Nutty Nuts

Life as it plays out in Court rooms is dreary and rather painful. Yet the beauty with which court room stories have been brought to life in the book caught my rapt attention immediately. Parents at War is a beautiful book. It has two parts. In the first part , we read the Court room stories which would most certainly strike a chord with parents in similar situations. The second part deals with legal processes , laws , rules and international conventions . A lay person would find it simple , informative , practical and engrossing. The stories shake us , prod us and make us introspect. The imagery used is so vivid that we can almost see the Court room dramas being played out right in front of our eyes.The psychological insights into the characters , their mannerism , behaviour and even their dressing sense make an interesting read. The writing style is skilfull and effortless. I will now talk about the story which had a profound effect on me. It is titled as "A Way Out ". It opens up with the character sketch of Vaibhav, the husband. We immediately settle down comfortably within the folds of the story when we come face to face with a man who has finally found peace and contentment of a parent by having a child by surrogacy. His spouse , Gayatri , no longer has an upper hand on him. She can no longer arm twist him. Till now she had a power and control over him. After all she had won the custody of their child Sanya and could wilfully deprive Vaibhav the comfort of being with their child . Now she is faced with a situation where her power is slipping away . She is unable to handle it. Gayatri's despair , helplessness, shock and disturbing sense of defeat is complete. It rattles her and how ! Her extreme reaction is so palpable that it jumps out of the pages of the book and grabs us by our collar. Boy ! The story is a classic case study of how the parents are not really interested in welfare of their child but they are hung up only on their own grievances. They use their kids as tools to exact revenge on each other. Yet the author is not judgmental about any of the warring parents . Rather , each story is followed by an objective analysis. The author gently nudges us towards a healthy way of appreciating the circumstances, how to deal with the issues and a child's point of view. Coming back to the story , Gayatri's behaviour leaves us rather shaken. Much to our relief, the story again returns to a breezy , relaxed pace with child Sanya immediately accepting the little bundle of joy that her father introduces her to. My reprisal of the story would be incomplete if I did not mention the soul-stirring poetry by the young poetess Miss Ishita Pandey. " Fathers too have heart of a mother " is a gem and deep. Thank you Ishita for lovely poems. In the end , I would quote the author from the story ' A Breakthrough ' : " Ours is a soulful job. It requires absolute attention to deconstruct the drama enacted by spouses and their advocates." This, my dear friends , is the crux of the book. And it does not escape our attention that Parents at War is not only about kids caught in custody battles but it is also about the spiritual evolution of the author herself.