Fruit Chaat, Chapters from a Life Author: Savita Singh Publisher: Eeshwar
Fruit Chaat by Savita Singh is not simply another book by an army officer’s wife. This is the bitter-sweet account of the life of a woman who, although born with the proverbial silver spoon in her mouth, had to endure many mental struggles before finding herself.
Like any good Dickensian novel, it starts from childhood all the way up to the present. Growing up in sprawling bungalows in sought-after addresses in Delhi, childhood was nothing short of idyllic. The youngest of seven
children, the author was thoroughly pampered as her memories linger lovingly on her siblings, parents, school, and even a dreadful flood. Surrounded by servants and security, her observations of far-off infancy are pretty shrewd. She writes feelingly of domestics like Ram Pyaari who’d been with the family before her birth. Trips to Kashmir, writing short stories based on Enid Blyton’s books, and cycling to school… life seems to be an endless merry-go-round till her marriage to an army officer from a backward district in U.P. called Ballia notorious, even today, for its thugs and conservatism towards women. The canvas shifts drastically and the bitterness towards an inconsiderate husband and equally odious in-laws barely conceals itself despite the over-riding humor. It is also during this difficult phase that the writer emerges strong and relatively unscathed wielding the might of her pen. A children’s author of some repute, she goes on to write novels which never see the light of day. She succeeds eventually with Roopa & Co. commissioning her to write fiction. On the
personal front, one cannot help but admire the author’s tenacity on successfully turning a disastrous marriage into a winner and her courage on emerging whole from the tragedy of widowhood.
One only wishes the publisher at Eeshwar had taken care to employ a competent editor as the language in some places is pretty loose and off beam. Also, the proofing errors are too glaring to be ignored. In all other ways,
Fruit Chaat, like Ira Pandey’s
Diddi – another personal account of a life – is a must read.