The Destination of the Mirror

The novel ‘The Destination of the Mirror’ began from a single thought I had one day. After writing ‘The Journey of a Mirror’, the thought came to my mind about what would have happened to Aina as she grew older if she had been a real person instead of a fictional character. The thought led to imagination and then conjecture and I found myself writing a sequel, though ‘The Destination of the Mirror’ can be read independently also. The story of ‘The Destination of the Mirror’ starts in the year 1964. By that time, society had become comparatively liberal, though the majority of the people were conventional and orthodox still. Love marriages happened and widows did remarry, though society did not accept them fully. Heera and Aina had started loving each other and swayed by desperate emotions, had even conceived their daughter Khushi, even when Aina was married to Daman Rai, and yet they developed into characters with integrity who would keep honesty as a companion. Greed is a vice that has always plagued human beings. When greed shows the way to easy dishonesty, it becomes very difficult for honest people to survive without succumbing to temptation. If they remain honest, many a time, they find it difficult to eek out an existence. But, people should not feel that they will suffer if they are honest. So there is a need to have hope and faith in honesty always, so that more and more people have the inner strength to be honest, inspite of and despite of all the temptations or problems they might have to face. So in the novel there is support for honesty and diligence. This novel is not autobiographical, but many incidents actually happened. 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 are factual. The instances of dishonesty given in this novel have actually happened. It did happen that a lawyer was brilliant enough to win a case for his client. But when he found out that the client had been the real murderer, he just put a lock on the door of his office and never went back again. The electricity people did actually come to take a bribe. It is a matter of pride that there are people in our country who are very honest and nothing can shake them from their honesty. There have been instances when people have stuck to their principles and suffered penury instead of aligning themselves with corruption. There are other real occurrences like the instances with the dacoits. The shooting at the border with the sniper actually happened during the war of 1971. On a lighter note, the girls in jeans did shock the people present on the main road of Kanpur. It was still a male dominated society but gradually women were being educated and the old social evils were lessening. Some men were enlightened enough to give equality and independence to the womenfolk in their families. Though many men still baulked at the idea of the women of their house doing jobs, some women were doing jobs, specially like teaching. So the status of the women was gradually becoming better. In cities child marriages had been reduced, but marriage was still the be-all and end-all for girls. The attitude of the society towards prostitutes and eunuchs was still prejudiced. This novel ‘The Destination of the Mirror’ is the story of the twenty six years old Aina (which means a mirror) who lives in a small town in North India. She is a divorcee and is now married to Heera who loves her. They call Aina’s biological mother Bijli and her half-brother Laila to live with them. Bijli had been a dancing girl and Laila is an eunuch. So both of them are wary of the taunts by society. Will society accept them now? ‘The Destination of the Mirror’ takes the story of Aina forward from when she is twenty six years old and has already divorced Daman Rai. Aina is now married to Heera and she has her daughter Khushi. The shadow of the past looms large over her when the spy Rocoo comes to take revenge from her with his man Maakhan. She courageously thwarts them and then, to protect their daughter, they shift to another city. They make their home a happy place with her mother and brother. Aina is blessed with another child, their son Prasan. With the support of her mother, Aina pursues her quest for higher education. She loves studies because she also thinks that studies will be her ticket to their financial independence and future achievements. Life moves on and she and her husband Heera try to eek out an existence with honesty, but they find corruption and dacoits dogging their footsteps. Will both of them manage their life with honesty or will they succumb to corruption? Rocoo finishes his prison sentence, and with Maakhan, again comes to harm the family. They want to kidnap Khushi. They stalk the family, waiting for a chance to attack. Will they succeed this time? Daman Rai, who is now a Minister wants Khushi to acknowledge that she is his daughter so that he can prove that he is not gay. Will Daman Rai succeed in his plan? Khushi is furious that Aina had not told her about the fact that Khushi was born when Aina was married to Daman Rai, making her an illegitimate child. Will Khushi ever forgive Aina for this? Will the fifteen year old Khushi rather prefer to go to Daman Rai? Heera is seen killing a man point blank in his office. Will Heera be proved guilty of murder? Will Aina as his lawyer be able to free him?