Shrabani Kar

That emptiness you feel at the end of the book That’s because we’re not just ending or saying goodbye to part of us that left, that changed.<br>And that feeling even if you didn’t mean for it to happen, even if you didn’t realize it, marks the beginning of the new. I fall short of being on a regular basis. I believe in the power of words to help us reset our intentions, clarify our thoughts. This book did the same for me. When you are able to relate to the characters of the book, you feel as if you are reading your own story. I could connect to Tara and Shashi. 16.08.2021 9:48 PM IST<br>Gazing at the moon I’m awestruck. Splendid. In a waxing gibbous phase, the moon is more than 50% illuminated but not yet a full moon. The phases and this cyclical order of the moon fascinate me - this process of reincarnation. I want to paint all the phases one day.<br>The chapters of the book ‘The Illuminated’ is titled by the phases of moon<br>Like the moon tonight, I too am reading chapter Waxing Gibbous.<br>I love the way life of Shashi, Tara, Meenakshi, Chanda, Poornima take full circle as their stories are weaved around the phases of the moon. The book is written beautifully. I feel a connection with how the inner emotions of Shashi and Tara are described in the book. In past, I've kept quizzing my mother of things she wasn’t able to recall from our past, from my childhood or adolescence. Lately, I’m being questioned by my daughter about memories from my initial days of motherhood and then these lines appear in the book - Can you remember a whole life in neat lines? How does one choose what to remember? Life isn’t a play that you can review. There are no fixed seats. If remembering is love, what is forgetting?” The book shares the inner feelings of grieving Shashi. Grieving differs from person to person. In my own experience crying at the time is very crucial, or else you continue to carry it for the rest of your life. There is nothing that can fill in the comfort of the childhood home, filled with memories. How I wish I could hold hands and tell my maa and brother what all happened during his last few days. For me, it's like the book of truth. Hats off to the accurate observation skills to the writer how beautifully she has depicted the characters emoting for real. The book tells the real, in-depth stories of women. Shashi and Tara finding themselves, their individual identities. People spend their whole lives trying to find out who they are. With this gift of a new way of seeing, everything becomes illuminated. Everything important comes to us in moonlight; dreams, babies, shuili blooms. I wanted to moonlight again.