the story was moving.

The grammar at places were also a bit shaky (at least that’s what I felt) which might be a bit turn-off to the readers. Being a girl, I liked the way it had been written and the end was very cute too (if that’s the word to define it) All in all, wanting to read an even better version of this book, I would like to give it 4 out of 5.