Review: The Story of a Long Distance Marriage by Siddhesh Inamdar
A contemporary romance about people who could be your friends
books Updated: Aug 09, 2019 19:01 IST
We often come across individuals in a marriage, who have vastly different priorities. The significant difference in modern times is that more people express their desires freely. This is particularly true of the urban Indian woman for whom the concealment of aspirations is no longer an option. In Siddhesh Inamdar’s novel The Story of a Long-Distance Marriage, the wife is leaving for higher studies in New York. She tells the husband, “I want to live my life and my hopes and my dreams even if it means living away from you for a year or two.” Of course, the couple will “always have each other to come back to.” Reality isn’t that simple.
The protagonists are of the sort that the reader has probably met. Rohan Shastri, the husband, is Kannadiga Hindu and his wife, Ira Sebastian, is Goan Catholic. The couple live in a rented apartment in Shahpur Jat, a South Delhi locality. Shobha, the domestic help, is Bengali. Momo, a dog that had been brought home from the streets, is the baby of the family.
The couple had known each other for a long time before getting married. When Ira gets an opportunity to study in New York 15 months after the marriage, Rohan supports her decision to leave without being expressive about his sadness. He believes they are in a perfect relationship, and also that he has been sacrificing and accommodating all along.
American actor-director Henry Winkler once said, “Assumptions are the termites of relationships.” Ira leaves for New York without disclosing the real reason. It would sting Rohan during the course of a telephonic conversation one day.
No relationship is bereft of ups and downs. The couple has heated arguments, followed by long periods of no communication. Hurt and angry, Rohan contemplates divorce, “It’s not just the constant fights. We’ve had those before too. It’s more to do with what they say in divorce cases: irreconcilable differences:” Such tense moments suggest that the long-distance marriage might come to an end, which the author describes with a remarkable sureness of touch in his slice-of-life story.
The novel about two dissimilar people who had fallen in love as youngsters captures the turbulence in their relationship after Ira’s departure. Not everything is perfect. Can the marriage survive?
Ira, the more mature one, plays a bigger role in making that happen. She first accompanies Rohan to his colleague Tanuj’s wedding in Behala, a Kolkata suburb, when she is back on a break. When the couple goes to Sikkim on a holiday thereafter, she comes across as calm, patient and better equipped to understand why the two of them are meant to grow old together.
A contemporary romance, The Story of a Long-Distance Marriage is immensely readable also because of a few other characters: Yusuf, who is friends with both, and lives with his girlfriend Mira in Bangalore; Tanuj, Rohan’s charming colleague, surprises the latter by opting for an arranged marriage; Alisha, Rohan’s colleague with a broken heart, would quit her job and leave for Jaipur, her hometown, to be close to people she truly loves. Each one of them is a well-rounded character that contributes to Ira and Rohan’s story with their individualistic views on relationships and life.
Written in lucid prose, Inamdar’s debut is a quick read that will be appreciated by those who enjoy love stories.
Biswadeep Ghosh is an independent journalist. He lives in Patna.
First Published: Aug 09, 2019 19:01 IST