People only want to be alone together. They need time to meet and talk. They want to find themselves through a moment of love.” Thus is born the guest house called the “Four Seasons”, Delhi’s love nest for everyone, nestled among the Lutyens bungalows.
In this book, Mamang Dai, Arunachali writer and socio-environmental activist, tries to grasp and interpret love, principally the love that finds itself blossoming beyond the walls of monogamy. As is the norm with writing from the north-east, Dai looks to her own people for characters, stories and experiences, and highlights pressing local socio-economic issues.
Dai’s main protagonist Adna moves to Delhi, after having studied in the north-east, and falls in love with a married man. She believes that “a meeting of like-minded souls” is not adulterous behaviour. While many might debate that point of view, young Adna has followed her heart. Not long after, she finds that an aunt has named her as the sole heir to an expansive property in one of Delhi’s prime localities.
While Adna wonders what to do with her property, she learns how her “beautiful” aunt’s story is similar to her own, and also why the aunt left her the property.
Adna’s own difficulty in finding the time and space to be alone with her lover compels her to create Delhi’s premier no-questions-asked love nest. “Four Seasons” is soon abuzz with guests and one permanent resident — Cupid. Adna’s eyes are the perfect window through which to watch life at the guest house, as she observes but keeps a distance from the happenings. But that doesn’t last for long...
Being a poet has perhaps helped Dai explore the emotions of love, especially extra-marital love, so lucidly. She lets her characters come to terms with their inner conflicts at their own pace and seamlessly weaves together the threads of different lives going through turmoil at the same time. The subtlety with which the problems of people in the north-east have been given a place in the story must be appreciated: the trauma of leaving your tightly knit family to live far away in another part of the country, the daily harassment of north-easterners in the national capital (and other parts of the country), political movements, rampant substance abuse and environmental and social activism.
The book is a breezy read and shouldn’t take longer than a winter afternoon. It is definitely worth cosying up with.
More From This Section
STUPID CUPID
Author: Mamang Dai
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 157
Price: Rs 199