The Ccounsel of strangers

Gauri Dange’s contemporaneous turn of phrase lends a frothy wit to the sweet-sour stories of six guests who meet at a wedding. There is Karthik—brother of bad-ass Vishwas; the love-lorn Wing Commander Brahme; journalist Sahil Baig and so on. In one night of bonding, they sustain each other till the epilogue, by when the book develops the emotional substance of a novella.

These are regular people—the professor unable to come to terms with her Bollywood scriptwriter son, the Muslim TV reporter fallen from grace—grappling with the wear and tear of ordinary lives. There are no resolutions—only a way to deal with life’s ambiguities. Dange reminds you that all you have in your power is your response to a situation, not the situation itself, be it Anandi Mohini’s choice of life-partners, or Nurse Sajini’s ‘service’ in her brother’s home. All in all, Dange’s people-watching has paid off.

Full review here Outlook