Suddenly, the plot shifted gears and a routine love versus career story was transformed into a heart wrenching first hand account of a schizophrenic.Īlmost overnight, Ankita is transformed from a brilliant, vivacious girl into a dim witted, scared creature, who is unable to decipher a single written word. After about 100 pages or so, I got the biggest shock of my life. I had a feeling that perhaps I made too much sense out of an appealing front page and ‘Life is What You Make It’ is simply yet another novel about a middle class, ambitious girl sacrificing love for money, who fails to meet her own expectations and ends up at a clinic for some quick counselling.īut, Preeti Shenoy proved me totally wrong. She was presented as a star performer and nothing seemed wrong with her life. Everything appears to be going Ankita’s way, with boys swooning over her and girls dying to be friends with her. The story revolved around her mushy romances, zealous extra-curricular activities and her single minded ambitious approach to do MBA from a reputed Institute in Bombay. However, as the story progressed, the serious tone set by the prologue evaporated, and instead of a mentally disturbed Ankita, the author introduced a bubbly, confident young student of St Agnes College, Cochin, who believes in living life leisurely, enjoying the attention of a long distance boyfriend and continuous appreciation of her fellow college mates. I had an eerie feeling that the Prologue is much similar to that of ‘ Two States‘ by Chetan Bhagat, but the tone appeared more macabre, and I braced myself for a serious story, instead of Chetan’s light hearted comic take on love and marriage. ‘Life is What You Make It’ begins with an engaging prologue, with Ankita sitting in a steel chair in a Mental Asylum, waiting for her turn to meet the Doctor, renowned for removing all mental disorders. In fact, it was only after I had received my copy that I cared to look at the blurb, and discovered that the novel is indeed about a girl, who fights with her twisted destiny and comes out on top. Yes, one look at the front cover of Preeti Shenoy’s novel ‘Life is What You Make It’ and I fell madly in love with her, she made me poetic and I bought the book on an impulse. She seemed to be daring the Sun to scorch her with all his might, as she is confident of coming out unscathed, unharmed, mesmerizing me with her courage, infecting me with her zeal. Be it the cruel sunshine or the harsh rains, she can overcome it all. A girl is jumping with joy, with an umbrella held high in her hand, as if that umbrella is a knight in shining armor and has the ability to dissipate all her problems.
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