A Tale Of Love And Sacrifice
Meera Rajagopalan
THE POISON OF LOVE by K.R. Meera Penguin Random House, India, 2017, 101 pp., 299
December 2017, volume 41, No 12

Anybody reading the blurb of the book will be forgiven for feeling a sense of déjà vu—another novel about the atrocities and indignities meted out to the widows of Vrindavan! Yes, the book does contain some harrowing accounts, but read it and you’ll realize what a tale with a twist it is. It is a very short novel, only about a hundred pages long, but it racks the reader with its very unusual point of view. The book is about Tulsi and Madhav, two attractive, modern people. Tulsi, the first of three daughters, belongs to a well heeled, forward looking professional family. Her father is an Inspector General of Police and her mother a home maker. Tulsi herself is a brilliant gold medallist from IIT, for whom her professors have high hopes. Her two younger sisters are also good students; in fact everything is all right in their family except for the mother’s uterine cancer and deteriorating health.

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