Ancient Promises: By Jaishree Misra

 

The first book I finished this year is Ancient Promises by Jaishree Misra.

Ancient Promises is the story of Janaki (Janu) and her journey from a teenager girl to a traditional wife, daughter-in-law and then mother of a daughter Riya with learning disability.

In her teenage Janu fell in love with Arjun. Her parents opposed this relationship, and in the meantime Arjun left for England. She lost her love over an arranged marriage to a serious Suresh who belonged to a wealthy and traditional family of Kerela. 

Her married life is not very good but it's not very bad either (Her in-laws allow her to continue her studies, make her partner in the family business, allow her to do a job). Her husband is ignorant due to his business and mother-in-law is sharp-tongued. She tries to adjust for ten years (Thinking about Arjun). Tormented, after birth of her mentally challenged daughter Riya, she decides to leave for America for her daughter’s treatment, to pursue her studies, and to escape her marriage.

She coincidentally collides with Arjun in Delhi. Carried away by their old deep emotions, she betrays her husband, and finally decides to go to England (Not America) to be with Arjun, without Riya (As Janu’s husband was not ready for divorce and took Riya with him)!

After spending three and half months with Arjun, she realizes that her daughter is her first priority and she can’t live without her. She came back to India.

So, what's the destination of her relationships (with Arjun or her husband)? What about her daughter? Read this book to know the answers.

Well, I read some really good reviews and learned that this book is high on literary scale. It is, no doubt but I personally didn’t like this book very much. Maybe my expectations were very high. Characters are vague. I found Janu very selfish. Arjun’s character is too good but it has minimal existence. I couldn’t figure out which kind of character Janu’s husband actually was.

Though the narration is crisp, the book is too descriptive (Sometimes unnecessary description makes it boring). There are very few dialogues. I liked a dialogue that Arjun said to Janu “I’ll vanish in your future and wait for you there, however long it takes.”

Long sentences confused me sometimes. This was a nice book, but for me, it was not entertaining. I read it lazily. I was in no hurry to know “What will happen next?” It ended on a positive note yet I found it somewhat incomplete. I won’t consider “Ancient Promises” a must read.