Her earlier book Incantations and Other Stories was marked by understatement and a laconic humour. The sustained and emotional intensity of this 500-page novel and the profusiion of dramatic moments sweep the reader off his feet by their very abundance. The number of narrators who unfold the story are as many as six. So were stories born.
Guilt stains our thoughts like sweat under the arms.
Although essentially it is a love story, men, even tile best of them, are out of this magic circle because their way of listening, rather not listening are singularly different. While trying to come to grips with the protagonist Padma's story each narrator also reveals a complex world of her own, permeated with desires, adjustments and a quiet despair. In one climatic moment Padma realizes how she sounds like the heroine of a movie and nearly bursts into hysterical laughter. We do not get to the story of Padma and Karan until we are half-way through the novel. Till then the narrative circles around it, suggesting and foreshadowing.