Dr. Janaki emerges as a modern, no nonsense, professionally educated woman who decides not to tolerate a control freak husband after a certain point. Her pursuit of independence and emotional fulfillment slowly gathers momentum and takes precedence above everything else, including the happiness of her only son. She does not feel any remorse in waking up in the bed of another man because she thinks he understands her persona and her need for freedom even when she knows that he is probably a flirt. She doesn�t feel the need to empathise with her sick husband because the wounds that he had inflicted on her are deep and fresh. Yet she is willing to don the role of a mother in a family reunion, probably for the sake of her son. As a wife she despises the control her husband tried to exert on her. Yet her problem with her son is partly due to his refusal to accept the motherly wish to have a control on his thought proces! ses. Ironically a woman who is seeking her independence refuses to believe that her son could have an independent view of his own. The reader is left to ponder whether Jankai would have mourned Sanjay�s death, with the same pain if he hadn�t changed his mind, albeit with no reason, before his trip to New York.
In my opinion, approaching this story from a moral high ground and thereby opposing the choices made by the leading character, Dr. Janaki is as much flawed as approaching it from an extreme feminist point of view and thereby supporting the character�s choices and decisions. Both are biased approaches. Besides, the moralistic approach suffers from the fact that morality itself is subjective and has different meanings to different people.
The author has attempted to hold a mirror which reflects clear images of the mind of a middle aged Indian-American woman and her broken family in the back drop of 9/11 and has eminently succeeded in this attempt.
A very good story.
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-MKD, Bangalore,
