mybookjournal

Yet again I've started my year with an Indian Author and one of my most favorites too, and it was a great start no doubt! As usual, i am smitten by Shashi Deshpande’s writing. Even if I finish all her books I don’t mind re-reading all of them again and again. For me, her novels are not just books with stories, few characters, a beginning and an ending but it goes beyond that. Her characters, especially for me, are very real it feels as if I've met each one of them at some point of my life or at least will be meeting them in the near future or maybe I am one of them!
‘The Matter Of Time’ is an insightful book which deals with ‘life’ or more appropriately ‘the changes in life’ and how people cope up with it. Gopal, head of the family don’t think twice when he walks out on his wife Sumi and 3 teenage daughters Aru, Charu and Seema. Why? he himself is not sure or maybe he doesn’t know how to pinpoint exactly what went wrong. Now Sumi with no mistake of hers’ has to accept this change which she least expected at that stage of her life and she does it very gracefully even though she doesn’t want to go back to her parent's house she goes for the sake of her daughters. Not only she gets advice from her near ones but even her daughters pester her with their questions on her silence but nothing influences her from taking few decisions for herself and she does everything keeping her composure intact and I admire her for that. She feels sorry for Aru her eldest daughter who is now insecure of everything in her life but still Sumi wants her to love life not to think of it as a burden. At times I felt helpless for each and every character in this book even for Gopal. Maybe sometimes it's difficult to find reason or rather life is more than just reasons and situations it's more about living for the moment, that is all, at least thats what I felt in the end. I think somewhere this book has made me emotionally stronger and I am looking forward to read the sequel, very curious about how Aru’s life has turned out.