DATING DR. DIL

I have always been of the assumption that only Indian love movies were swoon worthy. As an addicted fan of Bollywood romance movies, I have always wondered if it was possible to replicate those breathtaking romance gestures accompanied by dedicated devotion, I see in movies, on paper.

Honestly, I started reading this book out of curiosity, to see if it measured up and I must say Nisha Sharma, satisfied my curiosity. The story line was amazing and the plot build up was simply mind-blowing.
I was particularly wowed by the adept portrayal of culture and cuisine and the adequate depiction of a typical Indian/Desi family. From the presence of the father, the mother, the grandmother, and the ever meddlesome aunties.

‘Dating Dr. Nil’ tells a story of Kareena, who faces the pressure that every young girl, successful or not, faces when they become adults. It is the pressure of marriage.
It is common knowledge that when a woman reaches a certain age, no matter what she has achieved or what level of influence she has attained, unlike her male counterpart, if she is not married, or does not have a potential suitor, she is considered to be flawed.

I consider this very wrong, because, this pressure that society puts on women, has led some of them into abusive and unhappy marriages. But that, is luckily not the case for Kareena who is lucky to marry into love.

At the beginning of the novel, Kareena soon finds out she has to get married as quickly as possible to save her mother's old house, a house she is emotionally attached to but she is conflicted, because as at the beginning of the novel, she doesn’t have a suitor has always wanted a marriage of love, as opposed to an unhappy arranged marriage.

This book also explores the subject of arranged marriages versus love marriages, and I wholly appreciate the positive light in which they were argued and shown in the book.
Kareena just wants to be loved dearly and experience the feeling she gets from reading her romance novels. But she lacked a suitor.

I was particularly annoyed at the way her family treated her, just because she was single. It was really terrible, and I felt bad for her. But that's what the womenfolk get from society when they are unmarried. She however soon finds herself with Dr. Prem. But, just like the typical romance movies where one person falls first, and the other falls later but more deeply in love than the other, we see that is the case with Kareena and Dr. Prem.

While Kareena has read love in action, and holds onto the feeling, Prem who doesn't believe in romantic love, and is unaware of the chemistry and deep connection between them, doesn't mind being with her no matter how long it takes. Their different perspectives on love threaten to tear them apart, but they surprisingly stay together.

People who have seen the play, Taming of the Shrew, would agree with me that it's like retelling the story but in a modern way. Honestly, anyone who can retell Shakespeare, who is a favorite of mine, whether visually or in paper, has automatically become my favorite. Retelling Shakespeare can be a Herculean task, and Sharma showed she was up to the task. This was also one of the things that had me sold when I first came across the book.

The novel evoked both exciting and humorous emotions from me right from the start, and the author's style of writing, is definitely commendable. I was in awe.

Truthfully, romance novels and romance movies sell an ideal fantasy that we all want to experience. They might be fiction, but we all long to experience them, this is why we connect to them because somewhere in our minds, we hope that those fantasies might someday become realities in our different lives.

The part of the novel with the aunties also got me awestruck. The narration was on point. Aunties have a knack for being super dramatic, especially Indian aunties and Nisha made sure the characters delivered as supposed.

The drama and the chaos made it all so thrilling. Another thing I also enjoyed in the book was the fake dating and enemies to lover’s part. I've always found it a little bit exciting when enemies become lovers. It's like the seed of enmity brings forth the fruit of love.

Furthermore, I loved how the characters bared open their feelings. It was truly refreshing and helped readers connect with them. The open description of Kareena's feelings for example helped me understand better why she made the decisions she made.

Overall, this book was amazing but the romance freak in me would have appreciated if the ending had some little extra fireworks.

That is not to say, that I did not appreciate the steamy scenes. As a lover of passion, I certainly did, all three scenes, each one I would agree, better than the other. From the humorous start, to the meddlesome aunties, to the fake dating highs and lows, to the steamy sex scenes, to the nicknames which I think were cringe, ‘Dating Dr. Nil’ was definitely a good read.

I totally love this book, it was an easy and amazing read and it is certainly worth every minute of your time. I absolutely recommend and I would definitely love to pick up another book authored by Nisha Sharma.

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