Shodh - Taslima Nasreen

 Shodh is beautifully written by Taslima Nasreen. Somehow it evoked in me memories of the 70s culture, of universities with forward thinking young men and women, with hopes and dreams, with progressive ideas, with freedom and liberation, with experimentation and exploration. Jhurmur, the protagonist is a live wire at the University in Dhaka, with a forward outlook to life and perhaps a dream of fulfilling her potential.

She meets Haroon and is wooed by him and eventually marries him - only to find that he suddenly changes into a conservative husband who does not want her to work, to go out, to serve his parents and his family, to not laugh loudly. The old romantic Haroon completely goes missing as he suspects her of carrying someone else's child and gets it aborted, believes she tricked him into marrying her and so on.

Jhurmur puts up with all the humiliation, suppression until she finally decides to break free in the end and get herself a job as a teacher, and her agency. She reclaims her life and when she does that, I, as the reader, felt a huge surge of relief, of exhilaration, of freedom that comes only with clarity.

I'll live my life like this because I am important. No one else is more important than I am to myself.

I cannot write or explain it well nor will I try to - but the story is so well told of how this high spirited girl with so much potential falls for a possessive man who woos her under the guise of being a liberal minded man but unmasks his true self - and how she slowly finds herself losing herself until she decides to reclaim herself. Perfectly paced, beautifully narrated.

Loved it.