A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

A story that starts in India of the mid 1970s and goes on till about the mid 1980s. The various heart breaking, mind boggling incidents makes me glad to have come to existence much much later. When the world was a little calmer, a little more mature on achieving Independence. Did it?

“If there was an abundance of misery in the world, there was also sufficient joy, yes - as long as one knew where to look for it.”

I am not sure what Rohinton Mistry was thinking or going through to have written such a sad story. Every time I thought that the sadness bearing clouds were moving away to bring in some light, I was miserably reminded that this storm was here to stay. I just kept reeling under the pressure of the extreme unfairness that the characters in the story had to go through.

“What sense did the world make? Where was God, the Bloody Fool? Did He have no notion of fair and unfair? Couldn't He read a simple balance sheet? He would have been sacked long ago if He were managing a corporation, the things he allowed to happen...”

The main story revolves around Dina Shroff-Dalal, Maneck Cola, Ishwar and Om Prakash. It is also the story of their near and dear ones. I actually liked the brilliant stringing of stories - if Mistry was mentioning Dina, he would bring up the whole picture of her idiotic brother, her childhood, her adulthood and her fiesty nature.

With Ishwar and Om, there came the stories of their village and the evils of caste system and the effort to life a respectable life. But, are they successful? Do the devils of the past actually leave you alone? Is luck so kind?

Maneck - a young student who came to the crowded city to study. His sheltered life in the hills, his parents and his openness to befriending anyone added a touch of warmth and proved to be the balm to all the wounds of Dina and her house mates, Ishwar & Om.

I prayed many times for good tidings to knock on Dina's door, but it hardly stayed put. It flitted about in careless wander allowing the characters to see it, feel it, touch it but never to possess it. The whole story and the situations made me angry and sad and helpless. Glad I chose to listen to it than read it. This supposedly 600+ page novel, turns you numb by the end of it.

"After all, our lives are buy a sequence of accidents - a clanking chain of chance events. A string of choices, casual or deliberate, which add up to that one big calamity we call life."

Where is the Fine Balance? Is it in the knowing that despite hardships and moments of misunderstanding or sheer helplessness, rises from the ashes, friendship, trust and camaraderie? Is it in the moments of horrid timelines, you look back to see if you have a friend waiting for you? Is it in the moments of disdain, do you find new ways to run your life? What is it? It is probably all of this and more.

"The human face has limited space. If you fill it with laughter, there will be no room for crying."

I am not really going to summarize the story, because I am just exhausted and you can find it all over the internet. But, I can only say how I felt. And I don't really know what I felt. This is a beautiful story, just to grim and needs a large, unemotional heart to listen to without rubbing away tears that might just threaten to show up.

PS: Audible also has a much softer and kinder, dramatized version.