My latest crush

Anuradha Roy

While I usually pick up books based on recommendations or reviews, this one was a casual pick up at the airport.

And I was hooked right from the first sentence. Actually, no, I think from the very title. But like they say 'don't judge a book by it's cover'. With Anuradha Roy, I feel you can. She seems to give so much thought to title and book cover.

And the nuances and feel of the story to come seem visible right from the very start.

It's the varying nuances and her ability to dive in and out of layers and layers of human emotion that I found so endearing....a writer of great intelligence and subtlety. 

At a larger level, it can be said to be a period drama, as it is set in the background of World War I, and then you see this personal story unfold. It's told through the memories of an older Myshkin as he relives his love and loss of his mother ....... his mother, the beautiful and free spirited gayatri, who was in search of herself.

Through the narrative we see Myshkin trying to understand why his mother made the choices she did......and even as told by Myshkin, if you choose to, you can hear her voice independent of his understanding, spaces he chooses to not see. Exquisite.

She also interweaves her characters with some well known names of the times, like Rabindranath Tagore, Begum Akthar, Walter Spies and Beryl de Zoete (the latter two I didn't know but read up about after). 

I was so taken in by her, that yest I bought all her books, she has four to her credit, and I'm so looking forward to an Anuradha Roy immersion. Did say crush didn't I :)