Maa

This is a story of human emotions�love, greed, jealousy, forbearance, desire and forgiveness�as they play out in the inner sanctum of the home.<br><br> <i>Maa</i> revolves around four characters in a turn-of-the-nineteenth-century setting in the aftermath of the social churning caused by the Bengal Renaissance. Aurobindo Basu is the well-educated scion of a rich, influential Kayastha family. He has two wives: Manorama, the charming daughter of poverty-stricken parents whom he married against his father�s will and who was soon disowned by his patriarchal father; and Brajarani, a beautiful, wealthy, strong-willed lady who Aurobindo was forced to marry due to the threat of disinheritance. <br><br> While the old patriarch also disowned Manorama�s son Ajit, Brajarani was unable to produce an heir. Manorama lived in dire straits but found fulfilment in caring for Ajit; in contrast, Brajarani had everything that a woman could materially desire but was bereft of her husband�s love and was immensely resentful of her abandoned co-wife. What such a situation can do to a young, innocent mind is reflected in Ajit�s coming of age. <br><br> <i>Maa</i> is a period piece on the private world of Bengali women as viewed through the unique lens of an extraordinarily gifted writer who belonged to and knew that society intimately.

Categories: Literature & Fiction