Mother of All Parties-Padmini Sankar

Book:Mother of All Parties
Author: Padmini Sankar
Publisher: HarperCollins India and Black Ink

Do you think that societal expectations create undue pressure on us to be a version of ourselves that is not authentic?

Mother of All Parties by Padmini Sankar is the story of Pam, who lives in Dubai and moves in the high circles of the city. With the battle of one-upmanship in full force, the challenge to throw the biggest and the most glamorous party falls on her. Adding to her woes is the fact that a week before her 20^th anniversary is the 20^th anniversary of Honey Sarin, who is proficient in cutting barbs and snide comments, directed prominently at Pam. Adding to the mix, an ex-flame turns up and raises the temperature by a few notches, her husband who is blissfully unaware of what is going on in Pam’s life, a daughter who is up in arms against her mother and to top it up, a construction worker who she has to shelter. Jiggling all this, would she be able to throw M.O.A.P.?

Mother of All Parties is an excellently crafted story that talks about multiple issues while maintaining its primary theme all along. Padmini has taken up the idea of a party to show how we, as humans, have made everything a competition, a race that has to be won, no matter the costs. She has taken up issues such as marital incompatibility, teenage tantrums, bond between a parent and a child, and most importantly the book talks about the simple joys of life. Initially, I was a bit confused as to what the plot was trying to tell and how are these seemingly unrelated incidents going to come together but Padmini manages to tie them in a bow in a beautiful way. There are some interesting scenes in the book, full of wit and sarcasm, and it was almost as if I could hear the people bicker around me. The one thing I would really like to complement the author is for the effort taken into detail things. The dresses, the locations, the happenings-all of them have been described in detail, which added on to the joy of the story. The one thing I would have loved in the book was the perspective of one of the male characters as well so that we could have had a better experience of the situation.

Coming to the characters, Padmini has sketched some of the most amazing characters that seem to have been picked up from real life. From the catty Honey Sarin to the flustered Pam, each one of them added a different flavor to the story. I liked the development of the character arc of Tikky and how that put the entire book into a different light. Pam’s perspective of the ensuing events was quite interesting, and her situations brought out the best in her.

Overall, the book is a roller coaster ride of emotions and it is truly the M.O.A.P. with a score of 4.19/5 for me.

Grab a copy of the book here.