In this autobiographical fiction, Amrita, stifled
within the confines of her invisible cage, unfolds her life story. Being her
father’s chattel, a self-sacrificing wife to the man of her parents’ choice, a
caring mother to her children, in the process, Amrita loses her identity. To
assuage the thirst of her parched soul, she gives in to the passionate advances
of an unsuitable lover who entices her into a web of lies and deceit. Unable to
bear the pressures of an incompatible marriage and a destructive attachment any
longer, she breaks free and flees to the Himalayas. In those lofty reaches she
finds a startlingly simple solution to her problems—she has to look inwards for
the peace that evaded her; no one else could give her that. Released of the
disappointment and humiliation that ‘love’ had spawned, her spirits soar like a
bunch of helium balloons—wind-buoyed dancing specks of colour in vast open
skies. Though the narrator-protagonist finds ‘neither sympathy nor
understanding’ from the men in her life, with her excellent command over the
English language and an innate sense of humour, the author ensures that Amrita
finds compassion in the hearts of her readers.