People cope with the loss of loved ones in different ways. The follow-on healing is usually a lengthy process and, in some cases, is never completed. When a prolific and well-known fiction writer loses a loved one, how does the writer cope? Does the process of writing fiction play any role in the coping or the subsequent healing?
Well-known writer Andaleeb Wajid was hit with multiple tragedies during the cruel summer of 2021, when India faced its second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Andaleeb, her husband and mother-in-law were hospitalised by Covid-19 and only Andaleeb made it back home.
Andaleeb is well known for her simple and elegant prose and she does not deviate from her tried and tested writing style, despite the extreme bereavement. Staying true to her style, Andaleeb tells her readers how her husband and mother-in-law died, the circumstances surrounding their death and how she found it very difficult to accept that her husband was no more. Having covered the fundamental bases, Andaleeb starts to tell us more, how she met her husband, how and why they got married, the sort of life she led as a married woman, the family she became a part of and how she has been reconciling herself to her changed circumstances.
Did Andaleeb have a love marriage or an arranged marriage? Did her lifestyle change drastically after she got married to Mansoor? How many kids did Andaleeb and Mansoor have, if she had any? Was Mansoor also into writing fiction or in of the other arts? Was Andaleeb happy after her marriage? It would be unfair if I gave away any of the answers in this review. Andaleeb is one of the best among the current crop of Indian writers and I do encourage each of you to buy “Learning to Make Tea for One – Reflections on Love, Loss and Healing” and find out answers to the questions above. You’d also end up reading a very fine piece of writing in the process.
An excellent and extremely sad and poignant read.
Almost exactly six years ago, I had reviewed one of Andaleeb’s books on Winnowed.
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1 comment:
This is such a moving and sensitively written review. The way you've described Andaleeb Wajid’s resilience through unimaginable grief, and how she channels it into her writing, makes me want to read the book immediately.
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