The Sister Of My Heart, by Chitra Banerjee Divakurni

This book is about two sisters and their love for each other, which anchors them as they face the trials and tribulations of life. The girls could be anyone from around you; two ordinary girls. One is a brat, the other a beauty. This novel charts their tale from their birth to five years after their marriage.

I started the novel in the lab yesterday, and did little else till I finished it today. It is an engrossing tale, and very well told.

I have often been fascinated by the concept of “ordinariness”. What, or rather, who is ordinary? There are some people, about whom everyone says, “Oh! He’s going to be a great man.” The reason being that such people exude charm, confidence and energy; so people think they are going to achieve great heights. But do they? Or do they get trapped in the ‘ordinariness’ of life?

Anju is one such girl. She is totally willful and independent, and an avid book reader. Since her childhood, she has challenged the stereotype of the “docile, traditional girl.” She wants to learn new things, and explore the world. She wants to be the one in control of her life. She is enthusiastic about joining college, and wants to help her widowed mother run their bookstore. She wants that she, and not her husband-whoever he will be- should inherit the bookstore from her mother. She is wary of being trapped into wifehood.

Yet she plunges into it with gusto, when the boy chosen by her mother seems like “her type of a man,” a man who reads Virginia Woolf. Her image of marital bliss is of both of them reading Woolf’s novels together on a couch. And she is exhilarated that it will come true! Her husband seems quite a feminist, and ‘open-minded.’ He lets her join college, and their equation is one of equality. So, she has a perfect life, one would say. Only, that it's not. To the person who is actually living that life, it never is.

Sudha is the other half of this pair of sisters. She is very beautiful, and quite the sweet, caring, traditional girl who has learnt to live for others. Since her childhood, she has known that her main purpose in life is to get married, and raise a family. That family is her dream. The desire of being a fashion designer has been quietly buried by her as being improbable.

She is married to a man she doesn’t love, and plays out the role of the ‘perfect bahu’ for many years. She has always been passive about life- letting things happen to her, letting others decide the course of her life, till she gets pregnant, with a girl. Her in-laws tell her to abort the child, because the first child of the family must be a male.

This time, she says “No.” She walks out on her husband and her in-laws. She has never survived on her own, nor did she think she could. But now, when the choice had to be made- between conformity, and following her instinct, she knows she made the right decision. That she will somehow survive through it, and with dignity.

So, this is the story of two sisters. One, who seems quite bold, and yet makes many compromises, without even realizing. The other, who is quite the conformist, who confidently takes an unconventional decision.

It is not a feminist story, not in the usual sense. The women in the story are not ‘oppressed’ victims of circumstances, or of their gender. Neither are the males insensitive egotists. Each character has their dignity. There are no heroes or villains, just humans. Just like us, each with their own shades, each being what they are, because of the circumstances of their life.

Yesterday, as I lay scrunched up on the sofa, immersed in the book, my cousin asked me why people read novels at all. I just said, “Because they tell stories, and sometimes you can relate to those stories,” and went back to the book. But, I think the reason why novels are read is that they tell you why people are the way they are. In this novel, I found many people who would mirror people I know. But in real life, I just ‘react’ to these people. I do not know why they have a particular perspective; I just agree or disagree with it. But in a novel, since you move along a character, you can see how that perspective has developed. This is how novels aid your understanding and make you more tolerant to others. Everyone has a reason for what they do or don't.

No person is ordinary, because, a novel can be written out of each person’s life. This is why I was so enchanted by this novel- it intimately showed to me the life of Anju and Sudha, and in their ordinary stories, I found many echoes from my own life. I am glad I read this book.