Custody-Manju Kapur

Manju Kapur is one of the female Indian writers that I liked. She has the flair to immense the readers in the Indian culture and makes me feel intrigued by such a culture. And sometimes, it is quite beyond me that some traditions stay on, despite influences and exposure to the West. Custody discusses marriage, affairs, divorces, and the implications of divorces on custody of children. I find that divorces that involve children are extremely sticky. It is difficult to find a way to dissolve the marriage without hurting the children.

Raman and Shagun are your typical couple, married with two kids. Everything seems fine. Raman's career was going well and he had a gorgeous wife who looked like a star. Until one day, Ashok, an Indian man with Western ideas, came into the picture as Raman's boss. He took a liking to Shagun and began pursuing her, despite knowing that she was his subordinate's wife. And thus began Shagun and Ashok's affairs, which ended in Shagun pressing Raman for a divorce. Arjun, a beautiful boy, who was already a teenager at the time of the divorce, pledged loyalty to his mother, leaving Raman heartbroken. Raman later met a divorcee, Ishita, who was infertile and was grateful for Roohi, Raman's daughter. She began taking care of Roohi and saw Roohi as the daughter she could never have. The venomous Shagun began fighting for access to both children, even though she was the one who had abandoned them for Ashok for a new life in New York. The story ended with Roohi going to Raman and Arjun going to Shagun. Can't really say whether this is a happy or sad ending. Parents get separated, so do children. It is rather sad in that children do not usually have access or control over what happens. Sometimes they do not have much of a choice and it is distressing for a child to have to make a choice between parents.

Manju Kapur created Shagun to be a beautiful but frivolous, materialistic,and selfish woman, who only seemed to care about her own happiness. She makes it so easy to hate this character. Yet on second thoughts, was she wrong to pursue the love of her life. She married Raman when she was very young, and as with most Indian marriages, it was an arranged one. It wasn't really a "love" union and she realised what she had been missing out, after being with Ashok. But no matter what, it still seems hard to like a character who could abandon her children for a man.