MAY BE NOT

ANJALI JOSEPH’S NEW NOVEL WORKS BEST AS A LOVE STORY. IT IS UNDONE WHEN IT TRIES EXCEEDING THAT BRIEF

- Bhavya Dore

Within the first few pages of Anjali Joseph’s new novel, the main protagonists have briskly bedded each other. The book’s jacket describes itself as “uncompromisingly modern”, perhaps telegraphing that they cannot be attached in any serious way. In Keeping in Touch, Joseph’s fourth novel, a meet-cute in Heathrow airport will spawn a recurring long-distance relationship between Ved and Keteki, from London to Assam.

Ved, a UK-based venture capitalist, gives chase after their fleeting encounter in Mumbai. But commitment-phobic Keteki, cosy in her itinerant life and thronged by myriad lovers, keeps him at bay. Large parts of the novel unfold in Jorhat and Guwahati, where curator-designer Keteki lives and NRI bachelor Ved returns. His new assignment involves a project with a bulb factory in the region, making the pursuit all the more convenient. (There is a quasi-magic realist sub-plot involving the bulbs and an “intelligent filament” that responds to its environment, but doesn’t amount to a whole lot.)

Keeping in Touch is readable, in a will-they-won’t-they way. Ved and Keteki go through the motions of a mating dance while trying to untangle their own insecurities and emotional awkwardness. Other lovers, old and new, have walk-on parts. Keteki’s uncle Joy Mama, whom Ved befriends, offers a guest room, history lessons and pithy advice from time to time.

KEEPING IN TOUCH by Anjali Joseph