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How to Salsa in a Sari
Issa is a regular teenager with her friends Gigi and Ishaan and a nerdy boyfriend Adam. Issa is an answer to every parent’s prayer as she is a go-getter on the academic front. She gets A’s in English, her assignments are always on time and she works successfully in the school newspaper office. Her life is made hell in the school by Cat Morena, the Cuban chica. "A cross between a dark-haired Paris Hilton and an ever darker poisonous viper, Cat liked nothing better than to put her enemies in their place." She is a rich 16-year-old who is followed everywhere by her fair weather entourage. What more Cat is rudeness personified and Issa is her victim. The book offers a good view into school life in a privileged American school, where bi-racial students tread the corridors with fear lest they show their "ebonics" and ghetto roots. Issa’s world turns topsy-turvy when Cat steals her boyfriend Adam. Issamother introduces her to Diego, "a clean cut Antonio Banderas `85" who is a fancy lawyer, filthy rich with a house straight out of a design magazine. What more he is Cat’s papi and is about to marry the protaganist’s bohemian mother! Issa, like every young girl, worships her father, Roy, a man who walked out on the family and sent the divorce papers by mail. A weak willed, man who just left a note saying "Need to figure stuff out, will be back", makes an appearance but there is no place for him in Alisha’s life now. Life appears rosy when Alisha and Issa move into Diego’s guesthouse. Diego requests Cat and Issa to behave like sisters and asks Cat to give a spare key of the Lotus to Issa. Then follows the makeover. A new hairdo, an over expensive wardrobe with accessories to match and, lo, the down-to-earth Issa is transformed in the tres chic Isabella. A few lies to Diego about Cat’s glue-snuffing friends has Cat grounded. Issa is now nemesis personified and goes out of her way to make life miserable for her future stepsister. She befriends the Belles, a group wary of Cat’s popularity. False praises like "I love the lip gloss on you. It makes your lips look like Angelina Jolie’s" make the transformed personality gain entry into the hip circles. Issa throws herself at Rake Robinson, thus wining a date with him. This adds to Cat’s miseries because she wanted a hot date with the gentleman in question. Issa’s faux persona creates circumstances beyond her control and only Cat can help her. You need to read on to know more. The characters are fresh and keep you thoroughly entertained. How to Salsa in a Sari is a coming-of-age novel. Easy language with a humorous streak gives the readers a trip though the travails of high school life. It is a fun story of adolescence.
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THE two things which
caught my attention when I picked up the book was the snazzy title and
the cover with its leggy figures. The protagonist Issa Mazumder has a
mixed parentage—her Indian mother, Alisha, eloped with her
Afro-American father scandalising her conservative Bengali parents.
Set in the US, the book takes the readers on a roller coaster ride
through young Issa’s life.