Good morning, it’s 6 a.m. and I am wide awake because the man of the house has decided that he needs to perform a series of complex manoeuvres that involve him balancing on his left elbow. When I fell asleep last night, there was a baby lying next to me. Her smelly diaper is still wedged on my head but aside from this rather damp clue, I can't seem to find her anywhere. I could ask my mother-in-law if she has seen the baby, but she may just tell me that I need to fast on alternate Mondays, and God will deliver the baby back to me . . . Full of wit and delicious observations, Mrs Funnybones captures the life of the modern Indian woman—a woman who organizes dinner each evening, even as she goes to work all day, who runs her own life but has to listen to her Mummyji, who worries about her weight and the state of the country. Based on Twinkle Khanna’s super-hit column, Mrs Funnybones marks the debut of one of our funniest, most original voices.

I am back with another book review. This time its a light comedy read by the name of "Mrs Funnybones" written by none other than my childhood era Bollywood star Twinkle Khanna. It amazes to see me how this woman has so much talent. She has been a big screen actress in the past and breaking the sterotypes of actors being dumb only to act and perform, she has now become a writer as well along with being a business woman. 

I had been searching for this book to read for a while but was unable to get my hands on it as it wasn't available in book shops at Lahore and I couldn't find it online at Liberty Book store either. Luckily, I saw a pirated version of this book on a Facebook book store and decided to buy this one. The woman who owns the book store asked me if I would like to get the other book written by Twinkle Khanna as well, since it was costing my Rs. 250 each with Rs. 200 shipping charges excluded. Usually I opt for reading the synopsis of the book first before making the purchase but since I had been seeing this book a lot popping into my news feed, I decided to buy them right away without giving much thought to the synopsis and reviews.

I started with Mrs Funnybones with high hopes. I was expecting light writing with a dash of humor here and there. The more I read the book, the more I felt if I was reading a desperate attempt of recreating "Diary of a Social Butterfly" written by Moni Mohsin. If you are a Pakistani and you haven't read Social Diary then let me just hash it out for you, YOU ARE MISSING SOMETHING BIG IN YOUR LIFE. 

Now why did I feel as if I am reading a bad version of an already read book? Thats because Diary of a Social Butterfly captures the lives and dramas of elite class of Pakistan in a witty way and Mrs Funnybones is a small peek into the life of Twinkle Khanna, a former Bollywood actress and wife of an A list Bollywood actor. So you see the similarity of the lifestyles and social circle that comes with money. The difference however between the two is, Socialy diary is way on the top in terms of funny incidents, penning of wit and humor. Whereas, Mrs Funnybones is full of forced humor and boring encounters with desperate attempts at makaing them funny.

As I mentioned earlier, the book provides an insight into the life of Twinkle Khanna, she narrates her everyday incidents and attempts to add humor into those mundane situations. Notice how I use the word "attempt", that is because I found very few incidents funny at all. Most of them were hard attempts in trying to be funny and the events very cliche. The tag line of the book says "She is a lot like me and a lot like you." However I could not relate much to the book probably because as a reader I felt it was an insight into the life of a privilege born star who gets to travel around the world, gets to experience extreme sports and has domestic help 24/7. Also the incident where she berates people who can not speak proper English gave me the vibe of a snob. Yet there were also instances that made me wonder how Twinkle Khanna can travel in a rickshaw with no qualms or how she is like any other regular mommy taking care of her child, changing diapers and tending to her in sickness. These events were surely relateable and gave the impression that no matter how privileged you are, some things in life are same for everyone like the love of a mother for her child.

The book is also a quick read along with being light. I liked how the chapters were not numbered in digits rather in alphabetical order and each chapter was titled according to English alphabets sequence. You can finish the book maimum in 2.5 to 4 hours which makes it pretty good for a travelling read. Since its a light read it won't impact your mood or thought. If you are an avid reader like me you would know what I mean, how we engross ourselves into the lives of characters and take everything to heart with whatever happens with them. 

Apart from all this, I did not find the book enagaging at all. I felt trapped into finishing it because out of habit, I can not leave a book mid read and jump onto the next one. So with zero interest I had to continue reading it and it dragged on and on. After finishing this book, I concluded, if this book had been written by any other author it would not have gained this much poularity. It would have been an average book written by an average author and lying somewhere on book store shelves. But when you have fame and spotlight a lot of things can smoothly slide in your favor which is clearly the case with praise for this book. I have read such rave and over the top reviews for this one that I am appalled at reviewers sense of humor. Good reads is full of five stars and praises while as such this book isn't even funny in the slightest. But then again I have never been much taken with Indian's sens of humor either. 

Rating: 2/5

Verdict:

If you want to read a good humor book then I would recommend you to skip this one and read "Diary of a Social Butterfly" instead and save your time.

I hope you liked my review. Stay healthy and beautiful. xoxo!!!