Teen Couple Have Fun Outdoors by Aravind Jayan
A humorous and neurotic narrator livens up Teen Couple Have Fun Outdoors, a comedy of errors which takes a deep dive into modern Indian society
In Aravind Jayan’s debut Teen Couple Have Fun Outdoors, a family is faced with scandalous humiliation as a result of a viral sex tape leaked online. The saga is narrated by the unnamed youngest son who guides the reader through his older brother’s indiscretion and its inevitable fallout.
The narrator is humorous, neurotic, and desperate to try and broker peace between his older brother Sreenath and their parents, Appa and Amma. Although the narrator has spent his entire life in the shadows of his older brother, he ends up playing an integral role in the fight to restore family unity, much to the annoyance of Sreenath and his girlfriend Anita. What unfolds is a bittersweet comedy of errors-cum-reckoning of the Indian middle class, and a deep dive into generational divisions of modern Indian society.
While the premise is entertaining, the plot moves far too slowly. Filled with too many passive scenes of the narrator sitting awkwardly and idly in his brother’s safehouse while two families are being ripped at the seams back home. Although it is Sreenath and Anita at the centre of the scandal, they feel too much like tertiary characters, moody and insufferable, which makes it difficult to empathise with the liberal freedom they’re meant to represent. Still, the narrator makes this a compelling read for all his tender albeit misguided love and advice giving.
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