Date of Reading: 19/08/2014
Author: Janaki Murali
Publisher: Harper Collins India
Place: New Delhi
Year: 2002
From: Goodreads Giveaway
There is something in the title that takes you to the classical past and that had me hooked here. In spite of the less developed plot, the story clearly echoes the ghostly paradise of 'Wuthering Heights'. And Kunjan, the modern day Heathcliff, is far more clear headed in his possessive love; "I will destroy everything that is yours, Sita . . . You will rue the day you said no to me." A threat that even engulfs the next generation.
Sita, like any other girl of our generation, faces the same fate: the aftereffects of an unreciprocated love which sends many through acid attacks or much worse, a life sentenced to spend in fear. The message is clear; 'If you can't be mine, then you should not be anyone else's'.
The story goes through two narrative patterns, one unfolds Sita's past from her birth onward, while the other is set in the present where she lives with her doctor husband and waits for her daughter to return from America.
Her mother Ammini hails from a Brahmin family in Kerala where she undergoes the barbaric untouchability meted out to a new mother and waits for her husband to come from Bombay. Appa has lost his job meantime and he puts off his journey to take back his wife and new born daughter. This reluctance is interpreted at Ammini's home as a result of an affair or his dissatisfaction at the birth of a girl child.
Eventually her brother dump Ammini at her husband's doorstep and the chivalrous Appa could never come to confess the real reason. There ensues a broken marriage which ends up in Ammini's death. He refuses to hand over Sita to her maternal family and brings her up with the help of his sister, Saras Athai. She shifts her home to Bombay with her husband and two sons, Kunjan and Ambi.
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When Sita is about to join for a major in history, Appa dies and later only Kunjan succeeds in filling that void. Saras Athai watches fearfully the growing affection of his son to Sita, who is clearly oblivious to the fact. When she starts preparing for Sita's marriage, Kunjan intervenes. Taking Sita's permission for granted, he attepts an elopement. On recovering from the initial panic attack she rejects his proposal and goes for her much awaited tour covering historical cities. She meets her life partner Sami in Delhi.
Their routine life is broken when her daughter Sanjna announces her marriage with a Pakistani. Kunjan's son Rajan too was married to an American girl, Janet who was Sanjna's friend. When Janet dies in an accident Kunjan takes that anger on Sanjna whom he considers responsible for bringing Janet into their lives.
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| Janaki Murali |
His hatred for Sita burns his heart and on his order an acid thrower tries to attack Sanjna and her husband. They are saved with minor injuries and hastily return to US. Kunjan is left alone by his mother and brother, and he fails to get the comfort he sought by hurting Sita. Sita and Sami get along with their lives, supporting each other to cope with the new situation.
Something to ponder:
"Appa was an ordinary man who lost his wife because he was too foolish to say he was sorry. Too self-absorbed to find out what was going on in his wife's life. Too conservative to tell his wife that he loved her." - 44
I enjoyed your review and it seems will enjoy the book too. Specially your lines to ponder make it clear that the characters are finely etched .. you have compared it with wuthering heights... another reason to read it :)
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