Madras on Rainy Days

Disclaimer: this is not another review


I just finished reading Madras on Rainy Days by Samina Ali.
It made me cry.

You probably think i cry all the time, because i always say that this made me cry or that made me cry.

Let me be absolutely honest. This is the complete list of all the books i have read, movies i have watched, or songs i have heard that made me cry.

1. Madras on Rainy Days
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
3. Yellow, by Coldplay
4. Titanic
5. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
6. Nayakan

That is it. That is the complete comprehensive list.
If i ever told you that anything else made me cry, I lied. Sometimes things make me tear, or evoke a lot of emotion in me. But only the abovemetioned six things have ever made me sob.

Madras on Rainy days made me cry not out of sympathy, or empathy. This is the type of sadness I have never before felt in my own life, so it can't be sympathy. I have never been in a scenario like the one that made me cry, so it can't be empathy either. I don't suspect I ever will be, so it even lacks the element of fear.

What i felt that made me cry was sorrow. Sorrow for Henna. Sorrow for the baby that had to die. Sorrow for Sameer, who is a victim of circumstances that he created for himself, yet he could never help. Sorrow for the main character, whose name i never got, whom i wish i could understand. Sorrow for Amme, who could not cry. Sorrow for Zeba, who felt it too.

The characters were very complex, and i need to read it a few more times before i can understand why they did certain things, or what compelled them to say the things they did. Many of the themes, i thought, were a bit too mature for me to understand.

But it was beautifully written. And its one of those books that i know i will never forget. and i will always draw parallels to, perhaps not in my own life, but in the things that go on around me.

I am glad i finally have time to read. Literature is truly one of the greatest joys in my life.