Yesterday, I finished reading Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy. Published in 1993, the 1,535-pager is a story about a college student named Lata, who has to make some life-altering choices. But this mammoth of a piece quickly escalates into an account of a newly independent, post-partition India, descriptively narrating everything cultural, religious, social, and economic from that time. Now, if you have resided in the country, especially in a small town, you will realize how true the book is to reality. Reading it, I would quickly, and frequently, be transported to my childhood days when I used to visit my grandmother during the long-awaited summer break. What struck me the most about this fictional drama was how, ironically, India still feels the same—little has changed over the 75 years since independence. But not all changes can be averted; they are even more imminent to suit the disruptive times—something our stories at The MMS happened to discuss this week. PS: Now that I have read it, I will watch the namesake Netflix adaptation directed by Meera Nair. How does your weekend look?
