YOU V/S YOURS - TALES OF BIASES AND COMPROMISES - MONA VERMA

This triad of stories by Mona Verma boasts of a theme quite unique, of relationships unimagined, and biases that rule. Whether it is the middle-aged Mansi and her perceptions in the story titled ‘I Need Colour’, or the 30-year-old Angela and her guilt in ‘Just at the Finishing Line’, or the older Bala and his patriarchal prejudices that cloud his thinking in ‘The Invisibles’, the readers are stopped in their tracks and made to ponder.

While all three stories are diametrically different, a common thread ties them together. They are sagas of when the paramount disparity arises out of degrees of difficulties. Life can often be unpredictable, where the worthy lose their self-worth as the decades go by, and the mediocre come up through sheer luck and opulence. When neglect hangs in the air, only because no one has bothered to bring the sparkle back in life.

At times, the weight of guilt is too heavy to shoulder, and “remorse is an unrelenting tormentor.” Friendships are priceless, and yet, one stray incident is enough to cause a break that can last over time. The first wobble, a shake, a hint of things growing apart! How many people try and mend that break and move on before it is too late?

Often, men grow old and their offspring take over their lives, turning parents into mere space fillers. Their windows turn narrow, obstructing their view of the world. A patriarchal outlook does not help either, especially when womenfolk are relegated to the background, their opinions never sought, their wishes never submitted to.

What is it that transforms these three tales and makes them brilliant? Mona Verma chooses her words with care, as she turns them into beautiful prose, playing about with metaphors that fall into place with perfection. The way she ends her final story is symbolic of the theme of the book.

“We kept some windows forever closed, but that is not what windows are built for.

They are willing to open if we let them.”