“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced”. This is what Avantika Debnath tries to convey through her debut novel The Bridal Pyre in which she portrays how life undergoes changes unknowingly with each and every incident that is happening in course of our life. We have no control over them and the only thing we can do is reacting to the situation accordingly.
The 253-page long paperback spins round the life of a young girl Meera born in the metro city Kolkata. It is about a young charming lady, who, like any other city girl, dreams of living a life very peacefully. She was very satisfied with what has life given to her till then. Meera, the story-teller, reveals how life has been beautiful for her and her parents since her childhood days. Everything was going fine for them and nothing could have changed that. However that was not to be. As we all know man proposes but God disposes, Meera, the protagonist faced a new challenge in her life as she decided to get married to a man who has been working in USA after completing his studies there. Meera always wanted to provide a perfect life for her family and all she wanted was a caring loving husband, but the course of her life takes a drastic turn after that dreaded night when she got married to that man whom she had never met in person but used to have prolonged conversation through the social media.
As the narrative progresses linearly we get to know what Meera faces in the new episode of her life. The author then takes the opportunity to bring into limelight the corrupt system that prevails in India under the veil as she sets out on a journey in course of which everyone comes out displaying their own colour when required to perform to their duty. She never asks for any sort of favour to be done to her but all she wants is justice. And that seems something very exotic as she is denied by the society, the futile laws of her motherland, the law keepers and the wasted leaders of the nation not for once, but on repeated occasions.
At this juncture, Toffee, the pet dog, deserves special mention as the author manages to portray the humanly nature in a non-human creature. What Meera expected from a human being was somewhat provided by a four-legged creature. At times Meera herself felt like a non-human creature as she compares herself with the pet, after being locked inside a room. The simple impression that we get here is of pain stretched to a breaking point, pain prolonged beyond all endurance.
It has been an act of real courage as the author reveals how the systems prevailing in India works in a corrupted way. Also the fact that she has chosen to depict the condition of women in India even in the 21st century when women are no way regarded as less than men, both in intelligence and strength, deserves special mention. However while going through the pages the reader might find the novel a bit lacking in pace in the early stages, but she manages to keep the readers engrossed with the presentation of the events. Also the use of poetry in course of the narration enables the author to bind the loose ends which have often been left behind.
Also it’s true that any piece of literary creation catches the imagination of the readers by virtue of its title, which transforms itself into an index of the story’s main concerns. In a paperback fiction, the title often provides us with a glimpse of what the focal point of the story might be. And Avantika Debnath’s The Bridal Pyre has in itself a profound appeal in such a striking title. The reader right from the cover page gets aware of what the story is going to be. The title carries with it suggestions of the existential crisis of women in India where a female individual has no other alternative but to exist as an alienated being in a hospitalized world. In that sense the title provides a commentary on the predicament of women existence on the soil of India.
So brace yourselves to face the brutal reality if you are deciding to grab a copy of The Bridal Pyre by Avantika Debnath. One thing you can be assured of, it will be one of a rollercoaster ride.
Book details:-
| Author: | Avantika Debnath | ||
| Publisher: | Omji Publishing House | Year of Publishing: | 2015 |
| ISBN-13: | 9789384028473 | ISBN-10: | 9384028479 |
| Cover: | Paperback | No. Of Pages: | 256 |
| MRP: | Rs 175 | Buy From: | Flipkart.com Amazon.in  |
You can also buy the book from Infibeam.com
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