A BOOK REVIEW

This novel is not so much about virginity or adultery but about relationships. And relationships not only within the socially accepted institutions like marriage, family, parental obligations but also relationships that gush out like a spring from the core of ones being- a virgin core that no adultery can pollute.

There are different forces that at times pull, at times converge and at times with the passage of time become weak and relegated to the past. How well or how badly Daya - the protagonist of this novel copes up with these forces is what this novel is all about.

Daya is in love with a mature, sensible, sensitive Sardar. Parents are naturally aghast and up in arms.

Cut to another corner of Hyderabad where there is this Hitler who responds to the name Mrs. Moorthy. She is busy doing everything that Machiavelli would have been proud of to prevent his son Rizvan marrying his lady love. Her sons’ attempted suicide too does not deter her in going ahead with her devious ways of killing this love. That Mrs. Moorthy happens to be the boss of Daya’s parents comes in handy. She bulldozes her subordinates to accept her sons’ marriage proposal.

Thus comes into being yet another Indian marriage that now falls conveniently within the norms of a conservative Hyderabadi middle-class values.

Daya and Rizwan in their own way, like most Indian middle class people of our times, try to forget their past. But the baggage of the past, despite their best efforts, always hangs like specter over them. Far from being sensitive or even understanding, Rizwan by now is bitter and short tempered person. Somehow they both put on the pretence of marriage and even have a son- Siddharth.

The theater then shifts from Hyderabad to Malaysia. Here the family tries to push back the ghosts from the past and brush out the cow-webs of the present in an attempt to recreate a paradise for the future.

It’s a brief period. A period where, to quote the author- “Sands looked whiter, the sea much bluer and the palms shade greener. They held hands and took endless walks on endless beaches. They marveled at the wonder of the bulging stretches of the blue briny waters that broke at their feet with a gentle fury.”

That’s when the storm breaks over. Daya’s ‘virginity’ like Milton’s ‘paradise” is lost. There now is a cockeyed bastard child with Malayan features in the family.

The ‘family’ returns to Hyderabad. The façade of a marriage rapidly starts crumbling. The final climax now unfolds. Daya is in the midst of a lake with her two children trying to save them and herself from drowning…..

Will they all be saved?

Will all three sink?

Will Daya be able to rescue at least one of her children?

If so who will she save? The legitimate or the ‘illegitimate’ child?

The gripping part of the novel with its ups and downs, twists and turns unfolds in the last fifty pages and that too at a thrilling speed. If you want answers to these questions and what happens next don’t read this review further but go out and buy a copy of this gripping novel.

I found the speed of the novel to be slow at the start. I would have also preferred to have the novel pruned down by at least forty five pages. 240 pages should have been the limit. This would definitely have forced the writer to go for a racy narration and led to a tighter grip on the readers.

I also wish that the author had made Rizwan’s character more rounded. There are many tender aspects to this man’s personality as seen in his attempt at a second honeymoon, or even reaching out to the ‘bastard’ child. But somehow one got the feeling that Daya was the one who was trying to bind the family and Rizwan was the one who cared a damn. A bit more empathy for Rizwan in the early stages of the marriage might have made the plot look slightly more real and maybe even more emotional.

All in all, The Virgin Adulteress is a very good novel with deep insights into the human psyche. The next time this author writes I would not hesitate to go to the nearest book stall to buy the copy.

PS: The writer of this review is NOT Nargis but Arun & the writer of the novel is NOT Arun but Nargis.