Yesterday I finished reading `Difficult Daughters'' by Manju Kapur. It is the first novel written by her. I had started reading it on Feb. 26 and it took me some time to read it. The book tells the story of Virmati, who is the eldest of the 11 children, and tells the story her younger days, and of her marriage with a professor, who is already married, and ends during the time of India's independence. Most of the story is set in the pre-partition days and is well written in some parts, but I found the ending of the book quite abrupt. Anyway, I am glad that I was able to finish it.
An uncanny thing happened when I was reading the book. Near the end of the book, an incident is narrated during which the father of the heroine of the book, Virmati, dies after he is pushed around by the crowd. I do not why I felt sad after reading that particular part. Immediately after I got a call from my niece, telling me that her father, who was under treatment in a hospital, has died suddenly and unexpectedly. I was quite shaken to hear that sad news, and it put me off to reading this book for a few days.
The next in line is `The perplexity of Hariya Hercules', by Manohar Shyam Joshi which is translated from Hindi. It is a silm book (only 155 pages).
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