Book Review : Bringing Up Vasu - That First Year

Title : Bringing Up Vasu - That First Year

Author : Parul Sharma

Publisher : Westland

A fellow reviewer from BookReviews - Bedazzled suggested this book to me and I ordered this book right away to read it leisurely during the Christmas holidays. I started reading it two days before the vacation officially started and this book turned out to be such a page turner that I finished it within two days. That is a good enough evidence that 'Bringing up Vasu' is indeed a quick read. Bedazzled, thank you!

It is a coming of age story of Mira, a new mom who aspires to be a 'Supermom' handling the newborn child, home and office with aplomb. Rightly so because she is very well prepared, she has read all pregnancy related literature, attended all pre-natal classes and planned the post-natal phase with utmost precision. The story starts with the delivery of little Vasu but the true reality stares Mira in her face when she brings Vasu home and is welcomed by a shocking news that her trusted maid is going to leave the job. Now she has to manage the newborn baby without the maid's help, yes her mother is there but she also has to leave soon to take care of her ailing aunt. While on maternity leave, her company gets taken over and in that process, Mira loses her job too. So now she has 'no nanny', 'no support from mother', 'no job' and persistent sleeplessness, but she is left with '80 kilos' of weight which she had so meticulously planned to shed in initial months after delivery but all those plans seem to be simply futile.

The unending cycle of baby's poos, diaper changing, feeding and putting the baby to sleep keep Mira and her husband Anand on their toes.

The story is deliciously peppered with many other characters - a few friends of Mira, a yummy mummy Rhea who keeps Mira abreast of the 'in things' in mommy circles. Overall an interesting and engaging story and I am sure all new-age mothers will relate to the story at some level - the highs and lows of being a new mom, handling a lot of things during this phase - when to step out of the confines of home to pursue the career, insecurities of leaving the helpless child at home with a Nanny, providing the best to the child right from identifying the best preschool and in all this the unending quest to find own identity.

The most witty parts of the story are the conversations between Mira and Anand. However, on a very few occasions the humor felt somewhat forced and not natural with the flow of the story but such points are really few and far between. Mira's 'Letters from the edge' deserve special mention too. The only character which felt a little unbaked and unreal was that of Mira's mother, but that is a small irritant compared to many positives that readers get from the book.