There’s no such thing as a happy ending, is there . . .?
Sunita – perfect housewife – is married to Akash, but is her marriage what it seems?
Chila – warm, loveable – has married with great fanfare the entrepreneur Deepak. But are they really in love?
Tania – beautiful, rebellious – has rejected her traditional upbringing for a top television career. But is she really as tough as she says?
As Tania uncovers a devastating truth, are the three friends about to learn the hardest life lesson of all . . .?
On a winter morning in London’s East End, the locals are confronted with the sight of a white horse skidding through the sooty snow, carrying what looks like a Christmas tree on its back. It turns out to be a man covered in tinsel, with a cartoon-size turban on his head. Entrepreneur Deepak is on his way to get married. As he trudges along, he consoles himself with the thought that marrying Chila, a nice Punjabi girl (a choice that has delighted his surprised parents), does not mean he needs to become his father, grow nostril hair or wear pastel-colour leisure wear.
Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee is the story of Deepak’s bride, the childlike Chila, and her two childhood friends: Sunita, the former activist law student, now a depressed housewife, and the chic Tania, who has rejected marriage in favour of a high-powered career in television. A hilarious, thoughtful and moving novel about friendship, marriage and betrayal, it focuses on the difficult choices contemporary women have to make, whether or not they happen to have been raised in the South Asian community.