The Diamond Ring

This is my maiden voyage into the English novel. Cherished deep in my heart has long been the desire to write the story of an orphan girl born into an orthodox Hindu family in the first half of the last century.

Though the story is itself a work of fiction, it is based on reality. It is the story of a family in a society dominated by and whose course is determined by its religious institutions. At that time, matrimony was a matter of compulsion and a young girl’s future was always decided by strict elders as a matter of their convenience, not of her love and devotion. Any attempt to defy this norm ended in grief and conflict.

In the East, marriage is a matter of fate even today. It is not, as in the West, an issue of preference but always dictated by one’s elders. As a result, many of these alliances begin weak, insecure, and immature, and fail due to indiscretion. The hand of fate is ever-present but not always acknowledged. What is seen is a bundle of emotion, impulse, passion and chaos. These produce perpetual conflicts in many different guises. Fortunately, however, love lives everywhere. True love triumphs. Its spirit is jubilant even as its impact fades.

In the mystic East everything is strange. There is daily conflict in the life of an individual between the material and the spiritual. In the same vein, we see this war in both the family and in society.