Author: Rohini Paranjpe Sathe
This narrative is a rollercoaster ride of emotions and interpersonal relationships, of courage in the face of adversities and betrayals of the worst kinds.
The protagonist Jyoti is an educated young woman brought up in Delhi with archaic rules framing her boundaries in a hard-core Hindu household. Her younger brother Sooraj, the black sheep of the family often gets away with whatever he does.
Things go in for a toss when she begins a clandestine affair with a Muslim man, Sameer, and from then on begins a journey along a path laden with thorns, and innumerable curveballs are thrown her way.
This includes being forced into a marriage to ‘cleanse’ the family name and upright the family honor. Sameer always lurks in the dark and eventually Jyoti has to run away from it all. She spends the next 15 years in oblivion in Mumbai raising her son Abir along with her masi. The rotten past however soon catches up and this time it springs out of control.
Does Jyoti keep up her resilience or does she succumb to evil?
The Author has an amazing command over language and that is evident with the choice of words and figures of speech sprinkled throughout the narrative. The narrative is lucid and that makes the book unputdownable.
A must-read!