What do you do for fun?
AN APPRECIATION ON KAAVYA VISHWANATHANS NOVEL "HOW OPEL MEHTA GOT KISSED GOT WILD AND GOT A LIFE"
This question may seem so simple to most of us, but for Opal Mehta who was attending an in interview to the prestigious Harvard University, it was the toughest question ever asked. To add more worries there came the second question-“Who is your best friend?” for which she answered Mr.Muffty, who was her cat!!!!
This Opal Mehta is the none other than the main character of the controversial novel “How Opal Mehta Got kissed Got Wild and Got a Life” written by Kaavya Viswanathan. This book is accused of plagiarism but for me that was no hindrance to a wonderful reading experience. This book depicts the over concern of modern parents for their children and the consequences the child has to bear This book really serves as an eye opener for modern parents who are after their children to do the impossible.
“How Opal Mehta Got kissed Got Wild and Got a Life” is a fascinating narration of the events that takes place in the life of Opal Mehta, daughter of Mr.Amal and Mrs.Meena who immigrated to the States from Chennai. It was the dream of Opal’s parents to get her into Harvard, the world’s finest institute of learning. Opal’s parents made a well-constructed plan to achieve this goal, which was called HOWGIH in short that means How Opal Will Get Into Harvard. For Opal it was Harvard everywhere, she went to sleep with Harvard shorts and T-shirt, Harvard website was her homepage and lot more ‘Harvardisms’. She was given rigorous training to achieve this goal. Opal being a intelligent student responded well to the efforts made by her parents.
The question that was mentioned in the beginning was asked to Opal during the interview in Harvard. Seeing her inability to answer those simple questions, Dean Anderson who was interviewing her told “Harvard is not looking for high exam scores…. Harvard doesn’t want campus full of automatons. We are looking for young people who want to live and experience life and not according to course heard…Get out there and experience being young…find out what you are really passionate about…. Then me about the developments in the next interview.”
Opal and her parents were really dejected by the outcome of the interview. But to put into practice, the suggestion given by Dean Anderson during the interview they chalked out a new plan, which was called HOWGAL in short, that means How Opal Will Get a Life. So it was HOWGAL instead of HOWGIH. For Opal to get a life they made three important goals:
Get popular, Get Kissed and Get Wild. All the latest teen movies, albums, magazines were bought and even a website was created containing the essential tips to achieve this goal.
Before the Harvard interview Opal was totally academic oriented. She was so brilliant that she was a regular winner of science scholarships, president of three of school’s four societies, captained the debate team, edited school news paper etc…
Above all she was trying to prove Fermeculli formula. Having made the plan called HOWGAL after the interview she caught up with the latest fashions, left her old friends and got into the company of popular girls. She even managed to get a boy friend name Jeff Aikel. So the first goal, to be popular was accomplished. Now for completing the formalities of getting kissed and getting wild in one go a grand party was arranged.
The day of the party arrived. As a precaution Opal’s father gave her an alcohol content chart, which said how much she could drink and was calculated, based on her weight. So all precaution were taken but during the party Opal didn’t remember about that paper. Almost all her friends arrived and the party was getting wild and now one more goal remaining: to get kissed, for that she was searching for Jeff but for her astonishment she saw him kissing another girl. But her mission was accomplished when she kissed Sean Whalen whom she counseled during the peer-counseling programme.
All goals were accomplished but during the party she lost her laptop somewhere, which contained all information about HOWGAL and things like that. Her friends got the laptop and read about all her plans and understood that Opal was acting before them and using them to get into Harvard. All the details of the plan HOWGAL like tips of the day, goals etc… were forwarded to three hundred senior students. HOWGAL was a flop and Opal felt humiliated.
She went back to school after these events and a lot of rumors were spread about her but she got back those old friends whom she had before HOWGAL and started working on Fermeculli formula. Meanwhile it was January and it was the time to go for the second round of interview in Harvard. Opal being dejected after the failure of HOWGAL, messd ups all things again before the interviewer and she had no hope to get into Harvard.
“All is well that ends well.” In the end of this beautiful novel every thing goes on well. Opal gets admission to Harvard, proves the Fermeculli formula and gets a good friend.
Opal Mehta is a representative of the children the metros and to be metro cities of India bearing the burden of parents dreams rather than theirs. Let the children drive their own life and let parents be their maps guiding them and supporting them. In this novel the end is fascinating but there is no guarantee that the end of all Opal Mehtas in real life will be fascinating. So parents beware.
