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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A charming story of India's past..., August 23, 2001
By A Customer
One of the best narratives, I have read, of an Indian woman's struggle for independence.Based in the 1930s, it is the story of Laila, an orphaned daughter of a distinguished Muslim family & her struggle for her independence. The first part of her childhood is spent living with her deeply conservative paternal aunts who keep purdah & traditional grandfather. But with the death of her grandfather, her guardianship is transferred to her paternal uncle who is "liberal" but autocratic. Laila's struggles to come to terms with the two world she has been bought up, is set against the background of India's political struggle for independence. India was a nation at the brink of independence, but in the conflict between its traditional past and independent future, the present seemed hazy. India's struggles echoed Laila's confusion. She lived in her uncle's house, where westernized views were preached, but not followed, leaving her resentful. Yet she was outwardly acquiescent, despite feeling that her obedience was crushing her personality and destroying her individuality. Finally she escaped the chains of tradition, by marrying Ameer, a man her family disapproved. But her struggles were still not over. The book is remarkable in the way Attai Hosain presents the traditional world and the political scenario of the 1930s. The traditions, the clothes, the food, and the stories of the various servants, cousins and friends, evoke the traditional world with a sense of nostalgia. Laila's conflicts are so universal, yet there is a feeling of curiosity at the struggles faced by the women of the 1930's. When I read the book, I was absolutely taken in with the India of the 1930s in her transitional phase with Laila caught in the middle of it. It is definitely worth a reading.
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