A glimpse of unrequited, self-sacrificing love is offered by author Natasha Nozer Mehenty (pictured) in the 175 pages of Resurrected: Don’t curse yourself for the fault of your fate. A complex story with simple characters, its main themes are altruism
and destiny. The main male character Zaib King submerges his love at the altar of Afrin Metilda’s grief. The pregnant Afrin is mourning the death of her husband Sam Smith who lost his life trying to rescue a child from a burning building.
Zaib surreptitiously undergoes plastic surgery to masquerade as Sam to alleviate Afrin’s grief. Zaib then shifts to Madras so that he can remain chaste and overcome his infatuation. Afrin posthumously gives birth to a daughter Rose whom Zaib loves and nurtures as he had given this promise to the dying Sam. Alina, an old Swiss friend who turns up suddenly (no reference to her before), attempts to kill Afrin from jealousy. Jailed for this attempt, Zaib insists that Afrin give Alina a clean chit to free her from police custody. Afrin dutifully does this. So much goodness! The love triangle or quadrilateral untangles when the reader realizes Zaib loves Afrin. Afrin loved Sam. Sam loved Alina.
The complexity of the storyline however does not compensate for the pedestrian narration. Mehenty attempts to build the story with a fertile imagination at the cost of building characters. The narrative is based in Bombay and Madras in a cyclical milieu of rags to riches. Against the modern day striving for money, there is old world chivalry of courteous men maintaining physical propriety with ladies at all times despite intense feelings to the contrary. This is the youthful touch of 23-year-old Mehenty. Resident of Deolali, Mehenty is currently pursuing a company secretary course. Writing stories and poetry was always part of her childhood in Bombay. The parlance of the young creeps into the language as well, with Americanisms where friends call each other "buddy” and say "my bad,” or Indianisms like "he told to himself” and "caught Sam from collar.”
The strain of tragedy and pathos surfaces periodically, not to build on the story or characters but to elicit sympathy and spew morality like respect for parents and abolition of child labor. The part played by destiny is not in the sense of some Greek tragedy. It is actually articulated with phrases such as "It was written in our destiny,” "destiny can change any time.” Some chapters have homilies for headings: "Temporary lies do not give long term benefits” or "Don’t be too quick to judge.”
The 175-page book, priced at Rs 399, is published by Partridge Publishing, 7th floor, Infinity Tower C, DLF Cyber City, Gurgaon 122002; email:
media.india@partridgepublishing.com.
MEHROO KOTVAL