With tongue-in-cheek witticism as Twinkle Khanna’s forte, ‘Pyjamas are Forgiving’ turns out to be inhibiting most of the space on bookshelves; with the ‘play on words’ Khanna talks about contemporary matters with an astute standpoint. Matters like, sexual assault, same gender love, women objectification, dynamics of marriage. By carefully knitting these concerns in her story, Khanna clearly highlights the plight of Asian women considering our societal restrictions, structure and norms. No doubt it’s an easy read, nonetheless, as you reach midway, you get captivated by Ayurvedic philosophy of Health and Treatment; consequently, the plot starts to feel like another Bollywood story, where the ex-husband tries to gain back the charm of his forlorn ex-wife yet maintains his place beside the second young one.
As the novel opens, we find ourselves standing at the entrance of Ayurvedic health resort where Anshu, a wry divorcee in her mid 40s, goes again (as she has been visiting the place for last 13 years) for 28 days stay to find a cure for her insomnia and happens to bump into her ex (Jay) and his young wife (Shalini). The speciality of Anshu lies in her witty one liners and her sardonic sense of humor.
This Ayurvedic Spa in Kerala, serves to be a place free from comforts such as seasoned food, , internet connectivity, wine & ‘vigorous physical activity’ as to facilitate the patients with their treatment through a set routine of diet & activities keeping in view the teachings of Ayurvedic principles. The place named Shanthamaaya Sthalam treats its patients with gulping large quantities of clarified butter (ghee adulterated with cow urine) followed by 14 rounds of walk, turmeric scrubs, red rice and milk face packs, deep-breathing, Sattvic eating and lymphatic massages. As Anshu calls it, ‘Dante’s first circle of hell’ for Shanthamaaya is much the same as a sanctuary whose preference is the well-balanced treatment of its patients for which it has a well-defined list of ‘to-do’ and ‘not-to-do’ things.
The novel turns to be one of the catalogues for Ayurvedic spa cum hospital where Anshu discovers her dosha constitution: “a precise half pitta-half vatta. Fire and air. Pitta is very determined; vatta is scatterbrained, creative, you leap between different things,” she says. After all the picturesque description, one ends at browsing internet for the concept of Doshas & Prakruti. On being asked, Khanna shared in one of her interviews that the intrinsic details mentioned in the novel are not her creation out of thin air however she once went to a center that was ‘as stringent as the one described in the book’. Therefore, the ayurvedic space, its fundamentals and principles are very much rooted in real life.
Ironically, at the end unlike Pyjama, Anshu turns out to be Jeans who ‘holds a grudge’ and turns them (her ex-husband & his cousin) in a case that they had been trying to sweep under the carpet. Despite having a control freak ex-husband, mother and sister (Mandira), Anshu succeeds in getting out of her cocoon, eventually embracing the sense of liberation and relief. To sum it up, it won’t be wrong to say that, after a certain point, the book serves to be unforgiving to its readers due to its tedious and linear plot; one gets so much bewitched with the Ayurvedic Treatment and terminologies that the main plot and characters fade into the background. With cliche husband, wife and ex-wife trio, twists and turns get pretty much predictable and salient. But if you want to satisfy your witty taste buds, then ‘Pyjamas are forgiving’ is surely the one!
Published in Daily Times, October 28th 2018.