First Impressions

AT forty you ruminate. Mostly about life and what it has done to you. At forty you count your blessings. And accept the bitter dollops that have been flung your way. Aftab is forty. Balding a bit, a tiny little paunch, a tiny bit prosperous and of course unhappy. Aftab has an additional burden- his wife decides to leave him after 14 years of marriage. Were they perfect or imperfect? Is Aftab heartbroken, perpetually drunk, crying into his glasses and morose or has he risen to the challenge, taken control of his life minus his wife and kid and gone ahead? Neither. Here we have a hero, a man undecided about his fate and about his present. He frequently turns to his past- his childhood, adolescence, girlfriends, and other such memories that come sharply etched against the present rumblings in his mind. 

Aftab make one last attempt to re –conquer what he has lost and to redeem the many compromises he has made in life. In a sensitive portrayal the author fleshes out his characters to fit them into a real world where success and disappointment go hand in hand.