The Journey of a Mirror

I noticed that people generally go ballistic about the morals of the present generation, so I made it a point to converse with the older generation. When the senior most citizens started unfolding the past, I realized that many stories that they were telling were quite scandalous. Moreover what surprised me was that the evils had a tacit sanction by the male dominated society of that time in India. This was the reason why the women of those times were totally under the control of the dictats of men. Keeping prostitutes and mistresses seemed to be a status symbol and the men were not censured for it. Women were supposed to keep their faces covered when they went outside, and within the family too, they were supposed to keep their faces covered in the presence of men. These inputs evoked a compulsion in me to weave a story around them. This novel is not autobiographical, but many incidents actually happened in India. The fact is that human character and emotions have always been the same, whatever the period of time. Only the degree of the ratio of good and evil, and the types of crimes have changed over the past and present. Many incidents, that make one think are impossible, have in reality happened. I will mention some instances which seemed improbable, but are factual. There had actually been an incident when a girl had fallen off a palanquin and beef had been rubbed on her lips by some ruffians and her family had refused to take her back, because she was considered defiled. That woman was sold and made a prostitute by the ruffians. According to the elders, this was often done in the past, to force girls into prostitution. In recent times a husband did kick his wife on her belly when she was pregnant. This action is atrocious, repugnant and vile, but it happened, though it makes a person feel that the doer was worse than a beast. Such an action defies all norms of ethics, morality and all the noble qualities often expected in human beings but alas! one human being was depraved enough to do it. Another instance that did happen was the killing of a young man when ruffians wanted to take the wooden gate to burn the bonfire on the eve of the Holi festival. The strong man asking his servant to fire a bullet at him is also true. The signalling with lights to the enemy planes is also something that really happened during a war. This novel is the story of a girl named Aina (which means a mirror) who lives in a small town in North India. She has a huge joint family. Many of her cousins bully her. Her mother Gomti too favours her brother and ignores Aina. Only her grandfather is loving towards her. No one is ready to believe her, so she tells her grandfather that many times she can hear the breathing of someone who is stalking her. She also tells him, that she had been carried by that man to the ‘mating room’ where she had put up a fight and the man had run away. Her grandfather takes it seriously and tries to unravel the mystery. Other things also impact Aina. Her parents don’t get along because her mother does not like the fact that her father is interested in a prostitute named Bijli. Her father calls the prostitute home to sing and dance at a celebration and Aina meets her. She thinks that Bijli is like a fairy. Bijli is very kind towards Aina. Then one day her family is shaken when they discover that Aina’s granduncle’s daughter Sudha is actually a prostitute and a mistress of the Nawab. When Sudha was young and living with her family, she had fallen down, in an accident, from her palanquin. Some ruffians had seen her and rubbed beef on her mouth. Her family then had not accepted her back. The ruffians took her to Benaras where she was sold to the Nawab. Sudha’s mother Rukmini wants Sudha to come back to their family but the elders oppose her. Sudha comes to meet her mother secretly and Aina tells her that she has come to know that her mother Gomti had given birth to an eunuch who is working at the Nawab’s palace. Sudha brings the young eunuch Laila to meet his mother Gomti. What happens then? Does the mother accept her eunuch son? Later they come to know that Sudha has been murdered. Who murdered her? Rukmini wants to go and claim the body of Sudha. Do the elders allow her? After this incident Aina realizes that Sudha was trapped by her circumstances because she was not financially independent and that was because she was not educated. Then Aina wants to study and after a lot of emotional blackmail, she is allowed to study in a Convent school. She loves studies because she also thinks that studies will be her ticket to freedom. Aina is to be married, but proposals are hard to come by, because her parents do not have enough money for her dowry. Finally she is married to a man Daman who is rich, but is haughty and callous. Aina finds out that Daman never wanted to get married, but was forced to marry by his mother. Why was this so? What did they want to hide from society as Daman was planning to stand for elections? Aina comes to know that she is not the daughter of Gomti. Who are her real parents? A Swami predicts catastrophes in her life. Do they come true? Does she find love and happiness? Aina comes to know that Rocoo, who works for Daman is a spy. She realizes the danger because their town is near a Defence airfield which Rocoo is planning to sabotage, since war has started. Does she get caught in the conspiracy? Finally, is her ruthless husband successful in killing her?