This question may seem so simple to most of us, but for Opal Mehta who was attending an in interview to the prestigious Harvard University, it was the toughest question ever asked. To add more worries there came the second question-“Who is your best friend?” for which she answered Mr.Muffty, who was her cat!!!!
This Opal Mehta is the none other than the main character of the controversial novel “How Opal Mehta Got kissed Got Wild and Got a Life” written by Kaavya Viswanathan. This book is accused of plagiarism but for me that was no hindrance to a wonderful reading experience. This book depicts the over concern of modern parents for their children and the consequences the child has to bear This book really serves as an eye opener for modern parents who are after their children to do the impossible.
“How Opal Mehta Got kissed Got Wild and Got a Life” is a fascinating narration of the events that takes place in the life of Opal Mehta, daughter of Mr.Amal and Mrs.Meena who immigrated to the States from Chennai. It was the dream of Opal’s parents to get her into Harvard, the world’s finest institute of learning. Opal’s parents made a well-constructed plan to achieve this goal, which was called HOWGIH in short that means How Opal Will Get Into Harvard. For Opal it was Harvard everywhere, she went to sleep with Harvard shorts and T-shirt, Harvard website was her homepage and lot more ‘Harvardisms’. She was given rigorous training to achieve this goal. Opal being a intelligent student responded well to the efforts made by her parents.
The question that was mentioned in the beginning was asked to Opal during the interview in Harvard. Seeing her inability to answer those simple questions, Dean Anderson who was interviewing her told “Harvard is not looking for high exam scores…. Harvard doesn’t want campus full of automatons. We are looking for young people who want to live and experience life and not according to course heard…Get out there and experience being young…find out what you are really passionate about…. Then me about the developments in the next interview.”
Opal and her parents were really dejected by the outcome of the interview. But to put into practice, the suggestion given by Dean Anderson during the interview they chalked out a new plan, which was called HOWGAL in short, that means How Opal Will Get a Life. So it was HOWGAL instead of HOWGIH. For Opal to get a life they made three important goals:
Get popular, Get Kissed and Get Wild. All the latest teen movies, albums, magazines were bought and even a website was created containing the essential tips to achieve this goal.
Before the Harvard interview Opal was totally academic oriented. She was so brilliant that she was a regular winner of science scholarships, president of three of school’s four societies, captained the debate team, edited school news paper etc…
Above all she was trying to prove Fermeculli formula. Having made the plan called HOWGAL after the interview she caught up with the latest fashions, left her old friends and got into the company of popular girls. She even managed to get a boy friend name Jeff Aikel. So the first goal, to be popular was accomplished. Now for completing the formalities of getting kissed and getting wild in one go a grand party was arranged.
The day of the party arrived. As a precaution Opal’s father gave her an alcohol content chart, which said how much she could drink and was calculated, based on her weight. So all precaution were taken but during the party Opal didn’t remember about that paper. Almost all her friends arrived and the party was getting wild and now one more goal remaining: to get kissed, for that she was searching for Jeff but for her astonishment she saw him kissing another girl. But her mission was accomplished when she kissed Sean Whalen whom she counseled during the peer-counseling programme.
All goals were accomplished but during the party she lost her laptop somewhere, which contained all information about HOWGAL and things like that. Her friends got the laptop and read about all her plans and understood that Opal was acting before them and using them to get into Harvard. All the details of the plan HOWGAL like tips of the day, goals etc… were forwarded to three hundred senior students. HOWGAL was a flop and Opal felt humiliated.
She went back to school after these events and a lot of rumors were spread about her but she got back those old friends whom she had before HOWGAL and started working on Fermeculli formula. Meanwhile it was January and it was the time to go for the second round of interview in Harvard. Opal being dejected after the failure of HOWGAL, messd ups all things again before the interviewer and she had no hope to get into Harvard.
“All is well that ends well.” In the end of this beautiful novel every thing goes on well. Opal gets admission to Harvard, proves the Fermeculli formula and gets a good friend.
Opal Mehta is a representative of the children the metros and to be metro cities of India bearing the burden of parents dreams rather than theirs. Let the children drive their own life and let parents be their maps guiding them and supporting them. In this novel the end is fascinating but there is no guarantee that the end of all Opal Mehtas in real life will be fascinating. So parents beware.
posted by jeffshawn at 4:34 AM
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