Family Fables and Hidden Heresies

The death of Vrinda Nabar’s maternal grandfather in World War I has a complex and abiding effect on his spirited widow and two young children. Over forty years later in 1961, some of the trauma following his death resurfaces during her mother’s unexpected breakdown as uncomfortable question marks hover over issues like marriage, motherhood, and a woman’s right to a life of her own. Are such issues dated, or do they still impact women’s lives? Vrinda Nabar travels back in time to deconstruct the lives of her mother and grandmothers, and using experience to question notions of the self and identity, the nature of relationships, the undercurrents and the inner conflicts that these women battled with and resolved, not always satisfactorily. Drawing on history, myth and gender, she unravels the many fault lines women have to negotiate, often at great cost, in their search for a middle ground between individuality and conformity