Bala Takes the Plunge
Bala Takes the Plunge is a fun novel written by debutant writer Melvin Durai – a humorist and now a writer.
The book is about Bala – a typical Tamilian boy who is in love with Rajnikanth and dreams of becoming a movie director. Of course, his dreams are cut short by his family’s expectations, and he ends up becoming an engineer in US. Now, a successful engineer approaching his 30s, he arrives at the next milestone in his life – his marriage.
His parents have lined up a number of girls back home for him. However, Bala is a romantic; he wants to fall in love (or at least feel a connect) with the girl he will eventually marry.
So, does Bala find his dream girl? Well, that’s what the rest of the book is about.
My thoughts:
A short and sweet novel. This book is extremely funny in parts; huge numbers of Indian men of marriageable age will identify with Bala’s predicament really well.
Unfortunately, the book sags in places. The middle could have been edited more tightly, and the final romance between Bala and Priya could have been expanded a little more, to make the ending more meaningful.
But, it’s a pretty neat, debut novel, and hopefully Melvin Durai has more such fun books planned.
Note: This book is a review copy provided by Melvin Durai.
A book blog of a technical writer. Here, I write about books I have read, books I want to read, and well, about books in general. 
[...] “A short and sweet novel. This book is extremely funny in parts; huge numbers of Indian men of marriageable age will identify with Bala’s predicament really well.” — Nishita in Nishita’s Rants and Raves [...]
[...] Bala Takes the Plunge – A Book Review [...]
[...] Nishita reviews Bala Takes the Plunge by Melvin Durai [...]
The summary itself is funny, I like the Rajnikanth angle
@Casey: Oh, I am much better now
I knew you’d like this dark brown look 
Heyy – Like ur new look. Sorry to hear ’bout ur woes
Hope you have a gr8 celebration soon.
@Vaishnavi and Veens: Yes, it is not often we get a book from the male perspective on marriage. I also liked that the hero Bala is a very ordinary, aam aadmi type of person, rather than a super-dashing hero.
@Veens: Thanks for the header compliment
. I seriously am trying to improve my photo-editing skills. Let’s see, might create 2/3 header options more 
This sounds like a cute book! Vaish is right, guys perspective books are few.
I LOVE your header, girl. It is adorable
This sounds like such a fun book! You don’t get books like these from the guy’s perspective all that often!