~~~~Guilt is easier to live with than regret~~~~~. Review on Unknown Errors of Life - Chitra Banerjee

“Who you are is a mystery, No one can Answer, Not even you.”  ----Jamaica Kincaid

The book starts with this lovely link It’s a collection of Short Stories, which I wished were longer. The stories are largely about Indians settled abroad. It’s about their experiences & life. Almost all the stories are talk about some actions & its final outcome.

The essence of all the stories is that in our lives whatever we do is driven by the circumstances at that point of and also by what we think then. Later we can always introspect them and think why did we do this and why not that.

As is said in one of the stories…there is a girl who keeps a diary ‘Book of Errors’ in her childhood. Later when she is getting married and is packing up her stuff she laid her hand on this diary. Her thoughts at that time (excerpts from the book)

One day you look back at your teenage self and realize how excruciatingly clueless you were, more so even then you had thought your parents to be. And pompous to boot. Here, for example, is the quotation she’d copied out in her tight, painstaking handwriting: An unexamined life is not worth living. As if a 14~year~ old had any idea of what an examined life was. The notion of tracking errors possesses some merit, except that her errors we so puerile, so everygirl.

The stories range from the agonies of a Mom who has been shifted to an alien country & is troubling to adjust there (the mood & essence is the same as Sudipto’s review); To the story of a brother & sister suffering from domestic violence from their hands of their father & their plans to escape from the same; to a lady adjusting to the fact that she still shares a bond with her father despite that he had abandoned her & her mother.

The author beautifully captures the battered mind of a girl who was a victim of Riots, and how she resurges against all the odds, because she kept on trying.

The book ends with a sweet story about Bengali nicknames and the significance of our own culture. It is about believing in oneself, standing against the society and still achieve what was not expected from you. One of the lines of the story Guilt is easier to live with than regret. Regret of not even trying.

My favourite story is What the Body Knows, It’s about a girl who delivers a baby and then falls seriously ill and is left with no desire to live. How she recuperates and what drives it is beautiful & strange at the same time. Worth a read.

As have written previously the book ponders on that we always think that “Ohhh!!! Am doing this, what will be the results?” But we never think of the small errors which happen in life and we don’t even know about them. So isn’t it better to at least give things a try? We might not achieve the desired results but may be we might achieve it and there will never be a regret that we didn’t even try. Errors are a part of life and we can not live escaping truth.

The book has a positive approach which appeals to me.

The only thing that I didn't like about the book was that it had short stories, they surely left you wanting for more...An appeal to Chitra Banerjee...Right a novel again...

Having read 4 books from the author and liking three out of them, am surely becoming a fan.  The author has a style of touching your nerves…she surely did touch mine….

PS There are some books which touch your emotional cord at such a level that you don’t want to discuss them. Arranged Marriagefrom the same author is one such book. Wanted to review it but can’t but It’s a fabulous book. Please buy it.

PPS This book is meant for all....its not a Girls only book....