After the incredible success of the book ‘Ladies Coupe’, any regular fiction reader (especially if she is a woman) won’t have second thoughts before picking up Anita Nair’s work. While Ladies coupe dealt with the sensitive issue of inequality suffered by women in this era of vocal feminism; Lessons in Forgetting, Anita Nair’s fourth book, offered something much deeper and complex than it. The theme of this novel, if asked to be described in a cliché caption; would be ‘moving on in life’. Keeping her contemporary style intact, Anita Nair manages to spin out two poles apart stories quite wonderfully in the book.
Along with the captivating title, the cover of the book evokes more curiosity in the minds of a reader. In the lighter shade of black, the paperback shows naked body of a girl lying on a bed; wrapped in a white sheet and curled up in a fetal posture. Bright light is streaming through the white curtains hanged at the side wall. The dark body and the dark walls in comparison with the white sheet and the white blinds, manages to convey in a quick glance that this story might speak of ineffectualness, culpability or weakness. Though these random guesses are proven quite right at a certain point in the narrative, but along with such feebleness, Anita Nair also tries to convey how important it is to keep bestowing opportunities to life in order to live happily.
Lessons in Forgetting narrate a tale of two individuals, who manages to work through all the odds. Though at several stages it seems they might end their lives rather than living it in bits n parts, but thanks to their never ending willingness, both tries hard to ‘live’ their life rather than just ‘surviving’ like many others in the society. The story is about a perfect corporate wife staying in a hotbed of corporate cushiness with her family at an Indian metro city. She is just not a great home maker, but has got an exceptional professional career as a cook book writer too. Meera, the female protagonist is one of those out of the ordinary Indian woman, who play all roles of her life quite terrifically. Being the mother of two argumentative teenage kids, being the daughter of always complaining grandmother-mother duo, being a role model for many wanna be cooks and being the wife of a secretive husband; the protagonist manages to win hearts within few pages.
The plot of the novel get a hold when Meera’s fairytale life gets upside down after mysterious disappearance of her husband from a party which they both were attending. From hours to months when no news about her husband turn up, Meera gives up hopes of his return. She lives in “the Lilac House”, a colonial bungalow that’s been in her family for half a century and which kept creating a bone of contention between her and her husband. When the regular fights between them turns into a separation, Meera’s new phase comes alive; a role she had never played, but as usual manages to succeed in it too. Bringing a novel plot in this open end suspense story, Anita Nair introduces Jak, an intense and resilient NRI professor whose teenage daughter Smriti slumps in comma after visiting sea side Indian town with her boyfriend. Jak, a cyclone study expert by profession suffers a terrible blow when he returns from USA and looked at the wretched the body of his elder daughter who came to India to pursue further studies. Jak sole purpose of life becomes to find out the events that lead her nineteen year old daughter turned into a brain- dead vegetable. Author draws metaphoric parallels with cyclonic turmoil with the tragedies faced by Jak.
Two out of the line narratives of different individuals suffering unimaginable troubles comes in contact and Anita Nair beautifully weaves these distinctive tales together. She uses back and forth technique to relate protagonist’s life and struggle. Giri, Meera’s husband approaches the family after a long gap and reveals how unsatisfied and suffocated he felt with Meera, though she proved to be an excellent mother and an outstanding wife, but love disappeared from their relationship, which Meera never noticed. The woman who has never made special efforts to look extra beautiful after her marriage, first time started noticing the change in her appearance after Giri left her. She had a job, a caring family, yet love left her in form of Giri. Anita makes contrived comparisons of Meera with Heera, greek goddess of love and marriage. How a perfect looking marriage for one could turn out to be incomplete because of betrayal from the other partner.
Focusing on the Jak’s story, author elaborates the plot by narrating roughed upbringing he had. Prof Jak faced a tough childhood as his parents failed marriage never let him understand the meaning of happy family. His father left him and his mother to embrace spirituality but as a hopeful wife all her life she waited for him to come back to them. Her regular visits to highly acclaim spiritual places, fasting, sacrificing and praying consistently for his return made Jak hate the idea of marriage. But later he fell in love with an Indian girl and settled down in USA where he earned a good reputation but his heart remained in India forever. Anita Nair’s biggest strength as a writer lies in the fact that she can vividly bring alive our everyday thoughts, actions and desires.
The characters in the novel are carved out beautifully by Nair. Women have played a dominate role in the story, may it be Meera, the protagonist, her actress grandmother-mother duo, young yet courageous Smriti, Jak’s dedicated mother or Kala Chithi, Jak’s care taker since childhood. All the women had their own tragic story to tell, yet all were enchanting. Each character’s tale gets shaped slowly leaving a long lasting effect on the readers mind. Though the story is set in urban India, Anita has managed to explore the side of rural India too with the help of Jak’s mother or Kala chithi’s narratives. Anita makes relevant connections between the theme and the characters of the book.
A twist of the fate brings Meera and Jak work together at Jak’s house in Bangalore. New beginning crop up in the face of adversities in their lives when they discovered each other’s saga and understand the fact that sometimes one has to give second chance to life and forgive people who have hurt you. The story includes female feticide, betrayal by partners and friends, love & dependence on family members, corporate-page three parties and accepting certain unimaginable things which are often considered forbidden in the society. Anita Nair’s narrative style is quite exemplary.
As the story unfolds, Nair put the fact to a test that two negative people can try and make a positive, happy life. Meera and Jak’s broken lives manage to bring love, companionship and trust between them. They decided to move on in life by accepting the hard truths and making fresh beginnings together. When a companion joins hand and walk along the paths which are often impossible for one to have a look at, makes life easy to live with the partner. Meera swallows the fact that the relationship which she started with huge celebration might have ended in a rotten way, but it was good for both the spouses. Her husband lost interest in her and even she did, but failed to recognize it. Jak gradually manages to discover the truth behind his daughter’s accident. With regular interventions with Smriti’s friends, Jak reaches to the root cause of her daughter’s worse condition. The fact his daughter fought courageously for truth and aided help to suppressed girls made him prouder than he was ever of Smriti. Within many conversations the characters have in the novel, the real truths about lives are unfolded by the author.
Anita Nair offered a magnum opus to her readers through the brilliantly carved story of ‘Lessons in Forgetting’. Language is simple, and Anita chooses to keep a moderate pace. Through tremendously dense plot and varied characterization, author elaborates the problems of domestic life and discusses the different phases in life of a woman. From parenthood, friendship, marriage, Anita conveys the message of forgiveness required in each relationship. Anita seems to have put a lot of thinking into her writing. Through this tale, she conveys lessons of life especially during the darker phase where one’s mind gets bruised with negativity. The book has achieved an incredible success because it conveys how willpower to overcome adverse circumstances can bring freshness in one’s lives.
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