Across the Seven Seas: Saat Samundar Paar

The novel tells us very poignantly the story of Sundari, an educated, intelligent, sensitive lady who has imbibed Indian cultural values to the grass roots and struggles in vain to live them in her life. The story begins with the growing up of a girl into a woman; her craving for love that proves to be a mirage for her as the story moves on. A saying goes that The drowning man catches at a straw. It fully applies to Sundari for every firm catch of her turns out to be a straw and she consistently suffers. The initial blow came when she was married off to the uncle of her lover who had a heart of pure gold. The uncle on the other hand is all guilt through and through. Life of Sundari starts going down the hill as all her hopes and dreams are belied despite her best efforts to make her married life a success and life turns into a mockery. The tragedy becomes all the more painful when her lover Akash again makes an entry into her cursed life. She is forced to ride two horses which she can hardly manage, to function as an ideal housewife and an ardent lover. The author introduces a few moments of transitory but suspenseful relief during which too the reader trembles and is afraid of the next blow that Sundari is bound to receive and he starts sharing the miserable life of Sundari with numerous disastrous compromises in the same way as Sanjay shares the pain of Dhritrashra in the Mahabharta.